Interpretation: The higher the number of out-of-school children, the greater the need to focus on achieving universal primary education. Some children of primary school-age who have never been in school may or may not eventually enroll as late entrants. Other children may have initially enrolled but dropped out before reaching the ‘official’ age of primary completion. When disaggregated by geographical location, this indicator can identify areas needing the greatest efforts. Policies can also focus efforts on priority population groups or a particular gender.
Quality standards: Enrolment count should include all types of schools and education institutions, including public, private and all other institutions that provide organized educational programs.
Limitations: Discrepancies between enrolment and population data coming from different sources may not give the exact magnitude of out-of-school children.
Promotion Rate by Grade
Definition: Proportion of pupils from a cohort enrolled in a given grade at a given school year who study in the next grade in the following school year.
Purpose: To measure the performance of the education system in promoting pupils from a cohort from grade to grade, and its effect on the internal efficiency of educational systems. It is also a key indicator for analyzing and projecting pupil flows from grade to grade within the educational cycle.
Calculation method: Divide the number of new enrolments in a given grade in school year t+1 by the number of pupils from the same cohort enrolled in the preceding grade in the previous school year t.
Data required: Enrolment by grade for school year t and enrolment and number of repeaters by grade for year t+1.
Data source: School register, school survey or census for data on enrolment and repeaters by grade.
Type of disaggregation: By grade, gender, geographical location (regions, urban/rural) and type of institution (public/private).
Interpretation: Ideally, the rate should approach 100%; a high rate reflects high internal efficiency of the educational system. When compared across grades, the patterns can indicate specific grades for which there is low promotion.