Charles Gale
Research Associate
Education Policy and Data Center, FHI 360 cgale@fhi360.org

57,247,729

Number of out of school children, primary ages, 2011
(UIS Data Centre, accessed February 2, 2014)
2011 figure available
No 2011 figure available
Map created using Stat Planet (http://www.statsilk.com/)

Overview - data gaps and EFA goal 2
Source: 2013 GMR

Overview
How many primary-aged children are out of school?
How many primary-aged children are out of school?
Data source
Variation in ‘primary ’ School coverage
 Administrative
 Household survey
 Across countries
 Within countries
 Over time
 Private providers
 Pre-primary

How many primary-aged children are out of school?
Data source
 Administrative
 Household survey

Out of school rate, primary, administrative vs. household survey sources
10
0
50
40
30
20
70
60
2
2
9
4
7 7
4
1
Survey Admin
13
11
1
9
17
13
17
5
24
23
41
37
32 32
34
13
23
44
54
48
42
44
62
56
Sources: UIS, Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) * ISCED 1 definition of primary

Effect of India discrepancy between survey and administrative sources on global total of OOSC, primary
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
76.5 (UIS+HHS)
68.2 (UIS)
India, difference between HHS and admin
Source for global totals UIS Data Centre (accessed 2/16/2014)
Source for difference: EPDC (2013)

Global Initiative on Out of School Children
“It should be noted that there is no one correct figure on out-of-school children.
The numbers of OOSC from household survey data analysis and administrative data indicate the range of numbers of OOSC in a country” (UIS-UNICEF, 2014)

How many primary-aged children are out of school?
Variation in ‘primary ’
 Across countries
 Within countries
 Over time

ISCED 1 compared to national primary durations
ISCED 1 (1997)
15
14
13
12
11
10
9
8
7
6
5
Pakistan Brazil Nigeria
Source: UNESCO International Bureau of Education (IBE)
Country durations (where different from ISCED)
Uganda India Kenya Ethiopia

Primary duration and entry ages, India, state compared to national
State or U/T
Goa
Kerala
Maharashtra
West Bengal
Orissa
Punjab
Sikkim
Uttar Pradesh
Primary Entry Primary age Duration
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
5
4
4
5
5
5
5
4
4
Primary Age
Range
5-8
5-8
% OOS local ages
15%
7%
% OOS ages
6-10
4%
1%
5-8
5-8
5-9
5-9
5-9
5-9
18%
26%
15%
20%
33%
28%
9%
16%
14%
12%
20%
20%
Source: International Bureau of Education (IBE), EPDC extraction of DHS dataset

Number of out of school children, primary age,
Burkina Faso
1 400 000
1 200 000
1 000 000
800 000
600 000
400 000
200 000
0
1999 2001 2003 2005
Source: UIS Data Centre (accessed 2/2/2014)
2007 2009
1 032 931
(2010)
884 687
(2009)
2011

How many primary-aged children are out of school?
School coverage
 Private providers
 Pre-primary

Enrollment in unregistered schools, Kenya
Source: APHRC (2008 )

Pre-primary attendance by age, Kenya
100
75 in pre-school out of school
50
25
28
-
9
6
11
7
7
6
3
8
2
4
9 10 11 12 13

Recommendations
80,0
70,0
60,0
50,0
40,0
30,0
20,0
10,0
0,0
Improve timeliness of data or adjust for time trends
27,3
15,4
66,9
25,6
Banladesh 1990 UIS Bangladesh 2011 DHS DRC 1999 UIS DRC 2010 MICS
Note: UIS estimates were current at time of publication

Recommendations
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
• Streamline basic definitions
– Household survey as alternative source for out of school children numbers
– Measuring school exclusion for standard age cohort such as 7-14
Ages 7-14 Official primary ages
16,0
24,4
20,4
25,6
66,2
71,7
7,8
13,4
Ghana, DHS 2008 Congo (DRC), MICS 2010 Sudan, South, IPUMS
Census 2008
Kenya, DHS 2009

Recommendations
• Build a broad understanding of data quality concerns

References
Education Policy and Data Center. (2013). Out of school children: Data challenges in measuring access to
education. Washington DC: FHI 360.
Oketch, M., Mutisya, M., Ngware, M., Ezeh, A., & Epari, C. (2008b). Pupil school mobility in urban Kenya
(APHRC Working Paper No. 38). Nairobi: African Population and Health Research Center.
UIS. (2010). Measuring educational participation: Analysis of data quality and methodology based on
ten studies. Montreal: UIS.
UIS Data Centre. Accessed at uis.unesco.org on 2/5/2014.
UIS & UNICEF. (2005). Children out of school: Measuring exclusion from Primary education. Montreal:
UIS.

References
UIS & UNICEF. (2014). Global Initiative on Out of School Children. South Asia Regional Study.
Kathmandu: UNICEF.
UNESCO. (2012). Youth and skills: Putting education to work. Education for All Global Monitoring Report
2012. Paris: UNESCO.
UNESCO. (2013). Teaching and learning: Achieving quality for all. Education for All Global Monitoring
Report 2013. Paris: UNESCO.

Thank you!
Contact: cgale@fhi360.org