School attendance among 5- to 24-year-olds in Liberia

An article that was published on this site in July 2011, "School attendance by grade and age in Liberia", shows that overage school attendance is very common in Liberia, mainly due to late entry into the education system. The official primary school age in Liberia is 6 to 11 years according to the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED). Yet, an analysis of data from a Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) from 2007 demonstrates that the vast majority of pupils in primary and secondary school in Liberia are older than the theoretical age for their grade. For example, nearly three quarters of all first-graders in Liberia are at least 3 years older than the official entrance age into primary education (see Figure 1). 24% of all first-graders are 5 or 6 years overage, 14% are 7 or 8 years overage, and 5% are 9 or more years overage. Children in the last group start primary school at age 15 or later.

Figure 1: Age distribution of pupils in primary and secondary education in Liberia, 2007

Source: Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) 2007. - Click image to enlarge.

Figure 1 shows the age distribution in the 12 grades of primary and secondary education in Liberia. The same DHS data from 2007 can also be analyzed differently, by single year of age instead of by grade. Figure 2 presents the level and grade attended for the population between 5 and 24 years of age. For each age group, the graph shows the percentage in pre-primary, primary, secondary, and tertiary education. The data for primary and secondary education is further divided into single grades, indicated by shades of blue for the 6 primary grades and shades of green for the 6 secondary grades. In addition, Figure 2 shows how many percent are out of school and for how many percent the level and grade of education attended is missing.

Figure 2: Level and grade of education attended by population 5-24 years in Liberia, 2007

Source: Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) 2007. - Click image to enlarge.

One surprising finding is the large percentage of children between 5 and 14 years who are in pre-primary education. About half of all 5- to 8-year-olds, 39% of all 9-year-olds, and 28% of all 10-year-olds are in pre-primary education. Even at age 14, nearly 7% are still in preschool. One possible explanation is that parents keep their children in pre-primary education due to lack of access to primary education.

Some children start attending primary education at age 5 or 6 but most children enter late. Even among persons 20 years or older, some are still in the first primary grade. School attendance overall reaches a peak at age 14, when more than 86% are in school, mostly in primary education. Primary school attendance rates are highest among 12- to 15-year-olds; two out of three children in this age group are in primary education. Secondary school attendance reaches a peak at age 19, when 38% are in secondary education; in addition, at least 30% of all 17- and 18-year-olds are in secondary education. Attendance rates for tertiary education are low and do not exceed 2% until age 24, when 4% study at a university or other institution of higher learning.

The percentage of the population that is not in any type of formal education decreases from 44% among 5-year-olds to 13% among 14-year-olds. From age 15, out-of-school rates increase again and among 23- and 24-year-olds in Liberia, 61% and 60%, respectively, are not in school. Lastly, for a small percentage of the DHS sample, the grade and level attended was missing.

Related articles

• School attendance by grade and age in Liberia
• Overage pupils in primary and secondary education
• Official school ages: primary, secondary, and compulsory education
• Primary school entrance age and duration
• Survival rate to the last grade of primary school
• Transition from primary to secondary education
• Regional disparities in school life expectancy
• Educational attainment in sub-Saharan Africa
• Children of primary and secondary school age out of school
• Children out of school: Global trend 1999-2008
• Review of the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED)

External links

• Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS)
• International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED)

Friedrich Huebler, 30 April 2012, Creative Commons License
Permanent URL: http://huebler.blogspot.com/2012/04/liberia.html

World Atlas of Gender Equality in Education

UNESCO and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) have published a new World Atlas of Gender Equality in Education that illustrates the participation of girls and boys in pre-primary, primary, secondary, and tertiary education. The data show that there has been significant progress towards gender parity since the 1970s. Two thirds of all countries have reached gender parity in primary education but at the secondary level of education girls are still lagging behind. In some countries, girls have the advantage with regard to access to and completion of education. At the tertiary level, female students outnumber male students in many high-income countries.

The atlas is divided into eight chapters that contain a total of 28 maps and close to 100 charts and tables:

1. Increased worldwide demand for quality schooling
2. Girls’ right to education
3. Enrolment and gender trends: primary education
4. Enrolment and gender trends: secondary education
5. Enrolment and gender trends: tertiary education
6. Trends in school-life expectancy
7. Gender trends: adult and youth literacy
8. How policies affect gender equality in education

An excerpt from Chapter 7 on literacy is shown below. The map (please click the image for a larger view) visualizes adult literacy rates from the database of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. Among countries with data, literacy rates are lowest in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia. The highest adult literacy rates are observed in Eastern Europe and Central Asia. For many developed countries, the adult literacy rate is unknown because these countries have achieved universal primary education and no longer report data on the traditional literate-illiterate dichotomy, focusing instead on the more narrowly defined concept of functional literacy.

The atlas is available in English, French and Spanish. In addition, UNESCO and UIS plan to launch an online e-atlas with interactive maps.

Excerpt from World Atlas of Gender Equality in Education: Map with adult literacy rates

Source: UNESCO, 2012, World Atlas of Gender Equality in Education, pages 92-93. - Click image to enlarge.

Reference

• UNESCO. 2012. World Atlas of Gender Equality in Education. Paris: UNESCO. (Download in PDF format, 6.4 MB)

External links

• UNESCO
• UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)
• UNESCO announcement of the atlas
• UIS announcement of the atlas
• UIS Data Centre

Related articles

• Global Education Digest 2011
• EFA Global Monitoring Report 2011
• Adult and youth literacy in 2009
• Trends in adult literacy, 1990-2008
• Regional disparities in school life expectancy

Friedrich Huebler, 31 March 2012, Creative Commons License
Permanent URL: http://huebler.blogspot.com/2012/03/atlas.html

School attendance in Brazil

Brazil is the largest and most populous country in South America. The Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE) estimates that the population of Brazil grew to 190 million in 2008. The World Bank ranks Brazil as the world's tenth largest economy with a gross domestic product (GDP) of $1.3 trillion in 2007.

Brazil has achieved high levels of school attendance and literacy. The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) estimates that 94 percent of all children of primary school age were enrolled in primary school in 2005, the latest year with data. The youth literacy rate, for persons aged 15 to 24 years, was 99 percent in 2007 according to the UIS. Among the adult population aged 15 years and older, 91 percent were literate in 2007. In contrast, in 1980 only 75 percent of the adult population of Brazil could read and write.

The patterns of school attendance in Brazil can be studied in greater detail with data from the 2006 National Household Sample Survey (Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios, PNAD). The survey collected data on current and past school attendance for all household members, regardless of age. For the analysis that follows, the levels of education in the PNAD data were recoded to match the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) of 1997. Five levels of education are identified:

• Pre-primary education
• Primary education
• Secondary education
• Tertiary education
• Adult literacy programs

Adult literacy programs are not part of the ISCED classification but they play an important role in Brazil and are therefore included as a separate group. The graph below illustrates current school attendance by age and level of education for the population aged 0 to 30 years. The number at the top of each bar is the percent of persons of a particular age that are currently in school. For example, 97 percent of all 7-year-olds were in school at the time of the survey; the majority attended primary school but more than 10 percent of all 7-year-olds were still in preschool.

The official school ages in Brazil are indicated along the horizontal axis. The official entrance age for pre-primary education is 4 years, primary education begins at 7 years, and secondary education at 11 years. Education is compulsory for all children aged 7 to 14 years.

Brazil: Current school attendance by age and level of education, 2006

Data source: Brazil National Household Sample Survey (PNAD), 2006.

The PNAD data show that many young children in Brazil attend pre-primary education. Two thirds of all children between 4 and 6 years are in preschool or day care. The laws on compulsory education have the desired effect and almost all children between 7 and 14 years are in fact in school. The attendance rates in this age group range from 94 percent among 14-year-olds to 99 percent among 8- to 11-year-olds. Among children of secondary school age, the attendance rate drops steadily from 99 percent at age 11 to 74 percent at age 17. About 8 percent of 18-year-olds are in tertiary education. University attendance rates reach a peak of 15 percent among 20- to 22-year-olds.

Overage school attendance is relatively common in Brazil and many children older than 10 years are still in primary school. Persons up to and beyond age 30 attend secondary education. These high levels of primary and secondary school attendance among the older population are partly a result of a system of education that offers persons who dropped out of school an opportunity to continue their education later in life. Adult literacy programs reach a relatively small part of the population but they contribute to the high level of literacy in Brazil. About 0.5 to 1 percent of the population between 30 and 75 years participate in programs that teach reading and writing.

Data sources

• Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), National Household Sample Survey (Pesquisa Nacional por Amostra de Domicílios, PNAD), 2006
• Brazilian Institute of Geography and Statistics (IBGE), population clock, November 2008
• World Bank, quick reference tables, GDP 2007, September 2008
• UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), Data Centre, November 2008

Related articles

• Educational attainment in Brazil since 1920
• Adult literacy in 2007
• Youth literacy rates

External links

• International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED), 1997

Friedrich Huebler, 8 November 2008 (edited 24 January 2009), Creative Commons License
Permanent URL: http://huebler.blogspot.com/2008/11/brazil.html

Primary school attendance in Nepal, 1996-2006

In 2006, a Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) collected data on school attendance in Nepal. A comparison with data from earlier DHS surveys, conducted in 1996 and 2001, shows a steady increase in primary school attendance over the last decade. The primary school net attendance rate (NAR) - the share of children of primary school age who attend primary school - has increased by almost 10 percentage points every five years, from 65 percent in 1996 to 84 percent in 2006. If Nepal can sustain this rate of increase it will reach the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education by 2015.

The increase in attendance was accompanied by a reduction in disparities between boys and girls, residents of urban and rural areas, and children from different household wealth quintiles (see the graph and table below). Much of the increase in primary school attendance is due to higher attendance rates in rural areas, especially over the period 2001 to 2005, when attendance in urban areas grew only marginally.

Primary school net attendance rate (%), Nepal 1996-2006

Data source: Nepal Demographic and Health Surveys, 1996, 2001, 2006.

Children from the poorest 20 percent of all households saw the biggest increase in primary school attendance, from 48 percent in 1996 to 77 percent 2006. The difference in the primary NAR between children from the richest and poorest household quintiles fell by more than half over the same period, from 42 percent in 1996 to 20 percent in 2006.

Nepal also achieved a marked reduction in gender disparity over the past 10 years. In 1996, only 56 percent of all girls of primary school age attended primary school. This share grew to 82 percent by 2006. The primary NAR of boys grew from 74 percent to 86 percent over the same period. With a gender parity index (GPI) of 0.95 - the ratio of female to male NAR - Nepal has almost reached the Millennium Development Goal of gender parity in primary education.

Primary school net attendance rate (%), Nepal 1996-2006

	1996	2001	2006	Change 1996 to 2006
Total	65.1	73.5	84.1	19.0
Male	73.6	79.9	86.0	12.3
Female	56.4	66.8	82.0	25.6
Urban	84.3	89.8	90.2	5.9
Rural	63.6	72.0	83.2	19.6
Poorest 20%	48.4	59.6	76.7	28.3
Second 20%	59.7	67.4	79.8	20.1
Middle 20%	62.0	75.1	84.3	22.3
Fourth 20%	72.6	78.2	86.9	14.3
Richest 20%	90.6	94.3	96.9	6.2

Data source: Nepal Demographic and Health Surveys, 1996, 2001, 2006.

Comments on the 2006 DHS data

The authors of the final survey report from the 2006 DHS in Nepal counted children in school-based pre-primary centers as primary school students for the calculation of the primary school NAR. Children in informal, community based preschool classes were excluded from the calculation of the primary NAR. The author of this article chose the same approach.

A UNESCO country profile of Nepal prepared for the Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2007 explains that "there are significant differences in the way the school based and the community based [early childhood development centres] are running. Most of the school based centres are run by the DEO [District Education Office], and most of them are more primary schools than development centres."

The statement by UNESCO supports the treatment of children in school-based pre-primary centers in Nepal as equivalent to children in primary school for statistical purposes. In developing countries it is not uncommon to find children of primary school age in preschool but because of national differences the interpretation of the data from Nepal cannot necessarily be applied to other countries.

Related articles

• Secondary school attendance in Nepal, 1996-2006
• Primary and secondary school attendance in Nepal
• Nepal: trends in primary education, 1980-2004
• Caste, ethnicity, and school attendance in Nepal
• Education disparity in South Asia
• Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2007

External links

• United Nations Millennium Development Goals
• Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS)
• Nepal: Early childhood care and education (ECCE) programmes, UNESCO 2006 (PDF, 56 KB)
• Nepal Demographic and Health Survey 2006, final report (PDF, 4.95 MB)

Friedrich Huebler, 14 August 2007 (edited 12 October 2008), Creative Commons License
Permanent URL: http://huebler.blogspot.com/2007/08/primary-school-attendance-in-nepal-1996.html

Education country profiles by UNICEF

In addition to its main web site at unicef.org, UNICEF maintains a separate web site at childinfo.org with a wide range of statistics on issues related to children and women. In the area of education, the Childinfo web site provides a complete set of country profiles with current statistics for 206 countries and territories, from Afghanistan to Zimbabwe. Complete profiles have three sections, with past trends, the current state of the education system, and prospects for 2015. The section on trends contains up to six graphs with data from 1980 to the present.

• Pre-primary school gross and net enrollment rates
• Primary school net enrollment and net attendance rates
• Secondary school net enrollment and net attendance rates
• Survival rate to grade 5
• Pupil/teacher ratio
• Education expenditures as percent of GDP and as percent of total government expenditures

The section on the current state of the education system lists up to two tables and six graphs.

• Statistics from the education database of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS): population; official school ages; preschool, primary school, and secondary school enrollment; intake, transition rates, repetition, and completion rates; teaching staff; education expenditures
• Statistics from a recent household survey, usually a Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) or Demographic and Health Survey (DHS): primary and secondary school attendance; intake, transition, repetition, and completion rates
• Three graphs on disparity in primary school attendance - by gender, area of residence, and household wealth - with data from a recent household survey
• Three graphs on gender disparity in secondary school - by gender, area of residence, and household wealth - with data from a recent household survey

For countries with household survey data, two final graphs show school attendance rates between 2000 and 2015, the target year for the UN Millennium Development Goals.

• Predicted primary school net attendance rate, by gender
• Predicted secondary school net attendance rate, by gender

The level of detail of the country profiles varies, depending on the availability of education statistics for each country. The profile for North Korea, shown in Figure 1, has only two pages and contains virtually no data. In contrast, the country profile for the Philippines, shown in Figure 2, has seven pages with fourteen graphs and two tables and provides data for all indicators listed above.

Figure 1: Education country profile for North Korea

Source: UNICEF Childinfo web site, childinfo.org, March 2007.

Figure 2: Education country profile for the Philippines

Source: UNICEF Childinfo web site, childinfo.org, March 2007.

On the Childinfo web site, all countries are grouped by UNICEF region. The majority of the data in the country profiles is from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics and from MICS and DHS surveys.

Related articles

• "The State of the World's Children 2007" by UNICEF: Gender disparity in primary and secondary school
• Final release of data from UNESCO's 2005 education survey
• Education data from household surveys
• Millennium Development Goals regions and UNICEF regions

External links

• UNICEF education country profiles
• UNICEF Childinfo web site
• Main UNICEF web site

Friedrich Huebler, 25 March 2007, Creative Commons License
Permanent URL: http://huebler.blogspot.com/2007/03/education-country-profiles-by-unicef.html

Household wealth and school attendance in Nigeria

In 2003, a Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) was conducted in Nigeria. This nationally representative household survey collected data on household characteristics, education, maternal and child health, family planning, and other indicators. The survey has no data on household income but with the information on assets owned by a household - for example, water supply, sanitation facilities, housing material, radio, telephone, refrigerator, bicycle, automobile, and livestock - it is possible to generate an index of relative household wealth (Filmer and Pritchett 2001). With this index, the link between wealth and the level of education of each household member can be analyzed.

The primary school age in Nigeria is 6 to 11 years and the secondary school age 12 to 17 years. As I showed in previous posts, the primary school net attendance rate (NAR) in Nigeria is 60.1% and the secondary school NAR 35.1%. This means that 60.1% (35.1%) of all children of primary (secondary) school age were attending primary (secondary) school at the time of the survey. Attendance rates are higher for boys compared to girls and for urban residents compared to rural residents. Household wealth is also strongly linked to school attendance, as the graph below demonstrates.

School attendance by age and household wealth, Nigeria 2003

Data source: Nigeria 2003 DHS.

The graph is constructed as two back-to-back bar graphs, similar to a population pyramid, but the two halves don't indicate age and sex but age and household wealth. The left half has the school attendance rates of the richest 20% of all households in Nigeria, as identified with the wealth index, and the right half the attendance rates of the poorest 20%. Only the population aged 5 to 24 years of age is covered because the DHS did not collected data on current school attendance for other ages. The population is divided into six groups:

• currently attending preschool (purble bars)
  
• currently attending primary school (blue bars)
  
• currently attending secondary school (green bars)
  
• currently attending higher education (brown bars)
  
• attended school in the past but no longer in school (gray bars)
  
• never attended school (red bars)
  

It is immediately obvious that only half of all children in the poorest 20% of the population ever attend school. In the richest 20%, on the other hand, almost everyone is currently in school or attended school in the past. For the population aged 5 to 24 years as a whole, 52.8% from the poorest quintile never attended school, while only 4.4% from the richest quintile never attended school.

In addition, those from wealthy households are much more likely to attend primary and secondary school at the proper age. The blue, green and brown markers along the left axis indicate the official starting ages of primary, secondary and tertiary education: 6, 12 and 18 years, respectively. Children from the poorest 20% of the population typically enter primary school much later than those from the richest 20% - if they attend school at all - and they typically do so without the advantage of having been in preschool first. Those from the richest households are also more likely to continue their education at the secondary or tertiary level.

In conclusion, to reach the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education, Nigeria clearly has to target the poorest part of its population.

References: Filmer, Deon, and Lant H. Pritchett. 2001. Estimating wealth effects without expenditure data - or Tears: An application to educational enrollments in states of India. Demography 38 (1), February: 115-132.

Related articles:
- Primary school attendance in Nigeria
- Secondary school attendance in Nigeria
- Age and level of education in Nigeria
- Education data from household surveys

Friedrich Huebler, 21 January 2006, Creative Commons License

Age and level of education in Nigeria

According to data from a Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) that was conducted in Nigeria in 2003, 60.1% of all children of primary school age were attending primary school at the time of the survey. Among children of secondary school age, 35.1% were attending secondary school.

These primary and secondary school net attendance rates hide the fact that many children are in school at a level that is not appropriate for their age. In Nigeria, children often enter school at an advanced age and leave school well past the official graduation age. The primary school age in Nigeria is 6 to 11 years and the secondary school age 12 to 17 years. The graph below indicates the level of school attended for all Nigerians between 5 and 24 years of age. The data from the 2003 DHS survey reveals that a small percentage of Nigerians are still in primary school when they are already 20 years old. Secondary school attendance continues past 24 years of age, the highest age for which the DHS has data on current school attendance.

Level of school attended by age, Nigeria 2003

Data source: Nigeria 2003 DHS.

Only 36.6% of all 6-year-olds were attending primary school at the time of the survey. Primary school attendance reaches its peak between 9 and 11 years of age, when around 72% of all children are in primary school. At 17 years, the official graduation age from secondary school, 7.8% of all children were still in primary school.

Among 12-year-olds, only 13.9% were attending secondary school, with other children just beginning to attend primary school. Secondary school attendance reaches its peak at 16 years of age, when 51.3% of all children are in secondary school. At 24 years, 8.7% of the population were still in secondary school.

Delayed entry into the education system is a problem that exists in many other African countries. One indicator of this is that gross enrollment rates exceed net enrollment rates by a large margin in most of Sub-Saharan Africa. The repercussions of starting school late can be severe: such children are more likely to drop out from school and to enter the labor market with limited qualifications, reducing their potential to live productive lives. At the national level, having a less educated population makes it more difficult for countries to escape from poverty. Nigeria is therefore among the countries that are struggling to reach the Millennium Development Goals of universal primary education and eradication of extreme poverty and hunger.

Related articles:
- Primary school attendance in Nigeria
- Secondary school attendance in Nigeria
- Household wealth and school attendance in Nigeria
- Primary school gross and net enrollment
- Education data from household surveys

Friedrich Huebler, 14 December 2005 (edited 21 January 2006), Creative Commons License

Pre-primary education

Pre-primary or preschool education is targeted at children below the official primary school starting age. The content of national programs of pre-primary education varies, but the common goal is to introduce children to a school-type environment. Such programs set the foundation for lifelong learning and help countries reach the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education.

The Global Education Digest 2005 from UNESCO has statistics on participation in pre-primary education for the school year 2002/03. The net enrollment ratio (NER) is listed for 149 countries, the gross enrollment ratio (GER) for 180 countries. The NER is the share of children of preschool age who are enrolled in preschool. The GER is the number of children in preschool, regardless of age, divided by the population of preschool age.

• NER = number of children of preschool age in preschool / number of children of preschool age
• GER = number of children in preschool / number of children of preschool age

The maximum value for the NER is 100% while the GER can exceed 100%. In a previous post I demonstrated that the difference between NER and GER at the primary level can be quite large. This is often the case in Sub-Saharan Africa because of delayed entry into primary school. At the pre-primary level, the difference between NER and GER is much smaller, as a comparison of the two maps below shows.

For most countries the pre-primary NER and GER lie in the same range although there are notable exceptions, among them Australia, South Korea, and the Ukraine. For this reason, and because the GER is available for more countries, I focus on the GER to describe participation at the pre-primary level of education.

Pre-primary net enrollment ratio, 2002/2003

Data source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). 2005. Global Education Digest 2005. Montreal: UIS.

Pre-primary gross enrollment ratio, 2002/2003

Data source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). 2005. Global Education Digest 2005. Montreal: UIS.

The lower graph presents the pre-primary GER in the school year 2002/03. The GER is above 80% in most industrialized countries, but also in some countries of East Asia (for example Malaysia and Thailand), Latin America (for example Cuba and Mexico), and Eastern Europe (Belarus and Russia). The pre-primary GER is lowest in Africa and the Middle East, with most countries in the range below 20%. Low GER values are also observed in Central, South, and East Asia. In Sub-Saharan Africa this pattern of low participation continues at the primary level, while in East Asia primary school enrollment rates are significantly higher.

Friedrich Huebler, 25 July 2005, Creative Commons License.