Education for All regions

For monitoring of progress towards the six Education for All (EFA) goals, the world has been divided into eight EFA regions:

• North America and Western Europe
• Central and Eastern Europe
• Central Asia
• East Asia and the Pacific
• South and West Asia
• Arab States
• Sub-Saharan Africa
• Latin America and the Caribbean

These regions, shown in the map below, are used in publications like the EFA Global Monitoring Report by UNESCO or the Global Education Digest by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics.

Regions for monitoring of Education for All goals


Combined, the eight EFA regions cover 204 countries and territories. Two EFA regions - East Asia and the Pacific, and Latin America and the Caribbean - are further divided into two sub-regions.

Composition of EFA regions

• North America and Western Europe (26 countries and territories)
  Andorra, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Cyprus, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Monaco, Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, San Marino, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, United Kingdom, United States.
• Central and Eastern Europe (21 countries)
  Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Montenegro, Poland, Republic of Moldova, Romania, Russian Federation, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Turkey, Ukraine.
• Central Asia (9 countries)
  Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan.
• East Asia and the Pacific (33 countries and territories)
  East Asia (16 countries and territories)
  Brunei Darussalam, Cambodia, China, Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Indonesia, Japan, Lao People's Democratic Republic, Macao (China), Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Republic of Korea, Singapore, Thailand, Timor-Leste, Viet Nam.
  Pacific (17 countries and territories)
  Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Marshall Islands, Micronesia (Federated States of), Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Palau, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tokelau, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu.
• South and West Asia (9 countries)
  Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Iran (Islamic Republic of), Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka.
• Arab States (20 countries and territories)
  Algeria, Bahrain, Djibouti, Egypt, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Libyan Arab Jamahiriya, Mauritania, Morocco, Occupied Palestinian Territory, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, Syrian Arab Republic, Tunisia, United Arab Emirates, Yemen.
• Sub-Saharan Africa (45 countries)
  Angola, Benin, Botswana, Burkina Faso, Burundi, Cameroon, Cape Verde, Central African Republic, Chad, Comoros, Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Gabon, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea-Bissau, Kenya, Lesotho, Liberia, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Niger, Nigeria, Rwanda, Sao Tome and Principe, Senegal, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, Somalia, South Africa, Swaziland, Togo, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe.
• Latin America and the Caribbean (41 countries and territories)
  Latin America (19 countries)
  Argentina, Bolivia (Plurinational State of), Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Uruguay, Venezuela (Bolivarian Republic of).
  Caribbean (22 countries and territories)
  Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Aruba, Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, Bermuda, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Guyana, Haiti, Jamaica, Montserrat, Netherlands Antilles, Saint Kitts and Nevis, Saint Lucia, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines, Suriname, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands.

References

• UNESCO. 2011. EFA Global Monitoring Report 2011: The hidden crisis: Armed conflict and education. Paris: UNESCO. Annex, p. 269. (Download in PDF format, 6.4 MB)
• UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). 2010. Global education digest 2010: Comparing education statistics across the world. Montreal: UIS. Annex, p. 274-275. (Download in PDF format, 8 MB)

Related articles

• EFA Global Monitoring Report 2011
• Global Education Digest 2010
• Children out of school: Global trend 1999-2008
• Children of primary and secondary school age out of school
• Regional disparities in school life expectancy

External links

• Education for All (EFA)
• EFA goals
• UNESCO education
• UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)
• UIS Data Bentre

Friedrich Huebler, 26 March 2011, Creative Commons License
Permanent URL: http://huebler.blogspot.com/2011/03/efa.html

EFA Global Monitoring Report 2011

The Education for All Global Monitoring Report 2011 was released by UNESCO on 1 March 2011. This year's edition of this annual report has the title The hidden crisis: Armed conflict and education. The report documents the impact of violent conflict on education and the long-lasting negative effects on educational attainment and literacy.

Today, 28 million or over 40 percent of all children out of school (67 million worldwide) live in countries affected by conflict, although these countries are home to only 116 million or 18 percent of the global population of primary school age (653 million) (see Figure 1). (Only out-of-school children in low and lower-middle income conflict-affected countries were counted to arrive at the total of 28 million. In addition, for large countries like India, Indonesia, Nigeria and Pakistan, only children living in conflict-affected areas were included in the 28 million children affected by conflict.) In conflict areas, the out-of-school rate is around 24 percent, compared to 7 percent in other parts of the world. Children affected by armed conflict are thus more than three times as likely to be out of school as other children.

Conflict-affected countries also have some of the lowest levels of literacy. In these countries, only 79 percent of youth between 15 and 24 years and 69 percent of adults are literate, compared to 93 percent of youth and 85 percent of adults in other countries.

War does not only destroy lives and schools, it also diverts resources from education to military spending. The Global Monitoring Report documents how lack of access to education or exposure to the wrong kind of education can contribute to persistent inequality, prejudice and renewed armed conflict, a vicious cycle that is difficult to break.

Lastly, the Global Monitoring Report 2011 examines the role of development assistance in conflict-affected countries and argues for increased and more effective aid for the education sector.

Figure 1: Population of primary school age and children out of school in countries affected and not affected by armed conflict, 2008

Source: UNESCO 2011, pages 132, 308, 309; author's calculations.

Reference

• UNESCO. 2011. EFA Global Monitoring Report 2011: The hidden crisis: Armed conflict and education. Paris: UNESCO. (Download in PDF format, 6.4 MB)

External links

• EFA Global Monitoring Report website
• Announcement of the EFA Global Monitoring Report 2011 on the World Education Blog by the EFA GMR team
• Announcement of the EFA Global Monitoring Report 2011 on the website of the UNESCO Institute for Statistics

Related articles

• EFA Global Monitoring Report 2010
• EFA Global Monitoring Report 2009
• EFA Global Monitoring Report 2008
• Global Education Digest 2010

Friedrich Huebler, 6 March 2011 (edited 26 March 2011), Creative Commons License
Permanent URL: http://huebler.blogspot.com/2011/03/gmr.html

UIS time series with education data since 1970

The UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) has released new time series with education data for the years since 1970. Until this release, most indicators in the UIS Data Centre only had data for 1999 and later years, except for literacy, for which the UIS offered data for the period since 1975. The historical data are compliant with the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED) of 1997 and therefore comparable with existing post-1998 data in the UIS Data Centre.

With the new release, the UIS now offers data for the past 40 years for the following indicators:

• Entry age and duration of pre-primary, primary and secondary education
• School age population of pre-primary, primary, secondary and tertiary age
• Enrolment in pre-primary, primary, secondary and tertiary education
• Gross enrolment ratio (GER) for pre-primary, primary, secondary and tertiary education
• Net enrolment rate (NER) for primary education
• New entrants to primary education
• Gross intake ratio for primary education
• Repeaters in primary and secondary education
• Gross intake rate to the last grade of primary education
• School life expectancy
• Teaching staff in pre-primary, primary, secondary and tertiary education
• Pupil/teacher ratio in pre-primary, primary and secondary education

As an example for the expanded coverage, Figure 1 shows the gross enrolment ratio in primary education for China, India, Indonesia, Nigeria and the United States, the five countries with the largest population of primary school age in 2010, for the period 1970-2009. Figure 2 shows how school life expectancy evolved in these countries over the same period.

Figure 1: Gross enrolment ratio (GER) in primary education, 1970-2009

Source: UIS Data Centre, February 2011

Figure 2: School life expectancy, primary to tertiary education, 1970-2009

Source: UIS Data Centre, February 2011

The time series can be retrieved from the UIS Data Centre, under "Predefined Tables" and "Education". Data for the years 1970 to 1998 are in Tables 21 to 26, and data for 1999 and following years are in Tables 1 to 20H.

As an example, the primary GER in Figure 1 is available in Tables 5 (for 1970-1998) and 23 (for 1999-2009). To create a complete time series for 1970-2009, the data from Tables 5 and 23 must be merged after download from the Data Centre. Data on school life expectancy are in Tables 8 and 22.

Related articles

• Trends in adult literacy, 1990-2008
• Children out of school: Global trend 1999-2008
• Global Education Digest 2010
• UNESCO releases data from 2008 education survey
• Review of the International Standard Classification of Education (ISCED)

External links

• UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS)
• UIS Data Centre
• Official announcement of data release by UIS

Friedrich Huebler, 27 February 2011, Creative Commons License
Permanent URL: http://huebler.blogspot.com/2011/02/hist.html