How (well) is Education Measured in Household Surveys?

Household surveys are an important source of information about education systems. International survey programs such as the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and the Multiple Indicator Clusters Surveys (MICS) have become standard sources for international databases on education statistics. Other types of surveys have been less utilized and the education data in them is sometimes not as well understood and standardized. This report studies 30 of such household surveys, and analyzes how and how well education information is collected in them. It provides a number of general recommendations that are intended to be useful to the individuals and agencies involved in the design of education questionnaires for household surveys and use of the resultant data.