Years of schooling and literacy: Can everyone with primary education read and write?

The 2007 edition of the Education for All Global Monitoring Report was released by UNESCO in October 2006. The report assesses progress toward the goal of basic education for all children and adults by 2015 with the EFA Development Index (EDI). A previous article on this site describes how the EDI is calculated.

One component of the EDI is the adult literacy rate. The adult literacy rate usually indicates the share of literate persons in the population aged 15 years and older. In countries, where the literacy rate is not available, a proxy measure is substituted for the calculation of the EDI. This proxy measure is the share of the adult population with at least a complete primary education (UNESCO 2006, p. 201, note 2).

To evaluate whether this proxy is indeed a good substitute for the adult literacy rate, it is necessary to know if all children with a complete primary education can in fact be considered literate. Various household surveys collect data on literacy, among them the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) funded by UNICEF, and the Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) funded by the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Previous MICS surveys collected data on literacy by asking household members aged 15 years and older if they can read a letter or newspaper easily, with difficulty, or not at all (UNICEF 2000, model questionnaire, p. Q.3). Previous DHS surveys asked if a person can read and write in any language without any difficulty (e.g., NSEO Eritrea and ORC Macro 2003, Appendix E, p. 263). More recent surveys, including the latest MICS surveys conducted in 2005 and 2006, use a more direct approach than self-assessment. Household members are shown a card with a simple sentence and are asked to read it. Example sentences are "The child is reading a book," "The rains came late this year," or "Farming is hard work" (UNICEF 2006, Appendix 2, p. A2.14).

This article examines data from 4 DHS and 22 MICS surveys in Sub-Saharan Africa that collected data on literacy with one of the methods described above. The 26 surveys were conducted between 1999 and 2004. In addition to literacy, the surveys also identified the highest level of education of each household member at least 5 or 6 years old. For the analysis, household members were divided into 13 groups according to the highest grade of formal education completed: no formal education, grade 1 completed, grade 2 completed, ..., grade 11 completed, and grade 12 or higher completed. Within each group, the share of literate persons was calculated. The results are plotted in the graphs below.

To reduce the number of countries in a graph, the countries were grouped according to the geographic regions used by UNICEF. The first graph shows 11 countries in Eastern and Southern Africa. For each country, a line indicates how the percentage of literate persons varies with the completed years of formal education. For example, in Kenya (the red line in the graph), 11 percent of all persons without formal education are literate, compared to 36 percent of those who completed the first grade, 49 percent of those who completed the second grade, and so on. The number in parentheses behind the name of each country indicates the official length of primary education in years. For example, primary school has four grades in Angola and six grades in Burundi.

The theory underlying the EFA Development Index assumes that all persons with a complete primary education are literate. The graph for Eastern and Southern Africa shows that this is mostly true. In Angola, Comoros, Somalia, and Swaziland, the literacy rate of persons who did not continue their education after completing primary school ranges from 95 to 97 percent and with additional years of education the literacy rate increases further. In Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya, Lesotho, Mozambique, and Rwanda, the literacy rate of persons with primary education only is 99 to 100 percent. Burundi is an exception; here, the literacy rate of persons with 6 years of education (the official length of primary school) is only 90 percent. Closer inspection of the data shows that this is due to relatively high illiteracy among the older population, who attended school more than 20 years ago. For persons with 7 or more years of education, the literacy rate approaches 100 percent in Burundi.

Years of education and literacy in Eastern and Southern Africa

Data source: 3 DHS and 8 MICS surveys, 1999-2004. - Number after country name indicates official duration of primary education.

The second graph displays the link between years of schooling and literacy in 15 countries from West and Central Africa. A comparison of the two graphs reveals a striking difference between the two regions. In Eastern and Southern Africa, a literacy rate of more than 80 percent is reached after 4 years of education; after 5 years, at least 90 percent of the population are literate. In West and Central Africa, only 6 of 15 countries have at least 80 percent literacy after 4 years of education. A 90 percent literacy rate is only reached after 7 to 8 years of school, and in Gambia, 9 years are needed to reach the same goal.

Years of education and literacy in West and Central Africa

Data source: 1 DHS and 14 MICS surveys, 2000-2003. - Number after country name indicates official duration of primary education.

Overall, the literacy rates of persons with no more than primary education are much lower than in Eastern and Southern Africa. The lowest literacy rates among primary school graduates are observed in Gambia (71 percent), Sierra Leone (80 percent), and Nigeria (82 percent). In Chad, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Guinea, Niger, and Senegal, the literacy rate of persons with primary education only ranges from 90 to 94 percent. In the Central African Republic and Côte d'Ivoire, the literacy rate of primary school graduates is 96 percent; in Equatorial Guinea it is 98 percent; and in Cameroon, Guinea-Bissau, Sao Tome and Principe, and Togo, 99 percent of primary school graduates are literate.

The analysis of years of schooling and corresponding literacy rates underlines the relatively poor state of the education system in many parts of West and Central Africa. Compared to other regions, countries in West and Central Africa not only have the lowest school attendance or enrollment rates on average, children also take longer to learn basic skills like reading and writing.

Returning to the question asked at the beginning of this article, is the share of the adult population with at least a complete primary education a suitable proxy for the adult literacy rate? The evidence from Sub-Saharan Africa shows that this indicator is not perfect, especially in countries where schools struggle to provide a high-quality education for all students. Yet, in spite of these limitations, most persons who graduated from primary school or attended higher levels of education can be considered literate. The share of the population with at least a complete primary education is therefore a good substitute for the adult literacy rate.

Correction, 7 December 2006: An earlier version of this article included data for Madagascar. All references to Madagascar were removed because the Madagascar 2000 MICS, on which the analysis was based, only provides data on education for persons up to 17 years of age. The literacy data is therefore not representative for the entire population of Madagascar.

References

• National Statistics and Evaluation Office (NSEO) [Eritrea] and ORC Macro. 2003. Eritrea Demographic and Health Survey 2002. Calverton, Maryland: National Statistics and Evaluation Office and ORC
  Macro.
• UNESCO. 2006. Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2007: Strong foundations - Early childhood care and education. Paris: UNESCO.
• UNICEF. 2000. End-decade Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey manual: Monitoring progress toward the goals of the 1990 World Summit for Children. New York: UNICEF.
• UNICEF. 2006. Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey manual 2005: Monitoring the situation of children and women. New York: UNICEF.

Related articles

• Years of schooling and literacy, part 2
• EFA Development Index: Assessing progress toward Education for All
• Education data from household surveys
• Primary school enrollment in 2004
• Millennium Development Goal regions and UNICEF regions

External links

• Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys
• Demographic and Health Surveys
• Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2007

Friedrich Huebler, 26 November 2006 (edited 7 February 2007), Creative Commons License
Permanent URL: http://huebler.blogspot.com/2006/11/years-of-schooling-and-literacy-can.html

EFA Development Index: Assessing progress toward Education for All

On 26 October 2006, UNESCO released the 2007 edition of the Education for All Global Monitoring Report. The annual EFA report assesses progress toward the goal of basic education for all children and adults by 2015. Individual countries are ranked with the EFA Development Index (EDI) that provides information for four of the six EFA goals:

• Universal primary education
• Adult literacy
• Gender parity
• Quality of education

Not covered in the EDI are two less easily quantifiable EFA goals:

• Early childhood care and education
• Learning needs of youth and adults

The EDI is calculated by taking the arithmetic mean of its four components:

• Total primary net enrollment ratio (NER), the percentage of children of primary school age who are enrolled in primary or secondary school.
• Adult literacy rate. In countries without data on adult literacy, the share of the adult population with at least complete primary education is used as a proxy.
• Gender-specific EFA index (GEI). The GEI is a composite index that is calculated as the simple average of three gender parity indices (GPI):
• GPI for the gross enrolment ratio (GER) in primary education: GPI = female GER / male GER.
• GPI for the GER in secondary education: GPI = female GER / male GER.
• GPI for the adult literacy rate: GPI = female literacy rate / male literacy rate.
• If the calculation method for one of the three GPIs yields a value above 1 (because the female GER is greater than the male GER, or because the female literacy rate is greater than the male literacy rate), the calculation method is reversed. In such cases, the GPI is calculated as male GER / female GER, or as male literacy rate / female literacy rate.
• Survival rate to grade 5 as a proxy indicator for the quality of education. The survival rate to grade 5 is the share of children entering grade 1 of primary school who eventually reach grade 5, with or without repeating a grade.

All four components of the EDI and the EDI itself have a theoretical range from 0 to 100% or, when expressed as a ratio, from 0 to 1. The complete set of indicators required to calculate the EDI was only available for 125 countries. The EDI for these 125 countries is indicated in the map below. The countries are divided into three groups:

• High EDI: 0.95 or more
• Medium EDI: 0.80 - 0.94
• Low EDI: less than 0.80
  

EFA development index, 2004

Data source: UNESCO. 2006. Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2007: Strong foundations - Early childhood care and education. Paris: UNESCO. Table 1, pages 200-201.

Of the 125 countries with data, 47 have a high EDI, which means they are close to or have already reached the goal of basic education for all children and adults. This group includes virtually all countries in Europe, as well as Armenia, Bahrain, Barbados, Chile, China, Costa Rica, Cuba, Fiji, Israel, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Netherlands Antilles, Seychelles, South Korea, Tajikistan, and Trinidad and Tobago.

49 countries have a medium EDI between 0.80 and 0.94. This group includes most countries in Latin America and some countries in Africa and Asia.

Finally, 29 countries have a low EDI of less than 0.80. The twelve countries with the lowest EDI are all located in Sub-Saharan Africa. The lowest scoring countries are Chad (0.43), Niger (0.50), Burkina Faso (0.51), Mali (0.53), and Guinea (0.58). Countries with a low EDI outside of Africa include Bangladesh, Cambodia, Djibouti, India, Lao PDR, Nepal, and Saudi Arabia.

External links

• Education for All (EFA) goals
• EFA Global Monitoring Report web site
• Download the EFA Global Monitoring Report 2007 (PDF, 5.8 MB)

Related articles

• Primary school enrollment in 2004
• Trends in primary school enrollment, 1970-2004
• Education disparity in South Asia

Friedrich Huebler, 14 November 2006 (edited 12 October 2008), Creative Commons License
Permanent URL: http://huebler.blogspot.com/2006/11/efa-development-index-assessing.html

Final release of data from UNESCO's 2005 education survey

The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) has announced the final release of data from its 2005 education survey. The data, an update of the initial release from April 2006, can be downloaded from the UIS education database. I used the data to update two recent posts on primary school enrollment in 2004 and on trends in primary school enrollment from 1970 to 2004.

Friedrich Huebler, 27 October 2006, Creative Commons License

Trends in primary school enrollment, 1970-2004

The latest data released by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) shows that the world has come closer than ever to the goal of universal primary education. In 2004, the global primary school net enrollment rate (NER) was at 86%. This means that worldwide almost 9 out of 10 children of primary school age are enrolled in primary school. A comparison of national enrollment rates shows that many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa continue to lag behind countries in other regions.

With enrollment data from UNESCO for the years since 1970 it is possible to assess how much progress has been made over the past decades. The graph below compares the primary NER trends for boys and girls by Millennium Development Goal (MDG) region. For the graph, the MDG regions South-eastern Asia and Oceania were combined in one region, as were Northern Africa and Western Asia.

Primary school net enrollment rate (NER), 1970-2004

Data sources: (1) UNESCO Institute for Statistics, global education database, October 2006; (2) UNESCO Institute for Statistics, pre-1998 database, March 2005.

At the global level, shown in the lower right corner of the graph, there has been a steady increase in the primary NER of boys and girls since 1970. In addition, the gap between boys and girls has shrunk significantly. The male primary NER for 2004 is 88% and the female NER is 84%.

A comparison of regional trends shows clear differences in participation in primary education. In the developed countries, the primary school NER has been close to 100% for more than three decades. In Eastern Asia, enrollment rates were similarly high since 1970, with small up- and downturns. For the countries in the Commonwealth of Independent States, only post-Soviet data is available, showing a decline of the NER to about 90% in 2004. In South-eastern Asia and Oceania, the primary NER has been above 90% since the early 1980s. In Latin America and the Caribbean, gender parity in primary education has existed since 1970, and enrollment rates have increased steadily to an average primary NER of 94% in 2004.

Southern Asia, and Northern Africa and Western Asia stand out as regions where the education of girls has seen dramatic improvements. However, the primary NER of girls continues to be below that of boys, with a gender gap of about 6% in these regions. The enrollment rates of boys have also steadily increased over the past three decades. In 2004, the average primary NER for boys and girls combined was 87% in Southern Asia and 90% in Northern Africa and Western Asia.

Sub-Saharan Africa also witnessed a decrease in the gender gap since 1970 but overall enrollment rates stagnated below 60% throughout the 1980s and 1990s. Since 2000, there has been an improvement in primary school enrollment rates, due to renewed efforts to bring all children into school. By 2004, the primary NER of boys has risen to 70% and the NER of girls is at 65%.

Related articles

• Primary school enrollment in 2004
• Millennium Development Goal regions and UNICEF regions

Friedrich Huebler, 28 September 2006 (edited 27 October 2006), Creative Commons License

Primary school enrollment in 2004

At the United Nations Millennium Summit in 2000, all UN member states agreed on a set of eight Millennium Development Goals (MDG) that should be reached by 2015. One of the goals aims at universal primary education by 2015, another goal at the elimination of gender disparity at all levels of education by 2015.

The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) maintains an annually updated database with education statistics. With the help of this database, it is possible to track the progress toward the MDGs related to education. The latest statistics on primary school enrollment rates were released in September. The map below shows the primary school net enrollment rate (NER) in each country. The primary NER is defined as the share of children of primary school age who are enrolled in primary school.

• Primary school net enrollment rate (NER) = Number of children of primary school age enrolled in primary school / Number of children of primary school age

For 127 of 165 countries with data, the NER in 2004 is listed in the UIS database. 7 countries have data for 2005, 14 countries have data for 2003, and 17 countries have data from the years 1999 to 2002. For 42 countries in the UIS database no primary school net enrollment rate is listed, including 12 countries with a total population of more than 10 million in 2005: China, Germany, Thailand, Democratic Republic of Congo, Afghanistan, Uganda, Uzbekistan, North Korea, Cameroon, Chile, Angola, and the Czech Republic.

For all countries with data, the primary NER is indicated in the map below. Outside of Africa, most countries have NER values above 80 percent. In 7 countries, all in Africa or the Middle East, less than half of all primary-age children are enrolled in primary school: Djibouti (primary NER 32%), Niger (39%), Burkina Fast (41%), Sudan (43%), Guinea-Bissau (45%), Eritrea (46%), and Mali (47%).

Primary school net enrollment rate (NER), 2004

Data source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, global education database, October 2006.

The table below lists the average primary school NER at the level of the 10 Millennium Development Goal regions. To calculate the regional averages, the primary NER in each country was weighted by the country's population of primary school age. To calculate the average enrollment rate in Sub-Saharan Africa, for example, the primary NER in Nigeria (60%, 21.6 million children of primary school age in 2005) therefore has a greater weight than the primary NER in Sao Tome and Principe (98%, 23,000 children of primary school age in 2005).

Primary school net enrollment rate, 2004

MDG region	NER (%)			Gender disparity
	Total	Male	Female	Difference male- female	GPI female/ male
Developed countries	95.9	96.6	95.1	1.5	0.98
Commonwealth of Independent States	89.6	89.7	89.4	0.3	1.00
Eastern Asia	98.6	98.8	98.4	0.4	1.00
South-eastern Asia	93.6	94.5	93.1	1.4	0.99
Oceania	86.4	86.8	85.5	1.3	0.98
Southern Asia	87.1	90.1	83.9	6.2	0.93
Western Asia	83.1	87.2	78.8	8.4	0.90
Northern Africa	93.7	95.2	92.2	3.0	0.97
Sub-Saharan Africa	67.2	69.6	64.7	4.9	0.92
Latin America and the Caribbean	94.0	94.4	94.3	0.1	1.00
World	86.0	87.8	83.7	4.1	0.95

GPI: gender parity index. - Data source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics, Global Education Database, October 2006.

In 6 of the 10 regions, the primary school NER is at or above 90%: developed countries (96%), Commonwealth of Independent States (90%), Eastern Asia (99%), South-eastern Asia (94%), Northern Africa (94%), and Latin America and the Caribbean (94%). In Oceania, the NER is 86%, in Southern Asia it is 87%, and in Western Asia 83%. In Sub-Saharan Africa, far fewer children go to school; in this region, the primary NER is 67%. At the global level, the primary school net enrollment rate is 86%.

In addition to the total NER, the table also lists the enrollment rates of boys and girls. In the last two columns, the difference between the male and female NER, and the gender parity index (GPI) are shown. The GPI is the ratio of the female to the male NER. If the GPI is below 1, more boys than girls are enrolled in school. According to UNESCO, a GPI between 0.98 and 1.02 is interpreted as gender parity. Of the 10 regions, 6 have already reached the Millennium Development Goal of gender parity: developed countries, Commonwealth of Independent States, Eastern Asia, South-eastern Asia, Oceania, and Latin America and the Caribbean. In Southern Asia (GPI 0.93), Western Asia (0.90), Northern Africa (0.97), and Sub-Saharan Africa (0.92), the enrollment of girls is lagging behind that of boys.

To summarize, countries in Sub-Saharan Africa face the greatest challenges on the path to reaching the Millennium Development Goals of universal primary education and gender parity. Southern and Western Asia have higher enrollment rates but are not close to the goal of gender parity.

Related articles

• Millennium Development Goal regions and UNICEF regions

Friedrich Huebler, 7 September 2006 (edited 26 October 2006), Creative Commons License

Millennium Development Goal regions and UNICEF regions

This site presents education statistics from the perspective of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG). The second of the eight Millennium Development Goals calls for universal primary education by 2015. The third MDG calls for the elimination of gender disparity in primary and secondary education by 2005 and at all levels of education by 2015.

To monitor progress toward the eight MDG, the UN has divided all countries into ten regional groupings, shown in the map below. The list of countries within each region is available on the official UN site for the MDG indicators. The abbreviations in the map's legend stand for these regions:

• Developed countries (DEV)
• Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS)
• Eastern Asia (EA)
• South-eastern Asia (SEA)
• Oceania (OCE)
• Southern Asia (SA)
• Western Asia (WA)
• Northern Africa (NA)
• Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)
• Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)

Millennium Development Goal regions

Source: UN Statistics Division web site, August 2006

Future posts on global education statistics will refer to the MDG regions for regionally disaggregated data. In previous posts, for example on primary school enrollment, global education statistics were presented with the regional groupings used by UNICEF. UNICEF divides all countries into eight regions, shown in the following map. The countries within each region are listed on the UNICEF web site.

UNICEF regions

Source: UNICEF web site, August 2006

The abbreviations stand for these regions:

• Industrialized countries (IND)
• Central and Eastern Europe, Commonwealth of Independent States (CEE/CIS)
• East Asia and the Pacific (EAP)
• South Asia (SA)
• Middle East and North Africa (MENA)
• Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA)
• West and Central Africa (WCA)
• Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC)

A comparison of the two maps shows that UNICEF combines three MDG regions (Eastern Asia, South-eastern Asia, Oceania) in a larger region called East Asia and the Pacific. Northern Africa is combined with Western Asia, Iran, and Sudan in the UNICEF region Middle East and North Africa. On the other hand, the MDG refer to one region for Sub-Saharan Africa, while UNICEF divides this region into Eastern and Southern Africa, and West and Central Africa. Three other regions are largely identical: the developed or industrialized countries, the Commonwealth of Independent States, and Latin America and the Caribbean.

Related articles

• Education for All regions
• UN Millennium Development Goals Report 2008
• UN Millennium Development Goals Report 2007

External links

• UN Millennium Development Goals
• MDG regional groupings
• UNICEF regions and countries

Friedrich Huebler, 20 August 2006 (edited 26 March 2011), Creative Commons License.
Permanent URL: http://huebler.blogspot.com/2006/08/millennium-development-goal-regions.html

Child labor and school attendance in Bolivia, part 2

Child labor interferes with school attendance and is therefore an obstacle to the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education. In Bolivia, 90 percent of all children between 5 and 14 years of age attend school. At the same time, one third of all children in this age group are engaged in child labor, as shown in a previous post on child labor and school attendance in Bolivia.

For the purpose of this analysis, child labor is defined as any economic activity during the week of the survey, or more than two hours of household chores per day. The data for Bolivia were collected in a Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) in 2000. The previous post presented the data on child labor and schooling disaggregated by age group, sex, area of residence, and household wealth. Today's article will take a closer look at the pattern of work and school attendance by age.

The graph belows present the share of children aged 5 to 14 years who attend school or are engaged in child labor. School attendance is defined as attending any level of education at the time of the MICS survey. Each point represents children of a single age, from 5 years, 6 years, and so on, to 14 years of age. Child labor rates are plotted against the horizontal axis, school attendance rates against the vertical axis.

Child labor and school attendance by age, children 5-14 years, Bolivia

Data source: Bolivia 2000 MICS.

The upper left quadrant shows the values for all children combined. The inverted U shape indicates that children work steadily more as they grow older, while school attendance rates reach a peak near 100 percent for children between 7 and 11 years of age and then decrease again. The upper right quadrant, with data disaggregated by gender, makes clear that there is no difference between boys and girls in Bolivia, as far as work and school are concerned.

There are, however, big differences between children from urban and rural areas, as the lower left quadrant shows. Among urban children, school attendance rates rise rapidly with age and at 7 years, 99 percent of all children are in school. Few children drop out as they grow older and among 14-year-olds, the school attendance rate is still 95 percent. In rural areas, school attendance rates for children between 7 and 11 years of age are also above 90 percent.

Compared to urban children, rural children are much more likely to be engaged in child labor. The highest child labor rate in urban areas is observed for children 14 years old (36 percent). In contrast, one third of all 6-year-olds (32 percent) and half of all 7-year-olds (50 percent) do child labor. Child labor rates continue to increase with age and at 14 years, 78 percent of all rural children work, compared to 70 percent in this age group who attend school.

The last graph, in the lower right quadrant, compares children from the richest and poorest 20 percent of all households. The overall pattern is very similar to that for urban and rural children. Children from wealthy households are much more likely to attend school and less likely to work than children from poor households. In the richest household quintile, school attendance rates are between 99 and 100 percent for all children aged 7 to 14 years, while child labor rates do not exceed 32 percent. In the poorest household quintile, the child labor rate reaches 86 percent among 14-year-old children. 66 percent of 14-year-olds from the poorest household are in school.

A comparison of the individual graphs makes clear that the overall pattern of child labor and school attendance in Nepal is strongly influenced by children from poor, rural households. Many of these children work and do not complete their education.

Related articles

• Child labor and school attendance in Bolivia
• Child labor and school attendance
• Child labor: economic activity and household chores
• Primary school attendance in Bolivia
• Secondary school attendance in Bolivia
  
• Education data from household surveys
• UNICEF priority countries for girls' education
• Household wealth and years of education

Friedrich Huebler, 31 July 2006 (edited 5 October 2008), Creative Commons License
Permanent URL: http://huebler.blogspot.com/2006/07/child-labor-and-school-attendance-in.html