people and planet

11
considering a comparable age group. Its median value
does not differ from that of the gross enrolment ratio.
Ideally, this would be true for all countries, in which case
the pair of values for the two indicators would lie on the
diagonal line (Figure 11.1).
But the values for individual countries can vary
considerably, e.g. the pre-primary gross enrolment ratio
for 4- to 5-year-olds in Costa Rica was 53% but the net
enrolment ratio among 5-year-olds, the last year of preprimary
education, was 93%. This suggests that almost
all 5-year-olds are enrolled in pre-primary education but
many 4-year-olds are not.
Discrepancies are also observed in the opposite
direction. The pre-primary gross enrolment ratio for
Ireland was 108% but the net enrolment ratio among
4-year-olds, the last year of pre-primary education,
was 58%. This is because a considerable proportion
of 4-year-olds are already enrolled in primary school,
which means the official pre-primary education age
group does not capture actual national enrolment
patterns (OECD, 2015b).
The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) recently
developed an extension of this indicator. Called the
adjusted net enrolment ratio, it captures the number
FIGURE 11.1:
Similar indicators of pre-primary education participation give different
results in many countries
Pre-primary gross enrolment ratio and net enrolment ratio in the last year of
pre-primary education, 2014
Net enrolment ratio, last year of
pre-primary education (%)
100
80
60
40
20
0
0
Source: UIS database.
Paraguay
Honduras
Costa Rica
Ecuador
20 40 60 80 100
Pre-primary gross enrolment ratio (%)
Switzerland
Ireland
U. A. Emirates
120 140
of children one year younger than the primary school
entrance age who are enrolled in pre-primary or
primary education as a percentage of the population
of that age group. Globally, data from 135 countries
show the adjusted net enrolment ratio to be equal to
67%. This indicator is being used as a proxy for global
indicator 4.2.2.
Another indicator – the percentage of new entrants to
the first grade of primary school who have participated
in any early childhood education programmes – directly
measures whether children have attended at least one
year of pre-primary education. However, there are two
approaches to getting the answer.
The first is based on school reporting. Overall, for
the 67 countries with data on all three indicators, the
average percentage of new primary school entrants
who had apparently participated in an early childhood
programme was 15 percentage points higher than the
net enrolment ratio in the last year of pre-primary
school. This could suggest that primary schools
exaggerate the extent to which their students attended
early childhood education, though more evidence is
needed to substantiate that explanation.
The second approach is based on direct household
reporting through, for instance, the UNICEF Multiple
Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS), which collects
systematic retrospective information on students in
the first grade of primary school who had participated
in pre-primary education the previous year. As this
reflects direct responses from parents, it can serve as
a standard against which to compare other potential
proxy indicators for global indicator 4.2.2 based on
administrative data, such as the net and adjusted net
enrolment ratio.
Such a comparison is possible for 38 countries with data
over 2010–2015. The median proportion of children in
the first grade whose parents reported their attendance
in pre-primary school the previous year was around
77%. This compares with a median net enrolment ratio
for these countries of 59%, and a median adjusted net
enrolment ratio of 80%. Thus it appears that the adjusted
net enrolment ratio provides a more accurate picture of
the percentage of children who participated in organized
learning one year before the official primary entry age.
However, it is important to note there can be significant
differences for individual countries; e.g. in Mali the net
enrolment ratio was 1% and the adjusted net enrolment
208
CHAPTER 11 | TARGET 4.2 – EARLY CHILDHOOD