literacy for life; EFA global monitoring report, 2006 - Institut de ...

EFA PROGRESS: WHERE DO WE STAND? / 39
of children from birth up to their entrance in
primary school. The provision of ECCE varies
greatly among countries in terms of content, age
groups covered, duration in years and number of
hours attended. It has yet to become a public
policy priority in some countries, which see it as a
domain for private initiative. By contrast, at least
one year of pre-primary education is compulsory
in countries as diverse as Denmark, Israel, Latvia,
Myanmar, the Netherlands, the Republic of
Moldova and ten Latin American and Caribbean
nations (see Umayahara, 2005, and UNESCO-
OREALC, 2004).
Monitoring ECCE
The education component of ECCE programmes
discussed here is based on pre-primary education
data that have been included in UNESCO’s
surveys of education since the late 1950s. Preprimary
education is defined as level 0 of the
International Standard Classification of Education 2
(ISCED) and is normally designed for children
aged 3 and above. It constitutes the formal
component of ECCE. Monitoring the childhood
care component of ECCE is more difficult, as data
are scarce. This section focuses on changes in
participation in pre-primary education between
1998 and 2002, complementing the discussion of
quality in ECCE programmes in the 2005 Report
and paving the way for a comprehensive analysis
of ECCE, which will be the theme of the 2007
Report.
Participation in pre-primary education
Participation in pre-primary education varies
widely both among and within the EFA regions.
Figure 2.1, displaying gross enrolment ratios
(GERs) and net enrolment ratios (NERs),
demonstrates this point. The GER is the ratio of
all children enrolled at a given level of education
to the population of children in the age range
typically covered by that level (e.g. ages 3-5 for
pre-primary and 6-11 for primary education).
Because it includes younger children who enrol
early and older children who enrol late or repeat
grades, it can exceed 100%. The NER takes into
account only children in the official age range.
Pre-primary education is well developed in
most North American and European countries
and in several countries of Latin America and the
Caribbean and of East Asia and the Pacific. By
contrast, it is underdeveloped in sub-Saharan
Africa, where the median GER is below 10%, and
in the Arab States (median GER about 18%),
Central Asia (29%) and South and West Asia (32%)
(see statistical annex, Table 3).
Progress between 1998 and 2002 was limited
(Figure 2.2). The GER even decreased significantly
in several countries, notably Bangladesh, Brunei
Darussalam, Iraq, Kuwait, Morocco and the
Palestinian Autonomous Territories. On the
positive side, sharp increases in the GER (by more
than ten percentage points) were observed in
countries as diverse as the Islamic Republic of
Iran, Panama, Papua New Guinea and the United
Participation
in pre-primary
education varies
widely both among
and within the
EFA regions
2. See glossary
for explanation.
Latin America and the Caribbean
North America and
Western Europe
Central and
Eastern Europe
140
120
100
80
60
40
20
0
Suriname
Aruba
Jamaica
Grenada
Barbados
Neth. Antilles
Br. Virgin Is
Turks/Caicos Is
Mexico
Montserrat
Ecuador
Argentina
Peru
Trinidad/Tobago
Panama
Brazil
Dominica
Venezuela
Saint Lucia
Uruguay
El Salvador
Costa Rica
Bermuda
Bolivia
Colombia
Chile
Dominican Rep.
Belize
Nicaragua
Paraguay
Guatemala
Bahamas
Honduras
Denmark
Iceland
Netherlands
Malta
Germany
Norway
Sweden
Switzerland
United Kingdom
Luxembourg
Austria
Portugal
Greece
Canada
Cyprus
Finland
United States
Enrolment ratios (%)
Belarus
Estonia
Czech Rep.
Hungary
Romania
Latvia
Bulgaria
Slovakia
Slovenia
Lithuania
Poland
Albania
Croatia
Rep. Moldova
Serbia/Montenegro
Ukraine
TFYR Macedonia
NER
GER