What Does Section Q Cover in ISIC Rev. 5?

Section Q in ISIC Rev. 5, UN Statistics Division, covers education. It includes primary, secondary and tertiary education, technical and vocational education, and other education such as adult, cultural and sports instruction supplied as education. The section groups education by level and type, and in Rev. 5 it was aligned more closely with the International Standard Classification of Education, ISCED, so that education statistics can be compared with education level data. A school, college or training provider is described by the education it provides, not by whether it is public or private.

Education by level and type, not by who owns the school

Section Q groups education by the education provided, and that single idea organises a very wide range. It includes primary, secondary and tertiary education, technical and vocational education, and other education such as adult, cultural and sports instruction supplied as education. A school, college or training provider is described by the education it provides, not by whether it is public or private, charitable or commercial, large or small. In Rev. 5 the section was aligned more closely with the International Standard Classification of Education, ISCED, so that education statistics can be compared with education level data. That alignment is the reason level language runs through the section: the question is repeatedly what level the education sits at, and what type it is, rather than what kind of institution happens to provide it.

The levels and types inside Section Q

• Primary education, the first stage of formal schooling
• Secondary education, general and vocational, covering the next stage in both academic and vocational orientations
• Tertiary education, including university and college education
• Technical and vocational education and training, placed by level and orientation
• Other education, including adult, cultural and sports instruction as education, where the service is teaching rather than participation or performance alone

A primary school teaching reading, writing and mathematics to young children sits at the centre of the section, and its work is easy to recognise as education. A technical college teaching plumbing and electrical installation to apprentices shows vocational education in the same section, where the teaching is practical, occupational and structured, even though the classroom may look like a workshop. A university teaching degree students shows tertiary education, and the same university may also run a research laboratory, which is a second activity to be read separately, as research, rather than absorbed into the teaching total. Adult education, cultural instruction and sports instruction supplied as education show the outer edge of the section: the service is still teaching, with progression and instruction, even where the learners are adults, the subject is cultural, or the skill is sporting.

Four activities that happen around schools but are not education

Scientific research done in a university is described as research, because the work is investigation and discovery, not teaching, even when the same staff do both. Operating a school building as a property service is property work, because the service is managing premises, not delivering lessons. Selling textbooks as retail trade is trade, because the customer buys a book to take away, rather than receiving teaching. Providing childcare without an educational programme, where the UNSD entry places it elsewhere, is care without a programme of education, and therefore does not belong in Section Q, however much it resembles early schooling in a daily routine. Each of those neighbours can occur inside a school building, on a school payroll, or under a school’s name, and none of that changes the classification, because Rev. 5 sorts by the service, not the address.

Why a clean Section Q matters for human capital

Education statistics feed into measures of human capital, skills and social mobility, and they are compared across countries more than almost any other service. A clear Section Q, aligned with ISCED, lets analysts link enrolment and qualifications to the institutions that provide them, without mixing in research, childcare or textbook sales. If research were folded into teaching, a country with large university laboratories would appear to have more teaching than it does. If childcare without a programme were folded in, early years totals would be inflated by care. If textbook sales were included, commercial success would masquerade as educational provision. Keeping those strands apart is what makes cross country comparison of schooling, skills and mobility possible at all. Rev. 5, UN Statistics Division, contains 22 sections from A to V, with 87 divisions, 258 groups and 463 classes in total. Before using any code, open the UNSD classification detail page and the Rev. 5 publication, find Section Q, and follow its divisions, groups and classes downward until the wording matches the education in full, including any exclusions, noting separately any research, property, retail or care activity the same provider also carries out.

This guide is a statistical overview of education in Rev. 5, and it cannot by itself determine the code, principal activity or registration of any school, college or training provider. That confirmation should be sought from the national statistical institute or business register that holds the provider’s record.