19 November 2007

Primary school attendance in India in 2006

21 million children of primary school age in India were out of school in 2006, more than in any other country. Compared to 2000, the number of children out of school has fallen by 9 million, but the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education by 2015 can only be met if the increase in primary school attendance accelerates in the coming years.

According to data from a nationally representative Demographic and Health Survey (DHS), the primary school net attendance rate (NAR) in India was 83 percent in 2006. (In India, the DHS is referred to as National Family Health Survey or NFHS.) In other words, more than 8 out of 10 children of primary school age (6-10 years in India) were attending primary school. In 2000, the primary school net attendance rate was 76 percent. Although the attendance rate has increased, there are persistent disparities in the education system of India. The bar graph below displays the primary school NAR by sex, area of residence, and household wealth. 85 percent of all boys and 81 percent of all girls are in school and the country is therefore close to gender parity. On the other hand, there is a larger gap between urban and rural areas. The urban primary NAR is 89 percent and the rural NAR is 82 percent.

Primary school net attendance rate (NAR), India 2006
Bar graph showing primary school net attendance rate in India in 2006
Data source: India Demographic and Health Survey 2005-06

Disaggregation by household wealth reveals even greater disparities. 96 percent of all primary-school-age children from the richest household quintile are in school. With declining household wealth, the share of children in school also falls. In the poorest household quintile, the primary NAR is only 69 percent, almost one third below the NAR in the richest households. As a consequence, children from the poorest households make up almost half of all children out of school in India. An earlier article on this site contains additional data on children out of school in India.

Note on NAR calculation

The official report for the India DHS lists the primary NAR as 71.9 percent (IIPS and Macro International 2007a, Table 2.8, page 31). The primary NAR cited above, 83.3 percent, is higher because of a different calculation method. The DHS report uses the traditional definition of the primary school net attendance rate, which only considers attendance in primary school and ignores attendance at higher levels of education.
  • Primary NAR (traditional definition) = Number of children of primary school age in primary school / Total number of children of primary school age
A joint report by UNESCO and UNICEF, Children out of school: Measuring exclusion from primary education (UNESCO Institute for Statistics 2005), introduced a revised method to calculate the primary NAR. In contrast to the traditional calculation method, school attendance at primary or higher levels of education is considered.
  • Primary NAR (revised definition) = Number of children of primary school age in primary school or higher / Total number of children of primary school age
In countries like India, where a relatively large number of children of primary school age are already in secondary school, the traditional calculation method underestimates the true level of participation in the education system and overestimates the number of children out of school. During an assessment of progress toward universal primary education, the primary NAR published in the final DHS report would lead to the wrong conclusion that almost 30 percent of all children of primary school age are not in school in India. In fact, fewer than 17 percent of all children of primary school age are not in school.

References
  • International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), and Macro International. 2007a. National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) 2005-06, India: Volume 1. Mumbai: IIPS. (Download in PDF format, 7.9 MB)
  • International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), and Macro International. 2007b. National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) 2005-06, India: Volume II. Mumbai: IIPS. (Download in PDF format, 4.1 MB)
  • UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). 2005. Children out of school: Measuring exclusion from primary education. Montreal: UIS. (Download in PDF format, 4.9 MB)
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Friedrich Huebler, 19 November 2007 (edited 12 October 2008), Creative Commons License
Permanent URL: http://huebler.blogspot.com/2007/11/primary-school-attendance-in-india-in.html
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13 November 2007

India has 21 million children out of school

India is the country with the largest number of children out of school. India has more children of school age than China and at the same time relatively low attendance rates, in spite of recent increases in primary and secondary school participation.

Newly released data from a Demographic and Health Survey (DHS) show that the primary school attendance rate has increased by more than one percentage point annually since the beginning of the decade. In 2000, 76 percent of all children of primary school age (6-10 years) were in school. By 2006, this value had increased to 83 percent (see Table 1). The attendance rate of girls increased by 9 percent over the 2000-2006 period and the attendance rate of boys by 6 percent. School attendance rates also grew in urban and rural areas, and across all household wealth quintiles. However, close to 17 percent of all children of primary school age continue to be out of school.

Table 1: Children of primary school age in school (percent), India 2000 and 2006

2000 2006 Change 2000 to 2006
Male 79.2 85.2 5.9
Female 72.3 81.4 9.1
Urban 82.5 88.5 5.9
Rural 73.8 81.5 7.7
Poorest 20% 66.1 69.4 3.2
Second 20% 69.2 81.2 12.1
Middle 20% 78.8 87.5 8.7
Fourth 20% 82.1 92.2 10.1
Richest 20% 89.1 95.7 6.6
Total 75.9 83.3 7.5
Data sources: India Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey (MICS) 2000, India DHS 2005-06.

As a result of the increase in primary school attendance, the number of children out of school fell by almost one third from 30 million in 2000 to 21 million in 2006 (see Table 2). This pattern could be observed for boys and girls, and for residents of urban and rural areas. However, disaggregation by household wealth reveals that one group of children did not follow the nationwide trend. Among the poorest 20 percent of all households, the number of children out of school grew from 9.4 million in 2000 to 9.8 million in 2006. Although the primary school net attendance rate among children from the poorest households grew by 3 percentage points from 2000 to 2006 (see Table 1), this increase was not strong enough to keep pace with population growth in the poorest segment of the Indian population.

Table 2: Children of primary school age out of school (million), India 2000 and 2006

2000 2006 Change 2000 to 2006
Male 13.0 9.5 -3.5
Female 16.4 11.2 -5.2
Urban 5.0 3.7 -1.3
Rural 24.5 17.0 -7.5
Poorest 20% 9.4 9.8 0.5
Second 20% 8.5 5.3 -3.2
Middle 20% 5.2 3.1 -2.1
Fourth 20% 4.3 1.7 -2.6
Richest 20% 2.0 0.8 -1.3
Total 29.5 20.7 -8.7
Data sources: India MICS 2000, India DHS 2005-06.

A comparison of the composition of the total population of primary school age and the population of children out of school shows which group of children are disproportionately more likely to miss out on education. Figure 1 shows the composition of the Indian population aged 6 to 10 years. 52 percent of all children in this age group are boys and 48 percent are girls. About one quarter of all children of primary school age live in urban areas and the remaining three quarters in rural areas.

Wealth quintiles are constructed by ranking the entire population of India, regardless of age, according to household wealth and dividing them into five equally sized groups with 20 percent each of the total population. As Figure 1 shows, households from poorer quintiles are more likely to have children than households from richer quintiles. Overall, 26 percent of all children between 6 and 10 years live in the bottom quintile and a further 23 percent in the second quintile.

Figure 1: Population of primary school age by sex, area of residence, and wealth quintile, India 2006
Pie charts showing composition of population of primary school age, India 2006
Data source: India Demographic and Health Survey 2005-06.

Figure 2: Children of primary school age out of school by sex, area of residence, and wealth quintile, India 2006
Pie charts showing composition of group of children of primary school age out of school, India 2006
Data source: India Demographic and Health Survey 2005-06.

Figure 2 shows the composition of the group of children aged 6 to 10 years that are out of school. Although girls only account for 48 percent of the total number of children in this age group, they make up 54 percent of the children out of school. Rural children are disproportionately more likely to be out of school than urban children. Most strikingly, children from the poorest quintile make up almost half of all children out of school. 48 percent - 10 million of the 21 million children out of school - live in the poorest quintile. 74 percent of all children out of school live in the two poorest quintiles.

These numbers emphasize the close link between poverty and school attendance in India. School attendance rates have increased among the poorest households between 2000 and 2006 but the increase was not large enough to keep pace with population growth. Unless India places more emphasis on school attendance among the poor, the country will miss the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education by 2015.

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Friedrich Huebler, 13 November 2007 (edited 12 October 2008), Creative Commons License
Permanent URL: http://huebler.blogspot.com/2007/11/india-has-21-million-children-out-of.html
Posted by on Tuesday, November 13, 2007 0 comments
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