people and planet

10
TABLE 10.3:
Completion rates by education level, income group, sex and wealth, 2008–2014 (%)
Primary Lower secondary Upper secondary
Low income
countries
Lower middle
income countries
Upper middle
income countries
Low income
countries
Lower middle
income countries
Upper middle
income countries
Low income
countries
Lower middle
income countries
Upper middle
income countries
Total 51 84 92 27 68 79 14 38 43 84
Female 49 83 93 24 67 80 12 36 44 87
Male 53 84 90 31 70 77 18 40 43 82
Poorest 20% 28 69 86 10 50 63 2 20 27 76
Female 25 67 87 7 47 65 1 17 29 79
Male 30 71 85 13 52 60 4 23 23 75
Richest 20% 77 95 96 52 88 87 34 66 60 93
Female 75 96 95 48 88 91 30 67 60 95
Male 79 95 96 58 88 84 39 65 60 91
Source: GEM Report team analysis using household surveys.
High income
countries
The lower secondary completion rate is 27% in low
income, 68% in lower middle income and 79% in upper
middle income countries. Only half of the poorest
adolescents, but
88% of the richest,
complete lower
In 2008–2014, the
secondary education
primary completion rate in lower middle
income countries.
was 51% in low income
countries, 84% in lower
The upper secondary
middle income countries completion rate is
14% in low income,
and 92% in upper middle
38% in lower middle
income countries
income, 43% in upper
middle income and
84% in high income
countries. Only 20% of the poorest youth, but 66% of the
richest, complete upper secondary education in lower
middle income countries. Not even the richest in high
income countries (93%) achieve universal completion.
Just 1% of the poorest girls in low income countries
complete upper secondary school.
Given that the target is universal primary and secondary
completion by 2030, current evidence suggests the scale
of this ambition is unattainable. Out of 125 countries,
in only 64 have at least half of young people completed
upper secondary school. In 15 countries, fewer than half
of children have completed primary school (Figure 10.4).
In short, there is a long way to go to ensure that every
child completes 12 years of primary and secondary
education. Out of 90 low and middle income countries,
20- to 24-year-olds had attained at least of 12 years
of education, on average, in only 10. The richest had
attained at least 12 years of education in 36 countries
but the poorest only in Kazakhstan and Ukraine. In more
than half the countries, the average attainment of the
poorest was fewer than six years. In Nigeria, the richest
youth attained 12.2 years, the poorest only 1.7 years, on
average. In Burkina Faso, Mali, Niger and South Sudan,
the poorest youth attained an average of less than one
year of education (Figure 10.5).
COMPULSORY AND FREE
EDUCATION
The Education 2030 Framework for Action, adopted
by over 180 countries, committed countries to ‘ensure
the provision of 12 years of free, publicly funded,
equitable quality primary and secondary education, of
which at least nine years are compulsory’. Thus, one
of the proposed thematic indicators is the number
of years of (a) free and (b) compulsory primary and
secondary education guaranteed in legal frameworks.
The main source of information for this indicator is the
UIS database, complemented where necessary with
constitutional, legislative and policy documentation
from the Eurydice network, the International Bureau of
Education and national education ministries.
Out of the 191 countries with data on compulsory
education, 44 (23%) require fewer than 9 years
(Figure 10.6), ranging from 52% of low income countries
to 7% of high income countries.
While the median number of years of compulsory
education is 9, the median for free education is 11 years.
However, even if fees are abolished, education is not free
when related costs burden families. National education
2016 • GLOBAL EDUCATION MONITORING REPORT 185