The State of Education Series
March 2013

Acronym Name
EAP
ECA
East Asia and Pacific
Europe and Central Asia
LAC
MNA
SAS
SSA
WLD
NER
GER
PTR
GDP p.c.
GNI
GPI
Latin American and the Caribbean
Middle East and North Africa
South Asia
Sub-Saharan Africa
World (Global Aggregate)
Net Enrollment Rate
Gross Enrollment Rate
Pupil-Teacher Ratio
Gross Domestic Product per capita
Gross National Income
Gender Parity Index (female value/male value)

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Around 164 million children were enrolled in pre-primary education in
2010. This is up from
134 million in 2005 and
112 million in 1999.
Over half of enrolled students were in either
SAS or EAP (48 and 40 million respectively).
25% of total pre-primary enrollments were in India and 16% were in China.
79 million (48.2%) were girls.
Share of Total Pre-Primary
Enrollments by Region (%)
2010
SSA
7,6%
EAP
24,3%
SAS
29,1%
ECA
6,4%
HIC
18,1%
MNA
2,0%
LAC
12,5%
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, November 2012;
Notes: Regional aggregates are World Bank regions;
HIC = high income countries in all geographic regions.

Pre-Primary – Gross Enrolment Rates (GER)
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Globally, less than half of pre-primary age students were enrolled in preprimary education in
2010, but all regions increased pre-primary enrolments between
2000 and 2010.
SAS almost doubled its pre-primary GER between 2000 (25.4%) and 2010 (48.3%).
LAC’s GERs are consistently the highest among regions ranging from 56.8% to 70.1%.
SSA and MNA lag behind other regions with
17.7% and 23.8% GERs respectively in 2010.
80
Pre-Primary Gross Enrolment Rates have increased in all regions since 2000
70
60
50
40
30
34,1
20
10
34,7
37,1
40,9
45,6
48,3
0
EAP
2000
ECA
2002
LAC
2004
MNA
2006
SAS
2008
SSA
2010
WLD
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, November 2012

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8 of the 10 countries with the lowest preprimary net enrolment rates (NER) are in SSA.
Of the 130 countries with data, 18 countries had less than 10% of their children enrolled in pre-primary education.
36 countries had less than 25% of their children enrolled in preprimary.
19 countries had preprimary enrollments higher than 90%.
10 Countries with the Lowest Pre-
Primary Net Enrollment Rates
(2009-2011)
1 Yemen, Rep.
2 Chad
0.35
1.77
3 Burkina Faso
4 Mali
5 Djibouti
2.75
3.37
3.41
6 Cote d'Ivoire
7 Ethiopia
8 Guinea-Bissau
9 Niger
3.54
3.92
4.68
4.76
10 Central African Republic 5.64
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, Nov 2012
Notes: Purple data is for 2011; Black is 2010; Blue is 2009;
Data were not available for 84 of 214 countries.

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These countries have increased their pre-primary GERs by 25 to 66 percentage points between 1999-2001 and 2009-2011.
Half of the countries at least doubled their NER over time.
Algeria improved from 3.4% to 66% – a 1928% improvement.
Only two of these countries have a current NER over
90% – Barbados and Maldives.
10 Countries with the Most
Improvement in Pre-Primary
Net Enrollment Rates
Percentage
Points
Improved
1999-
2001
NER
2009-
2011
NER
1 Algeria
2 Korea, Rep.
3 Moldova
4 Barbados
66.1
3.4
69.5
1927.9
41.0
44.0
85.0
93.0
37.3
36.8
74.0
101.4
33.6
62.1
95.7
% Improved
54.0
5 Sao Tome & Principe 32.4
24.2
56.5
133.8
6 Maldives 30.8
61.4
92.2
50.1
7 Mongolia
8 Nicaragua
9 Ghana
29.1
26.7
28.4
28.6
57.5
55.4
102.5
93.5
26.0
21.5
47.5
120.7
10 Uruguay 25.4
52.9
78.3
48.0
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, November 2012;
Note: Data were not available for 118 of 213 countries .

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, 2012
Note: Data displayed is for the latest available year (2008-2011)
The maps displayed were produced by EdStats. The boundaries, colors, denominations and any other information shown on this map do not imply, on the part of the World Bank Group, any judgment on the legal status of any territory, or any endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries.
The maps are for reference only.

Are lower pre-primary enrollment rates related to lower national income per capita?
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All the low income countries ($1025 or less) have less than 16% of children enrolled in preprimary education except
Gambia (27%), Kenya
(29%), and Tanzania
(33%).
24 countries had NERs less than 15%. Only 4 of those had GNI per capita higher than $1100. All the countries were lower than $4780 (Bosnia).
All of the countries with
NERs higher than 90% had GNI greater than
$12,000 except Thailand,
Grenada, and Maldives.
All low income countries had less than one-third of children enrolled in pre-primary education.
100
Norway
80
60
40
20
0
0
Australia
Ireland
Switzerland
Qatar
R² = 0,2293
20 40 60
GNI per capita, Atlas method (current US$)
80

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Gender parity indices
(GPIs) are calculated by dividing the female value for an indicator by the male value, so perfect gender parity equals 1 .
A value below 1 indicates a bias toward males. A value above 1 indicates a bias toward females.
Globally, the GPI has been increasing from .98 in 2000 to perfect gender parity (1.0) in 2010.
Most regions are very close to gender parity (+/-
0.02) in 2010. Only MNA lags behind.
4 of 6 regions have a slight female bias.
1,05
Gender parity in pre-primary enrolments (1.0) has been achieved globally and in most regions.
Female Bias
1,00
0,99
1,00
0,99
0,99
0,99
0,98
Male Bias
0,95
0,90
0,85
0,80
0,75
WLD
2000
EAP
2002
ECA
2004
LAC
2006
MNA
2008
SAS
2010
SSA
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, November 2012

% of 3 to 4 year olds attending any type of pre –primary education program
Source: Demographic and Health Surveys and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys In World Inequality Database on Education (WIDE), Nov. 2012

% of 3 to 4 year olds attending any type of pre
–primary education program
Source: Demographic and Health Surveys and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys In World Inequality Database on Education (WIDE), Nov. 2012

South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa have higher pre-primary pupil-teacher ratios.
40
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Globally, pre-primary pupil-teacher ratios
(PTRs) have remained steady since 1999 at around 20 pupils per teacher.
ECA has the fewest students per teacher:
PTRs ranged from 8 to
10 students over time.
South Asia had the highest PTRs as of
2007 at 40 students per teacher. The next closest region was SSA at around 27 students per teacher in 2011.
35
30
25
20
15
10
5
1999
EAP
2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011
ECA LAC MNA SAS SSA WLD
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, March 2013

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These countries have between 35 and 57 pre-primary students per teacher.
Eight of the 10 countries are in
SSA.
Less than 11% of children are enrolled in pre-primary education in 5 of these countries.
There are 22 countries with preprimary PTRs less than 10. Most are in
ECA or are high income countries.
10 Countries with the Highest
Pre-Primary Pupil-Teacher Ratios
(2006-2012)
Pupil-Teacher
Ratio. Pre-Primary
Net Enrolment Rate.
Pre-Primary
1 Tanzania 56.6
33.2
2 Central African Rep.
3 Mali
4 India
5 Bolivia
44.3
44.0
40.3
38.8
5.6
3.4
32.1
6 Rwanda
7 Eritrea
38.0
37.9
10.5
9.1
8 Angola
9 Ghana
37.1
36.4
65.9
47.5
10 Burundi 35.4
6.9
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, March 2013
Note: Data is for the most recent available year; Black data are for 2011; Blue = 2010;
Purple = 2012; Data were not available for 58 of 214 countries.

(2006-2012)
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, 2013
Note: Data displayed is for the most recent available year
The maps displayed were produced by EdStats. The boundaries, colors, denominations and any other information shown on this map do not imply, on the part of the World Bank Group, any judgment on the legal status of any territory, or any endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries.
The maps are for reference only.

This presentation utilizes the following data sources:
1) UNESCO Institute for Statistics data in the EdStats Query

The presentation was created with the most recent UIS data release that included 2009 data for most indicators and 2010 data for some countries.

Indicators were calculated by UIS according to definitions available in the EdStats Query .
2) Demographic and Health Surveys and Multiple Indicator Cluster
Surveys in the World Inequality Database on Education (WIDE)

The following State of Education presentations are available on the EdStats website :
Topics:
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Access
Quality
Expenditures
Literacy
Equity
Gender
Educational Levels:
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Pre-Primary Education
Primary Education
Secondary Education
Tertiary Education