64398 August 2011 Volume V, Issue 1 The Newsletter The World Bank Education Statistics Newsletter What’s New? Contents Book Launch: Assessing Sector Performance and Pg. 1 What’s New on the Inequality in Education EdStats website? The Assessing Sector Performance and Ine- Pg. 2 The Gender Gap — quality in Education book launch was held on A Global Statistical July 19, 2011. The book compiles information Summary needed to use ADePT Edu, a software plat- form for reporting and analyzing education in- Pg. 3 Out-of-School Girls dicators and inequality. Please visit the event website to access the video recording of the Pg. 4 Gender disparity in event and the presentation by Emilio Porta. Youth Literacy 70+ New Education and Literacy Indicators added Pg. 5 Primary Completion Rates and Gender to the EdStats Query Pg. 6 Gender, Income and Edstats has just added 70+ new education and literacy indicators Location Disparities to the EdStats Query. With the addition of these indicators, the EdStats Query now holds all the education and literacy indicators from the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) Data Centre. Also, the EdStats Query has been updated with the latest data release from the UIS. This is the main data release for 2009 and an initial release for 2010. www.worldbank.org/education/edstats/ August 2011 Volume V, Issue 1 The Gender Gap A Statistical Summary of Gender and Education around the World One of the education Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) is to eliminate gender disparity in primary and secondary education, preferably by 2005, and in all levels of education no later than 2015. In this newsletter we will look into gender as one dimension of inequality that affects equitable access to edu- cation around the globe. Are more girls out-of-school? In 1999, 105.6 million children of Figure 1. Out-of-School Children by Gender primary school age were not en- rolled in primary school. Around 61 million (58%) of these children were female compared to 45 mil- lion (42%) males. By 2009, the total number of OOS children declined to 67 mil- lion. Around 35 million girls were still out-of-school compared to 31 million boys. The gap between male and fe- male OOS totals decreased from 16 million to 3.6 million between 1999 and 2009. While there are still more females OOS than males, the gender gap has decreased greatly over time. 2 August 2011 Volume V, Issue 1 Where are more girls out-of-school? Almost half of the world’s out-of-school girls are in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA) and around a quarter are in South-Asia (SAS). Since 1999, South Asia has decreased its total number of out-of-school females from 23 million to 9.5 million. This 59% decrease shows steady pro- gress towards achieving more equitable access to education. Sub Saharan Africa has also decreased its total by 30% from 24.8 million out-of-school girls in 1999 to 17.3 million in 2008. Around 6 million of SSA’s OOS girls are in Nigeria and Ethiopia. Figure 2 . Out-of-School Females by Region 3 August 2011 Volume V, Issue 1 Is there disparity between genders in youth literacy rates? Globally, there is still a gender gap in youth literacy rates, though the gap has been shrinking over time. There was a 9.1 percent difference between male and female youth literacy rates for the 1985- 1994 time period. The gender gap shrunk by 44 percent to only 5.1 percent during 2005-2010. Despite this progress, the data shows that fewer females are emerging from education systems with basic lit- eracy skills than males. Gender disparities between male and female youth literacy rates have decreased over time in all re- gions. EAP, ECA, and LAC have achieved almost perfect gender parity, while MNA, SAS, and SSA lag behind. SAS and MNA have improved greatly over time, but progress has been slower in SSA. Less than half of female youth are literate in the seven countries with the lowest female literacy rates (see table below). Sub Saharan Africa in particular is an area of concern, as the top 20 countries with the lowest female literacy rates are almost entirely from SSA (except Pakistan). Figure 3 . Youth Literacy Rates by Gender 4 August 2011 Volume V, Issue 1 Do more males complete primary education than females? Globally, more males are completing Figure 4. Primary Completion Rates by Gender (2009) primary school than females. The difference between male/female pri- mary completion rates (PCRs) has shrunk from 5.7 percentage points in 1999 to 2.2 in 2009. In most regions, more males com- plete primary than females, but in LAC and EAP, the reverse is true. EAP's female PCR was 2.3 percent- age points higher than the male PCR. LAC’s was 1.1 percentage points higher for females. SSA has the largest gender disparity in PCRs with 71 percent of boys completing primary school vs. 63 percent of girls in 2009. MNA also has a large gender disparity at 5.8 percentage points difference be- tween the genders. SAS had a large gender disparity in 1999 (14.5 per- centage points) but decreased the difference to 3.2 percentage points in 2009. More Information on Gender, Income or Location Disparities in Education Indicators For resources on education equity issues, visit the EdStats’ Household Survey module, which holds resources based on data from Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), Living Standards Measure- ment Study (LSMS), and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS). The module holds equity profiles for many countries and ADePT Education, a new software tool for analyzing gender, income and geo- graphic equity in education access, progression, attainment, and expenditures. Also, the final chapter of the Assessing Sector Performance and Inequality in Education book also holds rich analysis of gender, income and location disparities in education. 5 August 2011 Volume V, Issue 1 What dimensions of inequality affect education opportunity? Income: In all regions except ECA, a Figure 5. Disparities in Primary Completion Rates much higher percentage of high income by Gender, Location, and Income students complete primary school than low income students. This disparity is greatest in SSA, where there is a 55 per- centage point difference between the pri- mary completion rates (PCRs) of top and bottom quintile students. Location: In most regions, a higher per- centage of urban students complete pri- mary school than rural students. This is not the case for EAP and ECA, where more slightly rural students complete pri- mary. Gender: Gender disparities exist in all regions in PCRs, but they are surpassed by income disparities in all regions except for ECA. While gender is relevant, low income seems to have the greatest impact on primary completion rates. For further information and suggestions, contact: The World Bank - Human Development Network 1818 H Street NW, MSN G8-800, Washington, DC 20433 eservice@worldbank.org