Education: primary enrollments
Gross primary school enrollment data show an improvement over the last twenty-five
years. Developing countries have made enormous progress in expanding access to schooling.
However, regional trends diverged markedly, with Sub-Saharan Africa experiencing no
improvement in enrollment ratios between the early 1980s and now (Table 15).
The International Development Goals call for universal primary enrollment by 2015.
Enrollment rates are hard to measure accurately because of repetition and migration. At
present rates of progress, this target is not likely to be achieved.
In 1995, 125 million primary-school-age children in developing countries were not in
school. Of these, 66 percent (83 million) were girls.
Sub-Saharan Africa (45 million children out of school) is the region with the lowest
net enrollment rate (about 40 percent). Nine countries reported net primary enrollment
rates of less than 50 percent in the 1990s (Table 16). 16
countries in the region (including Ethiopia, Mozambique, Nigeria, Tanzania and Zambia)
actually suffered a decline in net enrollment in the first half of the 1990s.
Table 15. Trends in gross primary enrollment rates,
1970-1996
Region |
1970 |
1982 |
1993 |
1996 |
| East Asia and Pacific |
88 |
111 |
118 |
118 |
| Eastern Europe and Central Asia |
n.a. |
102 |
97 |
100d |
| Latin America and Caribbean |
99a |
105c |
109 |
114 |
| Middle East and North Africa |
68 |
91 |
95 |
94 |
| South Asia |
67 |
77 |
97 |
101 |
| Sub-Saharan Africa |
50 |
74 |
68 |
74d |
| Developing
Countries |
79 |
95 |
107 |
108 |
| OECD |
104b |
102 |
103 |
103e |
Note: Declines in gross enrollment ratios that
are over 100 do not necessarily mean a decrease in the proportion of school-age children
going to school. They might reflect a reduction in the numbers of over-age children as a
result of improvements in quality and increases in efficiency as fewer children start
school late or repeat grades.
n.a. Not available.
a1975 b1965 c1980 d1994 e1995. Source:
World Bank economic and social database.
Table 16. Countries with Primary Enrollment
Rates of less than 50 percent in the 1990s
| Country |
% |
|
Country |
% |
| Niger |
24.5 |
|
Burkina Faso |
30.8 |
| Mali |
27.8 |
|
Mozambique |
39.8 |
| Ethiopia |
27.9 |
|
Chad |
45.8 |
| Afghanistan |
28.7 |
|
Tanzania |
47.8 |
| Eritrea |
30.4 |
|
|
|
Source: World Bank economic and social database.
- Oxfam (Education Now) is projecting a
slow decline in the number of children out of school in developing countries: 96 million
in 2005 and 75.5 million in 2015.
- In Sub-Saharan Africa the number of children out of school would actually increase
to 50.7 million in 2005 and to 54.6 million in 2015 on present trends.
- In 1995 872 million adults in developing countries (one in four) were illiterate. Of
these 64 percent (557 million) were women.
- In South Asia only one third of women are literate compared to two thirds of men. In
Nepal and Afghanistan fewer than 15 percent of women are literate; in Pakistan 25 percent.
- The incidence of adult illiteracy in developing countries has fallen from around 45
percent in 1980 to 30 percent in 1995; however, because of population growth and the
failure of school systems to prevent children from growing up illiterate, today there are
24 million more illiterate adults than in 1980.
- Almost the entire decrease in illiteracy since 1990 has been achieved in East Asia,
while the number of illiterates increased by 17 million in South Asia and 3 million in
Sub-Saharan Africa.
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