Global Education Digest 2012 - International Reading Association

OPPORTUNITIES LOST: THE IMPACT OF GRADE REPETITION AND EARLY SCHOOL LEAVING
List of figures
Figure 1. How many primary school-age children are out of school? 10
Figure 2. At what age are children meant to begin compulsory education? 12
Figure 3. How many years are children required to stay in compulsory education? 13
Figure 4. To what extent are children enrolled in compulsory lower secondary education? 14
Figure 5. How prevalent are over-age children in primary education? 15
Figure 6. How many years can a child entering school expect to stay in school? 20
Figure 7. How do trends in grade repetition and enrolment in primary education compare
across regions? 21
Figure 8. How do trends in grade repetition and enrolment in lower secondary education
compare across regions? 22
Figure 9. High but declining repetition rates in sub-Saharan Africa 23
Figure 10. How has grade repetition changed in South and West Asia? 25
Figure 11. How has grade repetition changed in Latin America and the Caribbean? 26
Figure 12. Which grades do children repeat most often? 28
Figure 13. Pupils from poor and rural households are much more likely to repeat 29
Figure 14. Disparities in repetition rates are highest at the primary education level 31
Figure 15. How has early school leaving changed in sub-Saharan Africa? 36
Figure 16. How has early school leaving changed in South and West Asia? 37
Figure 17. How has early school leaving changed in Latin America and the Caribbean? 38
Figure 18. At which grade do children leave school? 39
Figure 19. How old are children who leave primary school early? 41
Figure 20. What share of youth completed primary and secondary education and what share
left school early? 42
Figure 21. How do household poverty and gender relate to the number of years of education students
complete before leaving school? 43
Figure 22. How do pupils perform in reading? 48
Figure 23. Are rates of grade repetition and early school leaving related? 53
Figure 24. How many years are spent repeating grades in primary and lower secondary education? 56
Figure 25. How large are primary school classes in sub-Saharan Africa? 59
List of tables
Table 1. How many children leave primary school before reaching the last grade? 34
Table 2. Are 2 nd to 4 th grade pupils learning to read? 46
Table 3. How many countries take part in cross-national studies of learning achievement? 47
List of boxes
Box 1. Two key indicators to better examine grade repetition 18
Box 2. What is the survival rate and how is it used to generate the dropout rate at the end of
primary education? 33
Box 3. Early school leaving in the European Union 35
Box 4. What universal reading skills should all children acquire by the end of primary education? 50
Box 5. New OECD estimates for the costs of grade repetition 55
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