The definitions presented here are based largely on those given by UNESCO.
Dropout Rate (DR) - Proportion of students from a cohort enrolled in a given school year who are no longer enrolled in the following school year.
Comments: Measures the phenomenon of students from a cohort leaving school without completion. Comparison of rates across grades/forms would point to those grades/forms in possible need of policy interventions.
Gender Parity Index (GPI) - The ratio of female to male of a given indicator.
Comments: GPI measures progress towards gender parity in education participation and/or learning opportunities available for females in relation to those available to males. It also reflects the level of women’s empowerment in society. A GPI equal to 1 indicates parity between females and males. In general, a value less than 1indicates disparity in favour of males and a value greater than 1 indicates disparity in favour of females.
Gross Enrolment Rate (GER) - Total enrolment in a specific level of education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the eligible official school age population (from Census data) corresponding to the same level of education in a given school year.
Comments: Measures the general level of participation in a given level of education. It indicates the capacity of the education system to enroll students of a particular age-group. It can be a complementary indicator to NER by indicating the extent of over-aged and under-aged enrolment. Values over 100% generally indicate significant over-age or under-age students enrolled.
Gross Intake Rate (GIR) to first grade of Primary - New entrants to the first grade of Primary, i.e. here, Kindergarten (regardless of age) expressed as a percentage of the recognised school age entrance population (age 5 yrs) as given by Census Data. This excludes students repeating Kindergarten.
Comments: Measures the general level of access to primary education. It indicates the capacity of the education system to provide access to Kindergarten for the official school-entrance age population (5 year olds).
Gross Primary Graduation Ratio (GPGR) - Total number of graduates from the last grade of primary education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the population at the theoretical graduation age for primary – for these countries, 11-years old.
Comments: Measures the general level of primary education graduation. As this calculation includes all graduates (regardless of age), the ratio can exceed 100%, due to over-aged and under-aged children who enter primary school for the first time early/late or/and repeat a grade. In some countries, the results of graduation might be driven by the availability of places in secondary education, so care should be taken in making comparisons.
Net Enrolment Rate (NER) - Enrolment of the official age-group for a given level of education expressed as a percentage of the corresponding population (from Census data).
Deffinition of key terms