Global Education Digest 2012 - International Reading Association

OPPORTUNITIES LOST: THE IMPACT OF GRADE REPETITION AND EARLY SCHOOL LEAVING
Economic data
Data on economic indicators such as gross domestic product (GDP) and purchasing power parity (PPP) are
based on the World Bank’s World Development Indicators database of April 2012. For a small group of countries
where World Bank estimates are not available, data are obtained from the United Nations Statistics Division
(UNSD).
Economic-based indicators are listed as missing (…) when economic data are not available or not considered
reliable.
TECHNICAL NOTES
Education data and indicators
Regional averages are based on publishable data, as well as imputed values for missing or unpublishable data
for each country within a given region.
Where the publishable data represent between 33% and 60% of the relevant population, the regional average is
marked with the symbol **.
Where the publishable data represent less than 33% of the regional population, the average is not published.
Where the publishable data represent 60% or more of the original population, the average is considered as
observed.
Where data inconsistencies result in an indicator exceeding its theoretical maximum (e.g. 100% in the case of
the net enrolment rate), it is “capped” in such a way as to maintain the same ratio between male and female
values (see Annex A).
Due to rounding, gender parity indices (GPI) may differ from those based directly on the published values of
indicators. Similarly, totals may not always be the sum of their component parts.
The percentage of females (% F) is included to provide information on the proportion of women in a given
population (e.g. enrolment, graduates or teachers). For assessing gender parity, a more relevant measure is the
GPI.
Education finance
Expenditure on pre-primary education or from international sources – both of which are often comparatively
small – have been treated as negligible in cases where data were in fact missing. In these cases, total education
expenditure may be underestimated.
Educational attainment
Data on educational attainment are presented by ISCED level. In addition to the categories related to completed
education levels, three other columns are presented in Table 15:
••
“No schooling” refers to the percentage of the population without any formal schooling;
••
“Incomplete primary” refers to the percentage of the population that has attended primary education but not
completed the level; and
••
“Unknown” refers to the percentage of the population for which the educational level could not be
determined.
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