global-education-mcp 0.2.0

MCP Server für internationale Bildungsdaten – UNESCO UIS (4000+ Indikatoren) und OECD Education at a Glance (SDMX API)

🇨🇭 Part of the Swiss Public Data MCP Portfolio

🎓 global-education-mcp

MCP server for international education data – UNESCO UIS (4,000+ indicators across all member countries) and OECD Education at a Glance via SDMX. No API keys required.

🇩🇪 Deutsche Version

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Overview

global-education-mcp gives AI assistants like Claude a complete international education intelligence system – literacy rates, enrolment ratios, education expenditure, teacher salaries, gender parity and SDG-4 monitoring, all accessible through a single standardised MCP interface.

The server bridges two of the most authoritative sources for internationally comparable education statistics: UNESCO UIS (global coverage, 4,000+ indicators) and the OECD's annual Education at a Glance (38 OECD countries, SDMX REST API). Both are open and require no API key.

Anchor demo query: "Compare Switzerland's education expenditure as a percentage of GDP with Finland, Singapore and South Korea over the last 10 years – and flag any SDG-4 gaps."

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Features

• 🌍 UNESCO UIS – 4,000+ indicators, all UNESCO member countries, no API key
• 📊 OECD Education at a Glance – 38 OECD countries + partners via SDMX REST
• 🔍 Indicator search – browse and filter the full UNESCO indicator catalogue
• 🗺️ Multi-country comparison – benchmark any indicator across multiple countries
• 🏫 Country education profiles – 10 core indicators in one call
• 🎯 SDG-4 monitoring – structured reporting on Education for All targets
• 📈 OECD dataset search – discover and retrieve Education at a Glance dataflows
• 🔑 No API keys required – fully open data, zero setup friction
• ☁️ Dual transport – stdio for Claude Desktop, Streamable HTTP/SSE for cloud deployment
• 🛡️ Graceful degradation – API failures return helpful messages with local reference fallback

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Prerequisites

• Python 3.11+
• uv (recommended) or pip
• No API keys needed

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Installation

# Clone the repository
git clone https://github.com/malkreide/global-education-mcp.git
cd global-education-mcp

# Install
pip install -e ".[dev]"

Or with uvx (no permanent installation):

uvx global-education-mcp

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Quickstart

# Start the server (stdio mode for Claude Desktop)
global-education-mcp

Try it immediately in Claude Desktop:

"What is Switzerland's literacy rate compared to Finland and Singapore?" "Show me education expenditure as % of GDP for CHE, DEU and AUT over the last 10 years."

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Configuration

Claude Desktop Configuration

Windows (%APPDATA%\Claude\claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "global-education": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["global-education-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

macOS (~/Library/Application Support/Claude/claude_desktop_config.json):

{
  "mcpServers": {
    "global-education": {
      "command": "uvx",
      "args": ["global-education-mcp"]
    }
  }
}

A ready-to-use claude_desktop_config.json is included in the repository root.

Cloud Deployment (SSE for browser access)

For use via claude.ai in the browser (e.g. on managed workstations without local software):

Render.com (recommended):

1. Push/fork the repository to GitHub
2. On render.com: New Web Service → connect GitHub repo
3. Set environment variables in the Render dashboard:

   MCP_TRANSPORT=sse
   PORT=8000
   

4. In claude.ai under Settings → MCP Servers, add: https://your-app.onrender.com/sse

Docker:

docker build -t global-education-mcp .
docker run -p 8000:8000 \
  -e MCP_TRANSPORT=sse \
  global-education-mcp

💡 "stdio for the developer laptop, SSE for the browser."

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Available Tools

UNESCO UIS Tools

Tool	Description
uis_list_indicators	Search and list available indicators (4,000+)
uis_list_countries	List countries and regions with ISO codes
uis_get_education_data	Retrieve data for a specific indicator
uis_compare_countries	Multi-country comparison for one indicator
uis_country_education_profile	Full education profile (10 core indicators)
uis_list_versions	List available database versions

OECD Tools

Tool	Description
oecd_list_education_datasets	List Education at a Glance datasets
oecd_get_education_indicator	Retrieve OECD education data via SDMX
oecd_search_datasets	Search OECD dataflows by keyword

Cross-Source Tools

Tool	Description
education_benchmark_countries	Benchmark multiple countries across 5 focus themes (UNESCO UIS)

Resources & Prompts

Resources:

• education://indicators/unesco – Quick reference for core UNESCO indicators
• education://datasets/oecd – Quick reference for OECD Education at a Glance dataflows

Prompts:

• bildungsvergleich_schweiz – Switzerland vs. Finland, Singapore, Japan
• sdg4_monitoring – SDG-4 report for CH/DE/AT

Country Codes

ISO 3166-1 Alpha-3 standard:

Code	Country	Code	Country
CHE	Switzerland	FIN	Finland
DEU	Germany	SGP	Singapore
AUT	Austria	KOR	South Korea
FRA	France	JPN	Japan
SWE	Sweden	USA	United States

Example Use Cases

Query	Tool
"What is Switzerland's literacy rate vs. Finland and Singapore?"	uis_compare_countries
"Education expenditure as % of GDP for CHE, DEU, AUT over 10 years"	uis_get_education_data
"Create a full education profile for South Korea"	uis_country_education_profile
"Which OECD datasets cover teacher salaries?"	oecd_search_datasets
"Compare secondary graduation rates across 5 European countries"	education_benchmark_countries
"Create an SDG-4 monitoring report for Switzerland"	sdg4_monitoring (prompt)

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Architecture

┌─────────────────┐     ┌──────────────────────────────┐     ┌────────────────────┐
│   Claude / AI   │────▶│   Global Education MCP       │────▶│   UNESCO UIS API   │
│   (MCP Host)    │◀────│   (MCP Server)               │◀────│   uis.unesco.org   │
└─────────────────┘     │                              │     └────────────────────┘
                        │  10 Tools · 2 Resources      │
                        │   · 2 Prompts                │     ┌────────────────────┐
                        │  Stdio | SSE                 │────▶│   OECD SDMX API    │
                        │                              │◀────│   sdmx.oecd.org    │
                        │  server.py                   │     └────────────────────┘
                        │   + api_client.py            │
                        └──────────────────────────────┘

Infrastructure Components

Component	Metaphor	Function
HTTPClient	Postal service	Handles all outbound HTTP requests, retries and timeouts
SimpleCache	Whiteboard	In-memory TTL cache for repeated queries
GracefulFallback	Safety net	Returns local reference data when APIs are unavailable
SDMXParser	Translator	Converts OECD SDMX/XML responses to clean JSON

Caching Strategy

Data Source	Cache TTL	Rationale
UNESCO UIS indicators	3600s	Catalogue is stable; updated annually
UNESCO UIS country data	1800s	Figures update yearly, not intraday
OECD dataset list	3600s	Education at a Glance is an annual publication
OECD indicator data	1800s	Same annual update cycle
Country/region list	86400s	ISO codes and country lists are highly stable

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Project Structure

global-education-mcp/
├── src/global_education_mcp/       # Main package
│   ├── __init__.py                 # Package metadata, version
│   ├── server.py                   # FastMCP server, 10 tools, 2 resources, 2 prompts
│   └── api_client.py               # HTTP client, UNESCO UIS + OECD wrappers, formatters
├── tests/
│   ├── test_server.py              # 39 tests (basic / intermediate / advanced)
│   └── test_extended_scenarios.py  # 74 tests across 8 categories
├── claude_desktop_config.json      # Ready-to-use Claude Desktop config
├── pyproject.toml                  # Build configuration (hatchling)
├── CHANGELOG.md
├── CONTRIBUTING.md
├── LICENSE
├── README.md                       # This file (English)
└── README.de.md                    # German version

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Known Limitations

• UNESCO UIS: Some indicators have sparse coverage for low-income countries or recent years
• OECD SDMX: Occasional API timeouts on large multi-country, multi-year requests; reduce the year range if needed
• OECD coverage: 38 OECD members + select partners – does not cover all UNESCO member states
• Historical depth: UNESCO UIS data availability varies by indicator; not all series go back to 1970
• Language: UNESCO UIS returns indicator labels in English only; OECD labels may vary by dataflow
• No real-time data: Both sources publish annually – figures reflect the latest published edition, not live school statistics

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Testing

# Unit tests (no API key required, no network)
PYTHONPATH=src pytest tests/ -v -m "not integration"

# Full suite including live API smoke tests
PYTHONPATH=src pytest tests/ -v

113 tests across two files and three complexity levels:

Category	Tests	Description
Edge cases & boundary values	19	Year limits, string lengths, null/zero values
Security & adversarial inputs	14	Injection attempts, HTTP error codes, whitespace
Output quality	11	Markdown structure, source attribution, sort order
Resilience & error cascades	9	Full API outage, partial results, timeouts
Subject-matter correctness	10	SDG-4 coverage, correct indicators per focus theme
Performance & concurrency	4	Concurrent requests, time limits
Schulamt scenarios	7	DACH comparison, PISA, teacher shortage
Live API smoke tests	4	Real endpoints (via --integration flag)

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Contributing

Contributions are welcome. Please open an issue first to discuss what you would like to change.

• Follow the existing code style (Ruff linting, Black formatting)
• Add tests for new tools (tests/test_server.py or test_extended_scenarios.py)
• Use the @pytest.mark.integration marker for tests that call live APIs
• Update CHANGELOG.md and the tool table in this README
• See CONTRIBUTING.md for the full contribution guide

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Changelog

See CHANGELOG.md

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License

MIT License — see LICENSE

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Author

Hayal Oezkan · github.com/malkreide

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Credits & Related Projects

• Data: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) – open education data for all UNESCO member states
• Data: OECD Education at a Glance – annual OECD education statistics via SDMX
• Protocol: Model Context Protocol – Anthropic / Linux Foundation
• Related: swiss-transport-mcp – MCP server for Swiss public transport
• Related: zurich-opendata-mcp – MCP server for Zurich city open data
• Portfolio: Swiss Public Data MCP Portfolio