SHAPING THE FUTURE HOW CHANGING DEMOGRAPHICS CAN POWER HUMAN DEVELOPMENT

percent in 2013, while the Pacific has attained
only 30 percent. Only a handful of Asia-Pacific
countries, such as Australia, Japan, Marshall
Islands, New Zealand, Republic of Korea, Sri
Lanka and Tokelau, have achieved universal
secondary education.
Globally, the number of adolescents who are
not in secondary school has fallen significantly
from 98.8 million in 1999 to 65 million in 2013,
largely due to progress in East Asia, where the
number dropped from 15 million to 3 million,
and South Asia, from 38 million to 26 million.
Overall, Asia-Pacific accounts for 82 percent of
the global reduction. Even so, about 26 percent
of all out-of-school adolescents live in South
Asia (Table 3.6).
An intensive focus on universal primary education
in some countries has limited attention to
issues of access, equity and quality of secondary
education, which varies across income groups,
gender, social groups and geography. Wealthier
children are more than twice as likely to be
enrolled as poorer children. Gender inequities
generally operate to the disadvantage of girls,
although a few countries in East Asia and the
Pacific now have more girls enrolled than boys
in secondary education—a reverse gender gap
(Box 3.3). In Bangladesh, Cook Islands, Nauru
and Samoa, fewer than 90 boys are enrolled for
every 100 girls; in Bhutan, China, Fiji, Kiribati,
Malaysia, Mongolia, Myanmar, Philippines,
Thailand and Viet Nam, the figure is about
BOX 3.3:
A new kind of gender disparity
TABLE 3.6:
The number of adolescents not in secondary
school has fallen, but South Asia still has
a large share
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics 2015.
90 to 96 boys for every 100 girls. 21 More boys
than girls are enrolled in secondary education
in Afghanistan, India, Lao People’s Democratic
Republic and Pakistan.
Parallel secondary school systems have
sprung up in a number of countries. One type,
mostly private, offers challenging and dynamic
In 17 Asia-Pacific
countries, boys
are disadvantaged
in secondary
enrolment and
learning achievement
Debates on gender issues in education have generally
focussed on girls’ disadvantages. The emergence
of boys’ disadvantages in terms of enrolment
and learning achievement in secondary education
adds a new dimension. The reverse gender gap
has been evident in developed countries since the
1990s, and is becoming increasingly common in
some middle-income and low-income countries.
Over the years, the number of countries experiencing
this trend has grown, and the gaps have
widened. There are 54 countries where the gross
enrolment ratio in secondary education favours
girls, and 17 where there are fewer than 90 boys
for every 100 girls. While Bangladesh is the sole
low-income country experiencing this phenomenon,
there are 17 lower-middle-income countries
on the list. Among all such countries, 21 are in Latin
America and the Caribbean, and 17 in Asia-Pacific.
Male disadvantage in education is complex and not
well documented. Strategies that work at primary
level are not necessarily effective at secondary
level, as expectations vary among age groups.
Source: Jha, Bakshi and Faria 2012.
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