Summary

GENDER SUMMARY
EDUCATION FOR ALL GLOBAL MONITORING REPORT 2015
Figure 8: While girls are less likely to enrol in school, boys are more likely to leave early
Gender parity index of the primary gross intake rate and survival rate to grade 5 of primary school, 2011 and 2012
1.25
1.20
1.15
1.10
Survival
Intake
Gender parity index
1.05
1.00
0.95
0.90
Gender
parity
0.85
0.80
0.75
C. A. R.
Chad
Eritrea
Guinea
Cameroon
Côte d’Ivoire
Niger
D. R. Congo
Mali
Benin
Burkina Faso
Lesotho
Cabo Verde
Djibouti
Mozambique
Cambodia
Lebanon
Dominican Rep.
Colombia
Burundi
Togo
Saint Lucia
Lao PDR
Sudan
Paraguay
Honduras
Mauritius
Mongolia
Venezuela, B. R.
Rwanda
Timor-Leste
El Salvador
Bhutan
Algeria
Solomon Is
Myanmar
Turkey
Iran, Isl. Rep.
Ecuador
Guatemala
Tunisia
Bolivia, P. S.
Morocco
Sri Lanka
Peru
Bangladesh
Madagascar
Belize
Argentina
Costa Rica
Georgia
Mexico
U. R. Tanzania
Ghana
Namibia
Uganda
Cuba
Fiji
Jordan
Zambia
Dominica
Samoa
Seychelles
Malawi
Nepal
Senegal
Gambia
Guyana
Notes: The figure excludes high income countries. A GPI below 0.97 denotes disparity at the expense of females while one above 1.03 denotes disparity at the expense of males.
Sources: UIS database.
Myanmar and the United Republic of Tanzania, no
gender gap exists in intake rates but fewer boys
than girls survive to grade 5, indicating boys are
relatively more likely to drop out.
Poverty deepens gender disparities in attainment
of primary education
Using the primary attainment rate as a measure
of school completion, which includes all schoolage
children in a population rather than just those
enrolled in school, it can be seen that gender
disparity is often far wider among the poorest
children than the richest (Figure 9). In countries,
including the Lao People’s Democratic Republic,
Mozambique and Uganda, where gender parity in
primary attainment has been achieved since 2000
among the richest children, primary attainment of
the poorest girls is still below that of the poorest
boys. In the Lao People’s Democratic Republic,
the proportion of the richest girls who attained full
primary education rose from 88 per 100 boys in 2000
to parity in 2010, while that of the poorest girls fell
from 77 to 70 per 100 boys.
Countries including Brazil, the Dominican Republic
and Nicaragua, where primary attainment was
particularly low among the poorest boys in
2000, have since experienced progress towards
gender parity. Yet in countries including Haiti and
Zimbabwe, wide disparities have emerged, with the
poorest boys now less likely than the poorest girls to
complete primary education.
Strategies to address the emergence of low primary
attainment among poorer boys need to tackle why
boys drop out of school. Meanwhile, countries
seeking to improve overall attainment for girls
must redouble their efforts to ensure that girls,
particularly those who are poor and disadvantaged,
enter school in the first place, and address specific
barriers girls face once in school, as discussed
below. Careful examination of patterns at the point
of entry to primary school and in all subsequent
grades is required to ensure equitable participation
and completion of primary education for both
girls and boys.
Gender disparity is wider and more varied in
secondary education
Participation in lower and upper secondary
education, particularly in poorer countries, has
increased since 1999 as a result of improved
transition rates from primary to secondary
schooling and higher retention rates. Between 1999
and 2012, enrolment in secondary education overall
increased by 27% globally, and girls accounted for
nearly 52% of this increase.
Globally, this translates to a reduction in gender
disparity from 91 girls enrolled for every 100 boys
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