Caribbean Countries ->-> Definitions
Gross Completion rate
Definition: The total number of students completing (or graduating from) the final year of primary or
secondary education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the population of the official
primary or secondary graduation age.
Purpose: This is a simple measure that monitors what share of all children complete an education cycle,
and in the case of the primary completion rate tracks progress towards the goal of Education for All which
is to achieve universal completion by the year 2015.
Calculation method: Divide the number of students completing (or graduating from) the final year of
primary education by the population at the official primary graduation age, and multiply the result by 100.
In fact, in the absence of information on graduates, the completion rate is often proxied by the following
formula (here applied to the primary case):
Gross Enrolment Rate
Definition:Total enrolment in a specific level of education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage
of the official school-age population corresponding to the same level of education in give school-year.
Purpose: Gross Enrolment Ratio is widely used to show the general level of participation in a given level
of education. It indicates the capacity of the education system to enrol students of a particular age-group.
It is used as a substitute indicator to net enrolment ratio (NER) when data on enrolment by single years of
age are not available. Furthermore, it can also be a complementary indicator to NER by indicating the
extent of over-aged and under-aged enrolment.
Calculation method: Divide the number of pupils ( or students) enrolled in a given level of education
regardless of age by the population of the age-group which officially corresponds to the given level of
education, and multiply the result by 100.
Formula:
Where:
=Gross Enrolment Ratio at level of education h in school-yeart.
=Enrolment at the level of education h in school-year t.
=Population in age-group a which officially corresponds to the level of education h in school-year t.
Gross Intake Rate
Definition: Total number of new entrants in first grade of primary education, regardless of age,
expressed as a percentage of the population at the official primary school-entrance age.
Purpose: Apparent Intake Rate indicates the general level of access to primary education. It also
indicates the capacity of the education system to provide access to grade 1 for the official school-entrance
age population. This indicator is used as a substitute to Net Intake Rate in the absence of data on new
entrants by single years of age.
Calculation method: Divide the number of new entrants into grade 1, irrespective of age, by the
population of official school-entrance age, and multiply the result by 100.
Formula:
Where:
=Apparent Intake Rate in school-year t.
=Number of new entrants in the first grade of primary education, in school-year t.
=Population of official primary school entrance-age a, in school-year t.
N.B.: When data on new entrants are not separately reported, they can be derived by subtracting the
numbers of repeaters from enrolment in first grade, before calculating the apparent intake rate.
Net Enrolment Rate
Definition:Enrolment of the official age-group for a given level of education expressed as a percentage of
the corresponding population.
Purpose: To show the extent of participation in a given level of education of children or youths belonging
to the official age-group corresponding to the level of education.
Calculation method: Divide the number of pupils ( or students ) enrolled who are of the official agegroup for a given level of education by the population for the same age-group and multiply the result by
100.
Formula:
Where:
=Net Enrolment Ratio at level of education h in school-year t.
=Enrolment of the population of age-group a at a level of education h in school-year t.
=Population in age-group a which officially corresponds to level of education h in school-year t.
Example: If the entrance age for primary education is 7 years with a duration of 6 years then a is (7-12)
years.
Out-of-School Population
Definition:Total primary (or secondary) school age children who are not enrolled in any level of education
(pre-primary, primary, post-primary, secondary, etc) expressed as a percentage of the official school-age
population corresponding to the primary (or secondary) level in a given school-year.
Purpose: This is a measure which tracks the children who are not enrolled in any education level and as
such it measures the real magnitude of youth-at-risk.
Calculation method:
Repetition Rate
Definition:Proportion of pupils from a cohort enrolled in a given grade at a given school-year who study
in the same grade in the following school-year.
Purpose: It measures the phenomenon of pupils repeating a grade, and its effect on the internal
efficiency of educational systems. In addition, it is one of the key indicators for analysing and projecting
pupil flows from grade to grade within an educational cycle.
Calculation method: Divide the number of repeaters in a given grade in school-year t+1 by the number
of pupils from the same cohort enrolled in the same grade in the previous school-year t.
Formula:
Where:
=Repetition Rate at grade i in school-year t.
=number of pupils repeating grade i, in school-year t+l.
=number of pupils enrolled in grade i, in school-year t.
Survival Rate By Grade
Definition:Percentage of a cohort of pupils (or students ) enrolled in the first grade of a given level or
cycle of education in a given school-year who are expected to reach each successive grades.
Purpose: Survival rate measures the holding power and internal efficiency of an education system. It
illustrates the situation regarding retention of pupils (or students ) from grade to grade in schools, and
conversely the magnitude of drop-out by grade.
Calculation method: Divide the total number of pupils belonging to a school-cohort who reached each
successive grade of the specified level of education by the number of pupils in the school-cohort i.e. those
originally enrolled in the first grade of the same level of education, and multiply the result by 100.
Formula:
Where:
i = grade (1, 2, 3,…,n) t = year (1, 2, 3, …,m) g = pupil-cohort.
=Survival Rate of pupil-cohort g at gradei for a reference year k.
=Total number of pupils belonging to a cohort g at a reference year k.
=Promotees from
who would join successive grades i throughout successive years t .
=Number of pupils repeating grade i in school-year t .
Years-Input Per Graduate
Definition:The estimated average number of pupil-years spent by pupils (or students) from a given
cohort who graduate from a given cycle or level of education, taking into account the pupil-years wasted
due to drop-out and repetition. N.B. One school-year spent in a grade by a pupil is equal to one pupilyear.
Purpose: To assess the extent of educational internal efficiency in terms of the estimated average
number of years to be invested in producing a graduate.
Calculation method: Divide the total number of pupil-years spent by a pupil-cohort (graduates plus
drop-outs) in the specified level of education by the sum of successive batch of graduates belonging to the
same cohort.
Formula:
For more details, see the flow diagram on cohort analysis.
Where:
=Years input per graduate (for graduates belonging to cohort g).
=Graduates from cohort g after j years of study.
k= number of grade (or duration) in the cycle.
k denotes the number of repetitions allowed; n the prescribed normal duration of study for a cycle or level
of education; g the pupil-cohort; and j the number of years of study.