MODFL/Mainstream/Out of school children

According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS), about 258 million children and youth were out of school by the school year ending in 2018. The total includes 59 million children of primary school age, 62 million children of lower secondary school age and 138 million of upper secondary age¹ . As countries strive to achieve universal primary and secondary education by 2030, it is important for all stakeholders in countries, including teachers, to reach the children and youth who remain excluded from education. This requires innovation and adopting strategies that are appropriate and effective in particular contexts. First and foremost, it requires planners to collect accurate data on out-of-school children and youth, to make it possible to better identify who they are, where they live and the barriers they face.

Activity 1

This activity should take you about 25 – 30 minutes to complete.

If you are from one of the nine Pacific Island countries, read about the status of education in your country in the resource: Out-of-School Children: A Contemporary View from the Pacific Island Countries of the Commonwealth. The resource is accessible on the following link: https://oasis.col.org/items/c95e2029-b542-4a3f-8a9b-852049190e66 If you are not from one of the nine Pacific countries, you can choose any of the Pacific countries covered in the resource and read about it or search for some data linked to your own country. After reading through your country section, answer the following questions to help draw your attention to pertinent aspects of education access in your country. You don’t have to read the whole resource; you just need to focus on one country. The contents table on page (v) helps you identify the relevant pages.

1. What is the trend in terms of number of children out of school from year to year in the country you read about?
2. What is the trend of out-of-primary-school children by gender?
3. List three main causes of school drop-out in your country.
4. Post in the discussion forum measures your government is taking to get out–of-school children and youth to participate in education.

Click here to post your thoughts

Hint on how to interpret UNESCO data

In reporting education participation data, UNESCO uses terms like Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) and Nett Enrolment Ratio (NER). GER refers to the total enrolment within a country at a specific level of education (like primary school or secondary school), regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the population in the official age group for that level of education. Thus, with GER, one looks at all learners enrolled in a system irrespective of their age. GER can be over 100% because it takes into account learners who are repeating a grade, those who enrolled late and are older than their classmates, or those who have advanced quickly and are younger than their classmates. Thus, total enrolment can exceed population of learners in a country who are eligible for that level of education.

Net Enrolment Ratio (NER) refers to the number of children of the official school age who are enrolled at a specific level of education (like primary school or secondary school) expressed as a percentage of the population of the corresponding official school age. Thus, NER takes into account only learners of the official correct age group enrolled in a system compared to the population of the eligible group.

Examples

GER: If there are 10 000 learners of the official school-age in a country and 12000 learners are enrolled in the school system, then the GER is 12000/10 000 X 100 = 120%.

So, to calculate GER, you divide the number of students enrolled in the school system regardless of age by the population of the age group which officially corresponds to school education and multiply by 100.

Formula for GER: Total school enrolment/school age population X 100

NER: If there are 10 000 learners of the official school –age in a country and 7 500 of the same age group is enrolled in school, the NER is 7500/10 000 X 100 = 75%.

So, to calculate NER, you divide the number of pupils enrolled in the school system who are of the official school age by the population for the same age-group and multiply the result by 100.

Formula for calculating NER: Total enrolment of school age learners/school age population X100

Hopefully, this helps you understand these concepts in the resource you read in Activity 1 above.

Feedback and comment on Activity 1

Your answers to Activity 1 could have been as follows:

1. In all the nine Pacific countries, there are increasing numbers of children who are out of school. In some countries, the problem is more acute at secondary than at primary school level.
2. Generally, there are more girls out of school than boys. Check if indeed this is the case with the country you read about.
3. There are many causes of school drop-out and Figure 2 on page 11 of the resource you read in Activity 1 gives most of the reasons. Examples of reasons given on that page include natural hazards, poverty, poor quality of schools, inadequate facilities, teacher absenteeism, teacher shortages, misperceptions about education, lack of options to access secondary education and beyond (because of, for example, lack of flexible hours of attendance).