people and planet

10
FIGURE 10.6:
In almost one-quarter of countries, education is
compulsory for fewer than nine years
Number of countries by years of compulsory primary and
secondary education, 2014
70
60
50
Countries
40
30
Primary
Lower secondary
Upper secondary
20
10
Netherlands
Malta
Peru
Serbia
TFYR Macedonia
Germany
Jamaica
Estonia
Saint Lucia
Kyrgyzstan
Belgium
Romania
Latvia
Poland
France
Italy
Belarus
Bulgaria
Austria
Finland
Montenegro
Australia
Hungary
Canada
Russian Fed.
Israel
Slovenia
Czech Rep.
Lithuania
United States
Sweden
Cyprus
Greece
Slovakia
Barbados
Armenia
Kazakhstan
Croatia
Ukraine
Georgia
0
No
data
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Years of compulsory education
Source: UIS database; Eurydice network; UNESCO International Bureau of
Education; and national education ministries.
accounts, which capture the share of total education
expenditure borne by households, will be a strong
indication of the extent to which education is free (see
Chapter 20).
The growth in private schooling in education provision
in some countries threatens national commitments
to free education. The share of private institutions in
total enrolment was 13% in primary education in 2014,
up from 10% in 2000. Across regions, it ranged from 1%
in Caucasus and Central Asia to 19% in Latin America
and the Caribbean. At the secondary level, the share
increased from 19% in 2000 to 25% in 2014, ranging from
3% in Caucasus and Central Asia to 28% in South-eastern
Asia and 47% in Southern Asia. Differences are apparent
within regions. In Latin America, the share of private
primary enrolment doubled from 13% to 27% in Peru
but was constant at about 8% in Mexico. Information
is missing for many countries, while not all forms of
private schooling are systematically captured. No
regional average of the share of private institutions in
primary education is available in Southern Asia, where
privatization is known to be above the global average, as
shown below.
Household surveys are a complementary data source.
According to 2008–2011 surveys, about 27% of children of
primary school age attended private schools in Southern
Asia, driven by India where 26% of primary school-age
children attended private schools in 2009/10. In Nepal,
18% of 6- to 10-year old students attended private school
in 2009/10. The share ranged from 5% among the poorest
quintile of the population to 56% among the richest
(Dahal and Nguyen, 2014).
Similar analysis of 16 sub-Saharan African countries
suggests that administrative data tend to underestimate
the share of private school enrolment, especially in
countries where the private sector is expanding and
some schools operate without official recognition
(Wodon, 2014). In Nigeria, private schools accounted
for 5% of primary enrolment in 2005 and 8% in 2010,
according to the UIS. Yet survey data indicate the share
was already 13% in 2004 and reached 24% by 2015
(Nigeria NPC and ORC Macro, 2004; Nigeria NPC and RTI
International, 2016).
That said, if the main objective is to monitor the extent
to which the increase in private education threatens
fulfilment of the right to education, not all private
2016 • GLOBAL EDUCATION MONITORING REPORT 187