Africa/Global: Unesco report details secondary education trends

UNESCO Press release
Editorial Contact: Sue Williams, Press Relations Section, tel. +33 (0)1 45
68 17 06

29-04-2005 12:00 pm Four out of every five of the world?s children aged
between 10 and 15 are today enrolled in lower secondary education, which
is now considered as part of compulsory education in most countries,
according to UNESCO?s Global Education Digest 2005. The Digest, published
by UNESCO?s Institute for Statistics, presents the latest global education
indicators. This year?s edition also features a special chapter on trends
in participation and gender parity in secondary education.

The Digest shows that secondary education is expanding rapidly worldwide,
with enrolments increasing from 321 million in 1990 to 492 million in
2002/03. The fastest growth has occurred in South America which, along
with Europe, now enjoys the world?s highest gross enrolment ratios at this
level, at almost 100 percent. North America, East Asia and Oceania follow
with enrolment ratios of over 90 percent. The figures drop sharply for
West Asia, where lower secondary pupils represent 69 percent of the
school-age population. It drops further still for Africa where, although
enrolments at secondary level having been increasing by five percent
annually since 1998, the lower secondary ratio is still only 45 percent.

At the upper secondary level, according to the Digest, the global gross
enrolment ratios stand at only 51 percent. Europe is the exception, with
enrolment rates exceeding 100 percent, due to young people enrolling in
multiple programmes. In the Americas, 70 percent of young adults are
enrolled in upper secondary courses, followed by East Asia with 48 percent
and West Asia with 40 percent. The enrolment ratio is lowest in Africa,
with only 29 percent of young adults in upper secondary education.

The Digest also looks at gender parity in secondary education. Reaching
equal opportunity in access to education is an important component of
internationa goals. The first time-bound Education for All and Millenium
Development Goals require that girls and boys should have equal access to
primary and secondary education by 2005.

The Global Education Digest finds that, although there are signs of
progress at primary level, there is still a noticeable gap at secondary
level. Overall, gender parity on entry to lower secondary education has
been reached in 60 out of 133 countries reporting data. In 46 countries,
most of them in Africa and Asia, girls are less likely to enter lower
secondary school than boys. The opposite is true in 27 countries.

At the upper secondary level, the disparities are far more pronounced,
with only 13 percent of children of the relevant school-age living in
countries where gender parity has been achieved.

Despite the regional differences, the Digest concludes that the overall
trend is one of strong, continuing growth at secondary level, and
improving gender parity in most countries, fuelled by increasing demand
and facilitated by a slow-down in world population growth.

Global Education Digest:

http://www.uis.unesco.org/template/pdf/ged/2005/ged2005_en.pdf