Global Education Digest 2012 - International Reading Association

SECTION 2 / Learning achievement: Differing policies and practices regarding grade repetition
America and the Caribbean, and the Pacific. Former
French colonies in Africa, for example, tend to follow
the French tradition whereby repetition is applied
to students who fail to make the grade. In North
America, education systems also use repetition
(Labé, 2010).
Repetition is often considered to be a good solution
if learning objectives for that grade level are not
achieved. Usually, repeaters are identified at the
classroom level. The decision to repeat can be taken
unilaterally by the classroom teacher – as in the case
of many developing countries – or after consultation
with the student’s parents, in countries such as
Belgium, France, Switzerland and the United States.
In some West African countries, school principals or
inspectors may also influence the decision.
may also be a ‘culture of repetition’ whereby teachers
tend to fail each year a given proportion of less
performing students irrespective of their learning level
(Crahay, 2007; Labé, 2010).
Learning achievement is not the only criteria for
repetition. A student can also be held back due to
insufficient social or physical maturity in the early
grades of schooling. Moreover, in some cases
students are not promoted simply because the
schools that they attend do not have upper grades or
lack sufficient places to accommodate them.
While accurate data on repetition are essential for
effective educational planning and policy design,
official statistics often under-report the actual
prevalence of repetition due to several factors.
However, the lack of national norms and regulations
has led many experts to argue that these decisions
are based on vague and theoretical learning
standards (UNESCO/IIEP, 1997; Crahay, 2007). In
many cases the decision is based on the teacher’s
evaluation of the student and not necessarily on the
student’s performance on a national or standardised
examination. So the same student may be promoted
by one teacher but held back to repeat a grade by
another teacher. In some countries or schools there
First, the lack of clearly defined concepts of repetition
and sound regulatory mechanisms lead to different
interpretations and standards used at the school
and classroom levels. Students who left or changed
schools during an academic year and enrol in the
same grade the following year are often not counted
as repeaters (Schiefelbein and Wolff, 1992). This
situation is common in developing countries where
the education system is not always equipped to track
these students.
BOX 1. Two key indicators to better examine grade repetition
The two most commonly used indicators for measuring repetition are the repetition rate and the
percentage of repeaters.
The repetition rate represents the proportion of students from a cohort enrolled in a given grade for the
reference academic year who will be in the same grade in the following academic year. It is calculated
at the end of the academic year and is usually based on administrative data. This indicator can be
used to evaluate the internal efficiency of education systems and to project student flows from grade
to grade within the education cycle.
The percentage of repeaters measures the extent and pattern of repetition by grade. It is defined as
the share of repeaters among the total number of students enrolled in a given grade for a reference
academic year. For academic year Y+1, total enrolment in grade X+1 is comprised of new entrants to
that grade (students promoted from grade X at the end of academic year Y) and repeaters that exist in
grade X+1 (i.e. students enrolled in grade X+1 for a second year or more). The percentage of repeaters
is usually calculated at the beginning of the academic year.
For analytical purposes, it is important to note that the repetition rate at grade X refers to academic
year Y, whereas the percentage of repeaters refers to the following academic year (Y+1).
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