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TECHNICAL NOTES

I. Background
II. Goals
III. Guiding Principles
IV. Coding Scheme

 

I. BACKGROUND

The 2008 Philippine Standard Classification of Education (PSCED) is a detailed classification of all educational levels in the Philippine educational system. It aims to integrate the different classification schemes being used by the various agencies, for the purpose of  standardizing and facilitating  the compilation of education statistics  as basis for educational planning, manpower training, labor market studies and other related activities.

The PSCED is patterned after the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) developed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) for the purpose of assembling, compiling, and presenting education statistics, both nationally and internationally. The 2008 PSCED is the latest revision on the country’s standard educational classification and was patterned after the 1997 ISCED. The first PSCED  or the 1994 PSCED was patterned after the 1976 ISCED. An updated version was released in 1997, but still based on the  1976 ISCED.

The PSCED presents a detailed classification of all educational levels in the Philippine educational system. It is useful to those responsible in compiling statistics on education, either from censuses and surveys or  from administrative records. It will also serve  as a guide to various users, particularly those in the academe and those involved in job placement and recruitment services as well as labor exchange programs. 

Thus, the revision of the 1997 PSCED was  initiated by the National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB) to adopt the  new broad structure found in the 1997 ISCED, reflect new and  emerging courses in the country as well as identify and delete those educational  programmes that became obsolete or not anymore offered by the country’s higher educational institutions. New initiatives on education such as the ladderized programme and  alternative learning system (ALS) were likewise considered in this revision.

 

II.        GOALS [back to top]

1. To provide the basic conceptual framework for the collection, compilation and presentation of statistics in the Philippine educational system; 

2. To promote better understanding and cooperation, both within the international and national educational communities and serve as  guide in the country’s negotiation on bilateral or mutual recognition agreement  with other countries  on labor exchange;

3. To  contribute to the formulation of  educational policies, standards  and procedures  in the  country; and

4. To enhance  the generation of  quality education statistics.

 

III.       GUIDING PRINCIPLES [back to top]

The following guidelines were adhered to in the development of the 2008 PSCED:

1. The 1997 International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) was adopted as the basic reference document. Modifications, however, were made to suit domestic/local conditions and requirements.

2. As with ISCED, the PSCED categorizes educational programs by their content along two main axes referred to as cross-classification variables: levels and fields of education.

3. Revisions in the classification system are being undertaken when there are major  changes  in the broad structure  ( 1997 PSCED vs. 2008 PSCED):

• The number of levels of education was reduced from 7 to 6:

1997 PSCEd	2008 PSCEd
0  Pre-School	0 Pre-Primary/ Pre-School
1  Elementary	1 Primary/Elementary
2  High School	2 Secondary/ High School
	4  Post Secondary Non-Tertiary/ Technical Vocational
5  Non-Degree
6  Baccalaureate	5 Tertiary, First Stage/  Baccalaureate
7  Post-Graduate	6 Tertiary, Second Stage/ Post-Graduate
9  Not Elsewhere Classified

4. For purposes of national comparability, the existing classification of basic and secondary education levels of the Department of Education (DepEd), particularly  Levels 0, 1 and 2  have been retained.  Level 3  which characterizes the secondary education system in the western countries  but not found in the Philippines was not adopted. 

5. Most changes occurred in the structure and concepts of the higher educational levels (Levels 4, 5, and 6) in the 2008 PSCED. These include the following :

	1997 PSCEd	2008 PSCEd
Non-Degree	5
Post-Secondary Non-Tertiary/ Technical-Vocational		4*
Tertiary, First Stage/Baccalaureate	6	5
Tertiary, Second Stage/Post-Graduate	7	6
Not Elsewhere Classified	9

*Level 4 includes educational programs and courses previously classified under Levels 5 and 9 in the 1997   PSCEd

• A new level, Level 4, has been introduced to cover educational programs and courses which straddle the boundary between upper secondary and tertiary education

• Tertiary education now comprises only two levels, Levels 5 and 6, instead of the previous three, Levels 5 to 7

• Level 9 which was reserved for the educational programs that could not be allocated to any other level has been eliminated. It is assumed that all educational programs can be classified in the various levels.

• Introduction of broad groups in Levels 4, 5 and 6, an innovation made to eliminate overlapping by grouping together fields of education having similarities:

  0          General
  1          Education
  2          Humanities and Arts
  3          Social Sciences, Business and Law
  4          Science
  5          Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction
  6          Agriculture
  7          Health and Welfare
  8          Services

The 2-digit code assigned to a broad group shall consist of the following: the first digit refers to a level of education (for third level only - Level 4, 5 or 6), while the second digit refers to any of the single-digit code associated with the particular group of related fields.

• The number of fields of education was increased to cover 25 categories compared to 21 in the 1997 PSCED (including 9 broad groups introduced in the 2008 PSCED):

1997 PSCEd	2008 PSCEd
	0    GENERAL
01  General	01  Basic
08  Literacy	08  Literacy and Numeracy
	09  Personal Development
	1    EDUCATION
14  Teacher Training and Education Science	14  Teacher Training and Education Science
	2  HUMANITIES AND ARTS
18 Fine and Applied Arts	21  Arts
22  Humanities	22  Humanities
26 Religion and Theology
	3 SOCIAL SCIENCES, BUSINESS AND LAW
30  Social and Behavioral Science	31  Social and Behavioral Science
84  Mass Communication and Documentation	32  Journalism and Information
34  Business Administration and Related	34  Business and Administration
38  Law and Jurisprudence	38  Law
	4    SCIENCE
42  Natural Science	42  Life Science
	44 Physical Science
46  Mathematics and  Computer Science	46  Mathematics and Statistics
	48  Computing/ Information Technology
	5 ENGINEERING, MANUFACTURING AND CONSTRUCTION
54  Engineering	52  Engineering and Engineering Trades
52  Trade, Craft and Industrial	54  Manufacturing and Processing
58  Architectural and Town Planning	58  Architecture and Building
	6    AGRICULTURE
62  Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery	62  Agriculture, Forestry and Fishery
	64 Veterinary
	7    HEALTH AND WELFARE
50  Medical and Allied	72  Health
	76 Social Services
	8    SERVICES
66  Home Economics (Domestic Science)	81  Personal Services
78  Service Trades
70  Transport and Communication	84  Transport Services
89  Other Programs	85  Environmental Protection
	86  Security Services

6. A unique coding system was used. The 2008 PSCEd is a five-stage classification system providing successive subdivisions from level to broad group to field to program to course:

   • The level, represented by a 1-digit code, and is defined as a stage that denotes the steps of educational progression, e.g., tertiary.  

   • The broad group, represented by a 2-digit code, and is defined as an innovation made to eliminate overlapping by grouping together fields of education having similarities, e.g., Health and Welfare.

   • The field, represented by a 3‑digit code, and is defined as an aggregation of program groups that are related in terms of level and major subject-matter or area, e.g., Health Programs.

   • The program, represented by a 5-digit code, and is defined as a selection of one or more courses, e.g., Programs in Nursing.  

   • The course, represented by a 7-digit code, and is defined as a planned series of learning experiences in a particular range of subject-matter or skills, e.g., Bachelor of Science in Nursing.

7. In crafting the different programmes and courses under  Levels 4, 5, and 6, all  the  existing programmes and courses being offered by  higher educational institutions in the country were taken into consideration.  

8. Under  each educational programme, the individual courses were further evaluated  and classified into the following  groups with corresponding  action from the TWG:  

New/Emerging	refer to courses that are not found in the 1997 PSCED but have been added in the 2008 PSCED
Deleted/Phased out	refer to obsolete courses that are no longer offered by Higher Education Institutions (HEIs); these were not  included in the 2008 PSCED
Merged/Renamed	refer to similar courses that are being offered by different schools using different titles which are combined in one  standard program/course in the 2008 PSCED

9. To guide users and others stakeholders in the utilization of the 2008 PSCED, a correspondence table has been  developed to indicate the old codes of educational programs and courses used in the 1997 PSCEd.

The following activities were undertaken  in  crafting the revised  2008 PSCED:

• Creation of the Technical Working Group on Education Classification (TWGEC) chaired by the Commission on Higher Education (CHED), with members from the Department of Education (DepEd), Technical Education and Skills Development Authority (TESDA), Science Education Institute (SEI), Bureau of Local Employment (BLE), National Statistics Office (NSO) and National Statistical Coordination Board (NSCB). The NSCB technical staff served as the Secretariat responsible for technical coordination as well as overall planning and management of activities of the TWG;

• Identification of new/emerging and obsolete educational programs and courses through the internet, newspapers and other reference documents;

• Discussion/Review of educational programs and courses by level of education with concerned agencies as lead: (a) Levels 4 and 9 - TESDA; and (b) Levels 5 and 6 - CHED;

• Compilation  and consolidation by CHED of  all educational programmes being offered by schools and universities in the country based on their  submitted  reports;

• Consultation and verification with experts from higher education institutions (HEIs) and officials  of  the association of public and private registrars in the country to elicit comments/suggestions on the revised list of educational programs and courses;

• Compilation of definition/description of educational levels, fields and programs;

• Revision of coding scheme adopted for the different levels and fields of education;

• Development of a correspondence table to indicate the old codes of educational programs and courses used in the 1997 PSCED; and

• Presentation of the final draft of the  2008 PSCED to the NSCB Executive Board for approval.

The  2008 PSCED was approved by the NSCB Executive Board through NSCB Resolution No. 8, Series of 2008 “ Approving and Adopting the 2008 PSCED”.

 

IV.       CODING SCHEME [back to top]

The coding scheme of the 2008 PSCED is similar to that of the 1997 ISCED, with the 1-digit code representing the level,the 2-digit code representing the broad group, the 3-digit code representing the field, and the 5-digit code representing the program. The Philippine education classification system conforms to international standard (i.e.,1997 ISCED), and is comparable across countries up to 5-digit code (program) only. The 2008 PSCED coding system, however, has been extended to 7-digit code representing the particular course.

To illustrate the revised coding scheme, the course - Bachelor of Science in Nursingcoded 5721201, is taken as an example. Its hierarchical structure is as follows:

The first digit (5) represents the specific level of education or Level 5: First Stage of Tertiary/Baccalaureate Education. The first two digits (57) represent the specific broad group: Health and Welfare. The first digit (5) and the next two digits (72) taken together, represent the subject-matter field (572): Health Programs. The first three digits (572) and the next two digits (12) taken together, represent the program (57212), a selection of one or more courses under the Programs in Nursing. The first five digits (57212) and the last two digits (01) altogether, represent the particular course (5721201), Bachelor of Science in Nursing.

 

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