PASEC Microdata Now Publicly Available
The PASEC microdata is publicly available from their Data Portal: A major step forward for foundational learning research in Africa
Researchers, policymakers, and education practitioners can now access and download microdata from the Programme d’Analyse des Systèmes Éducatifs de la CONFEMEN (PASEC) through the newly launched PASEC Data Portal.
PASEC is one of Africa's most important regional learning assessments. Coordinated by CONFEMEN, it measures reading and mathematics competencies among nationally representative samples of Grade 2 and Grade 6 pupils across Francophone Africa while also collecting rich information on schools, teachers, households, and learning environments. Since 2014, PASEC has operated through standardised regional assessment cycles, enabling robust comparisons across countries and over time.
The public release of the microdata represents a major milestone for educational research and evidence-informed policymaking in Africa.
Access to microdata is essential not only for transparency and trust, but also for improving the quality, comparability, and policy relevance of foundational learning assessments. Microdata allow researchers to move beyond headline results to examine sampling procedures, investigate floor effects, validate findings, and explore questions that cannot be answered using published reports alone. Disaggregated analyses can reveal inequalities by gender, region, language group, disability status, and other characteristics, helping policymakers design more targeted interventions and monitor progress more effectively.
Getting your standard errors right without tears
Working with large-scale assessment data requires careful attention to survey design. PASEC uses complex sampling procedures and reports achievement using plausible values. Analyses that ignore these features can produce incorrect standard errors and misleading conclusions.
To support new users, AFLEARN has developed a practical guide to analysing PASEC data. The guide explains the key concepts required for valid analysis, including replicate weights and plausible values, and provides step-by-step examples in both Stata and R. Users are guided through common analytical tasks such as:
- Estimating mean achievement scores
- Calculating proficiency levels
- Testing differences between groups
- Running regression models
- Producing statistically valid standard errors and confidence intervals
The guide is designed as a practical companion for researchers, government analysts, students, and development practitioners working with PASEC data for the first time.
English-language resources for PASEC data users
While the original PASEC datasets and documentation are provided in French, many researchers interested in comparative education and foundational learning do not work in French.
To support wider use of the data, AFLEARN has developed a set of English-language resources, including:
- English codebooks
- Stata do-files that automatically apply English labels
- R scripts that generate English-labelled datasets
These resources make it easier for researchers across Africa and globally to engage with one of the continent's richest sources of learning assessment data.
We hope that wider access to the data, combined with practical analytical support, will encourage new research on foundational learning and help generate evidence to improve educational outcomes across Africa.