Global Education Digest 2012 - International Reading Association

SECTION 2 / Learning achievement: Differing policies and practices regarding grade repetition
Africa had repetition rates exceeding 20%, compared
to only 6 countries in 2009. In particular, the following
countries have reduced their rates by more than 10
percentage points: Cameroon, Congo, Ethiopia,
Madagascar, Mozambique and Rwanda.
However, primary education repetition rates remain
very high in Burundi (36%), Togo (23%), Chad (23%),
Central African Republic (23%) and Congo (23%).
In contrast, rates are low in the United Republic of
Tanzania (2%), Mauritius (3%), Ghana (4%), Ethiopia
(4%) and Niger (4%). In Nigeria and Seychelles,
the rates are nil due to the practice of automatic
promotion.
Across the region, boys are slightly more likely
to repeat than girls. However, the gender gap
widens in countries such as Lesotho, where 23%
of boys repeat a primary grade compared to
17% of girls. Male repetition rates at this level of
education are about four percentage points higher
than that of girls in Cape Verde, Lesotho, Namibia
and Swaziland. However, the opposite is found
in the Central African Republic, where 23% of
girls enrolled in primary education repeat a grade
compared to 22% of boys.
Repetition rates for lower secondary education have
also been falling across the region over the last
decade. Yet, there is considerable variation at the
country level, where these rates ranged between 2%
in the United Republic of Tanzania to 30% in Burkina
Faso in 2009.
FIGURE 8
How do trends in grade repetition and enrolment in lower secondary education
compare across regions?
Repeaters and enrolment in lower secondary education (general programmes) by region, 2000,
2005 and 2010
280
304 310
Enrolment Repeaters Percentage of repeaters
200
Enrolment (in millions)
100
0
15
13.8 13.6
14.1
15
Repeaters (in millions)
10
5
10
5
Percentage of repeaters
0
2000
2005
2010
2000
2005
2010
2000
2005
2010
2000
2005
2010
2000
2005
2010
2000
2005
2010
2000
2005
2010
2000
2005
2010
2000
2005
2010
0
WORLD
Latin America
and the
Caribbean
South and
West Asia
Sub-Saharan
Africa
Arab States
North America
and Western
Europe
East Asia
and the
Pacific
Central and
Eastern
Europe
Central Asia
Note: Regions are ranked by the number of repeaters in 2010.
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics database.
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