Transitions in the education career

142 Figure 9.4: Ratio of girls to boys gender parity index by level of education, and by survey year in percentages

9.2.3 Transitions in the education career

ALCS 2013-14 introduced additional questions about the education attendance in the previous school year. This allows the calculation of transition rates from one grade to another and from one education level to another. In addition, the data allow measures of grade repetition and school dropout. The analyses of this section are based on a life table method. The first educational transition is starting school in the first grade of primary education. A difference can be made between any school starters and those who start at the theoretical primary school-entrance age age seven. The Gross Intake Ratio GIR and the Net Intake Rate NIR in primary education are indicators to measure the effectiveness of this transition. The GIR is calculated as the total number of new entrants in the first grade of primary education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the population at the official primary school-entrance age, while the NIR specifies only entrants of school- entry age age seven as a percentage of the population at the official primary school-entrance age. Both indicators serve as measures of the access to primary education. The GIR indicates the general level of access to primary education and also indicates the capacity of the education system to provide access to the first grade for the official school-entrance age population. The NIR more precisely measures access to primary education by the eligible population of primary school-entrance age. Figure 9.5 presents the GIR and NIR in primary education. The overall GIR of 45 percent is an indication that the capacity of the educational system to absorb new pupils is low, less than half of what would be required to provide every eligible child with a place at school. Also the overall NIR of 21 percent indicates that the young school population encounters much difficulty in starting their educational career, and even more so to start at the qualifying age of seven. The low NIR level can be explained by a general low level of school participation and by the fact that the start of education is widely dispersed across age of the starting pupils. Although age seven is the most common age to start primary school, 54 percent of starters is either younger 21 percent or older 33 percent than seven. Apparently, important conditions exist for children not only to abstain from education, but also to start schooling at a late age. 69.0 73.6 70.6 48.8 52.5 55.5 28.0 41.9 41.4 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 NRVA 2007-08 NRVA 2011-12 ALCS 2013-14 P er ce n tag e Primary Secondary Tertiary 143 The general gender inequality in Afghanistan is reflected in the marked differences for GIR and NIR between the intake of boys and girls, even though the difference is less pronounced than in many other gender indicators. More differentiation is observed between urban and rural intake ratios. Typically, the intake levels for children in rural areas including Kuchi children are only about half of that of urban children. The urban-rural difference is even more pronounced for girls, indicating that gender inequality in rural areas is even more pronounced. Figure 9.5: Net and gross intake rate in primary education, by residence, and by sex in percentages