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
a. Gross intake rate b. Net intake rate
Ideally, an education system should assure that all students who start primary school graduate at the end of the last grade of primary education. The system’s capacity for retention of pupils and overall
efficiency is measured by calculating the percentage of pupils who start primary school and who reach last grade of primary education. This survival rate to the last grade of primary education is 84.2 percent
and very similar for boys and girls 84.4 and 83.9, respectively
Table 9.2
. The transition rates of one grade to the next in primary education that result in this overall survival rate are very similar for all
grade transitions, typically between 96 and 97 percent data not shown here. The results in Table 9.2 show that there is very little gender and
residential difference in the percentage who reaches grade five or six. For monitoring the
target for MDG 2,
Achieve universal primary education
, the alternative of the ‘Proportion of pupils starting grade
1 who reach grade 5’ is also used. This is also one of the ANDS indicators
indicator 3.b; Government of Afghanistan 2009. The value recorded for this indicator in
the ALCS 2013-14 was 86.7, and 87.1 and 86.0 for boys and girls, respectively.
The percentage of school starters who drop out before reaching grade six largely complements the survival rate. Overall, 14 percent of children who started primary school dropped out before the final
level Table 9.2. Again, there is little difference between urban and rural drop-out rates, but girls seem to drop out somewhat more often than boys 14.6 percent against 13.6 percent. Grade-by-grade drop-
out rates tend to increase by advancement in primary school.
20.8 22.9
18.7 35.5
36.7 34.2
16.9 19.1
14.6 10
20 30
40 50
60 70
80
Both sexes Boys
Girls National
Urban Rural and Kuchi
45.4 51.4
39.4 71.6
76.9 66.8
38.3 44.4
32.1
10 20
30 40
50 60
70 80
Both sexes Boys
Girls National
Urban Rural and Kuchi
ANDS indicator 3.b MDG Indicator 2.2 Proportion of pupils starting grade 1 who reach
grade 5
86.7 percent
MDG Indicator 2.2 Proportion of pupils starting grade 1 who reach
last grade of primary
84.2 percent
144
Another failure to advance to a next grade is when a child has to repeat a grade. The repetition rate –
calculated as the number of repeaters in a given grade in the current school year as a percentage of the number of pupils attending the same grade in the previous school year
– ideally should approach zero percent. A high repetition rate reveals problems in the internal efficiency of the educational system and
possibly reflect a poor level of instruction. The ALCS-based repetition rates in primary education are relatively low
– on average 2.3 percent across the successive grades – and tend to be higher for the first four grades 2.5 percent than for the last two grades 1.8 percent data not shown. Efforts to improve
educational advancement in primary school should therefore concentrate on the quality of education in the lower levels.
The primary completion rate is a measure for the education system’s capacity to provide children of primary-school age with a full primary education course. In the absence of graduation statistics, a proxy
indicator is used, which calculates the total number of new entrants in the last grade of primary education grade six, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the number of children of the theoretical
entrance age to the last grade age 12. This indicator shows that the number of new children reaching grade six is only half of the population with the age belonging to grade six. Here, more gender and
residence differentiation is observed, reflecting the poor education situation for girls with a completion rate of 40 percent and rural populations 45 percent.
Table 9.2: Education transition indicators, by sex and by residence
a
in percentages
Sex and Percentage of pupils
Percentage Primary
Transition residence
starting grade 1 dropped out
completion rate to
who reach before reaching
rate secondary
tertiary grade 5
grade 6 grade 6
school education
Total 86.7
84.2 14.0
50.2 96.5
59.8 Boys
87.1 84.4
13.6 58.1
96.7 61.2
Girls 86.0
83.9 14.6
40.3 95.9
57.4 Urban
85.7 82.3
14.3 67.6
96.4 65.6
Rural 87.2
85.2 13.8
44.8 96.5
53.2
a
Rural includes Kuchi.
Upon completion of primary school, the transition to lower secondary school should be made, given that attendance in the latter is compulsory in Afghanistan. The transition rate to secondary school is
calculated as the number of children attending the last grade grade six of primary school during the previous school year who were in the first grade of secondary school during the current school year, as
a percentage of the total number of children attending the last grade of primary school during the previous school year. The transition rate to secondary school is fairly high
– 96 percent Table 9.2 – indicating that almost all children who completed primary school continue with lower secondary school.
There is again little difference in transition rates between boys and girls and between urban and rural populations.
Grade-to-grade transition rates in secondary education are equally high as in primary education: around 96 percent of children advance to a next grade every year, again slightly lower for girls than for boys
data not shown. There is also no marked drop in continuation from lower to upper secondary education data not shown. Whereas repetition rates in secondary education are lower than in primary education
on average 1.5 percent per year, grade-to-grade drop-out rates are twice as high, typically 2 percent every year data not shown.
145
A main drop in continuation of education occurs after completion of secondary education. The transition rate to tertiary education is only 60 percent Table 9.2, indicating that of all students who reached grade
12, 40 percent dropped out from pursuing higher education. Contrary to the transition rate to secondary school, here is a substantial difference between the continuation rates of urban and rural populations 66
and 53 percent, respectively. Also the female transition rate 57 percent is lower than the male rate 61 percent.
9.2.4 School-life expectancy
The age- and level-specific attendance rates allow estimating the total number of years of schooling that a child of a certain age can expect to receive in the future. For Afghanistan, this school-life expectancy
is a good proxy for the expected number of grades of education that will be completed, because of the relatively low grade-repetition rates.
49
Figure 9.6
shows the school-life expectancy by sex at national level and for urban and rural populations. If current attendance ratios will be maintained, a six-year old
child can expect to remain in education for 7.7 years, an average that is built up from an expected 4.2 years in primary education, 3.0 years in secondary and 0.6 years in tertiary education. Boys can expect
to stay in education for 9.5 years, 1.7 times longer than girls, for whom the school-life expectancy is 5.6 years.
The urban school-life expectancy of 12.4 years is much higher than the rural version 8.5 years. Figure 9.6 also indicates that the gender disadvantage for girls is larger in rural areas, both in absolute
and in relative terms. On average, a rural girl can expect to be in education for only 4.3 years.
Figure 9.6: School-life expectancy for a total, b urban and c rural populations, by sex in years
a. Total b. Urban
c. Rural
9.2.5 Population not attending education
The school attendance information from the ALCS 2013-14 indicates that an estimated 2.3 million primary school age children in Afghanistan miss out on education. The large majority of these 90
percent or 2.0 million are from the rural or Kuchi populations. Girls are also overrepresented among
49
The school-life expectancy is calculated as the sum of the age-specific attendance ratios for primary, secondary and tertiary education levels, assuming that prevailing attendance ratios will be maintained.
4.9 3.4
4.2 3.8
2.1 3.0
0.8 0.2
0.6
2 4
6 8
10 12
14
Male Female Both sexes
Yea rs
Primary Secondary
Tertiary 6.0
5.2 5.6
5.0 3.7
4.4 1.5
0.4 1.2
2 4
6 8
10 12
14
Male Female Both sexes
Primary Secondary
Tertiary 4.6
2.9 3.8
3.4 1.4
2.4 0.6
0.1 0.3
2 4
6 8
10 12
14
Male Female Both sexes
Primary Secondary
Tertiary
146
the non-attenders, with 1.3 million not in school, compared to 977 thousand boys not attending. The absolute numbers of persons of secondary and tertiary education age who are not participating in
education are in the same order of magnitude – 2.0 and 2.3 million, respectively, due to the combination
of lower attendance ratios at these levels and smaller base populations. Whereas the number of primary school age children who are attending education has remained stable since 2011-12, the number who
are not attending increased with 220 thousand. Non-attendance in education is a multi-facetted issue, which involves
– among others – economic, cultural, security, health and distance considerations. ALCS 2013-14 collected information about
persons in the eligible ages 6 to 24 who ever attended education, but no longer attended at the time of the survey. As can be seen in
Table 9.3
, the reasons why persons dropped out from education vary considerably by age, residence and sex.
Economic considerations figure importantly as the main reason for no longer attending school. Their prominence increases with the level of education: it was the main reason for 15 percent of primary
school age children, but twice as high 30 percent for persons with tertiary education age. It is worth noticing that from the mentioned economic reasons, it was not so much direct costs that were mentioned,
but foremost the need for the chil
d to work. In economic terms, ‘opportunity costs’ – income foregone if attending school
– were more important than direct costs. This importance of opportunity costs was especially observed for males. As shown in chapter 7, there is a noticeable relation between poverty and
child labour in the household section 7.5.2. Probably, the figures of Table 9.2 obscure the importance of economic considerations for girls, as for
them other reasons for no longer attending school
– mostly cultural considerations – often take precedence. In other words, even in the absence of additional obstacles, many girls would not attend
school because the need to contribute to household livelihoods or direct costs would prevent them from going to school. For all education levels, cultural considerations were mentioned most frequently as the
main reason for girls dropping out from education, ranging from 29 percent for girls aged 7-12 to 50 percent for girls in the age range 13 to 18. Family members not allowing girls to go to school was the
most prominent reason mentioned, but for women in the age range 19 to 24, marriage was also often mentioned 17 percent. The lack of female teachers seems to be of secondary importance, although this
was still mentioned for 7 percent of girls no longer attending school. Security concerns are also obstacles for school attendance, but these seem to be concentrated in primary
school ages and especially among girls: overall, for 22 percent of girls aged 7 to 12, this was the main reason to drop out from school. The targeted attacks on girls’ schools and female pupils that occur across
the country may play an important role for the observed gender difference. Problems with school occur foremost in primary 14 percent of reasons for not attending and secondary
12 percent education and predominantly relate to children who do not like school or who do not learn enough. Unfortunately, no distinction can be made between these two reasons. Additional reasons
mentioned in this category are schools that do not accept children and schools that are temporarily out of order. However, these reasons were of minor importance.
Two reasons for non-attendance that are closely related to age are the consideration that children are too young for school and the one that sufficient education has been obtained. The first is almost exclusively
mentioned for primary school age children, but it is remarkable that many households consider the age of seven
– and sometimes even higher ages – too young to attend school. For around one in five persons aged 19 to 24 21 percent, further schooling is considered not necessary. As can be expected, this figure
is lower for children in secondary and primary school ages, 8 and 3 percent, respectively.
147
The problem of physical access to schools takes a low position among reasons mentioned for no longer attending school. Obviously, problems with distance to school is mostly an issue in rural areas. The
reason of distance or access is virtually absent in urban areas. Also security considerations hardly figure in urban areas, but are a major concern for primary school children in rural areas: for more than one in
five non-attenders 21 percent and for even 30 percent of non-attending primary school girls this was the major reason to drop out from school. The other main difference between urban and rural non-
attendance is in the category ‘Problems with school’ for primary school age children. The difference can be traced back to the finding that schools that do not allow children are mostly found in urban areas.
An additional explanation could be that in rural areas other considerations take precedence when mentioning the reason for drop out. Other reasons for dropping out are of similar importance in rural
and urban areas. These include economic and cultural reasons, and the consideration that a person has obtained a sufficient level of education.
The pattern of reasons for drop out by Kuchi children is again somewhat different from other residential populations. The most prominent differences are found in the high number of Kuchi children that do not
attend primary school because they do not like it and
– obviously in a migratory population – the physical access to school.
148
Table 9.3: Population 7-24 years not attending school, by school age, sex, and by residence, reason for not attending in percentages
Residence, reason School-age, sex
for non-attendance Primary
Secondary Tertiary
Both Male
Female Both
Male Female
Both Male
Female sexes
sexes sexes
National
100 100
100 100
100 100
100 100
100 Economic reasons
15 27
5 26
51 7
30 44
6 Cultural reasons
18 5
29 30
4 50
20 3
48 Problems with school
14 16
11 12
15 9
5 6
4 Studied as far as needed
3 3
2 8
9 6
21 23
19 Child too young
17 26
9 1
1 1
1 1
1 Insecurity
16 8
22 6
2 10
2 1
4 Distance access
8 5
10 5
3 6
2 1
3 Other reasons
10 9
11 12
14 10
18 20
16
Urban
100 100
100 100
100 100
100 100
100 Economic reasons
16 28
8 25
54 6
28 47
6 Cultural reasons
20 12
25 31
4 48
22 2
44 Problems with school
21 27
18 16
17 16
4 5
4 Studied as far as needed
2 4
7 6
8 23
24 21
Child too young 17
17 17
1 1
1 1
Insecurity 2
3 2
3 Distance access
1 1
1 1
Other reasons 25
12 32
18 17
19 20
20 20
Rural
100 100
100 100
100 100
100 100
100 Economic reasons
15 28
5 26
50 7
31 42
6 Cultural reasons
17 3
30 30
4 52
19 4
52 Problems with school
10 11
9 10
14 6
6 7
4 Studied as far as needed
3 4
3 8
11 6
20 22
16 Child too young
18 31
7 2
2 2
1 1
1 Insecurity
21 11
30 9
3 14
3 2
5 Distance access
9 5
12 7
4 9
2 1
5 Other reasons
6 7
4 8
12 5
17 20
11
9.2.6 Home schooling
The formal education system does not adequately fulfil the education needs of the Afghan people. For a variety of reasons
– no schools available, not being allowed to go to school by the family or external forces opposed to education, low quality of education, among others
– people may decide to seek alternative education. Home schooling and literacy schools have been very important in this respect.
The ALCS 2013-14 showed that no less than 25 percent of the population of 6 years and older have ever participated in these types of education. In view of the practice of female seclusion, it could be expected
that this is more popular among girls and women, but the survey results show the opposite. Male participation was 32 percent against only 19 percent female participation.
Figure 9.7
shows that this male dominance is found for every age group and is stronger at more mature adult age.
A second noticeable pattern that can be deduced from Figure 9.7 is that the share of people that had home schooling or literacy school becomes larger with successively younger age groups except for the
youngest age group 6 to 9. This is also somewhat surprising, given the wider opportunities for school attendance for the youngest age groups.
149
Figure 9.7: Percentage of population aged 6 and older who participated in home schooling or literacy school, by sex, and by age group
The information provided in the ALCS 2013-14 indicates that home schooling and literacy schools contribute to persons’ learning experience, but also suggests that it often cannot adequately replace
formal education. Thus, only 1 percent of persons aged 15 and older who had neither formal school nor home schooling or literacy school could read and write, but 28 percent of those without formal education
who had home schooling or literacy school were literate, a clearly positive contribution. However, the percentage that could read and write among those with formal education was much higher: 93 percent.
9.3 Educational attainment
Educational attainment can be used as an indicator of the stock and quality of human capital within a country, and as a measure to assess the needs and establish policies for upgrading it. It also reflects the
structure and performance of the education system and its accumulated impact on human capital formation. The internationally recommended indicator measures the percentage distribution of the
population 25 and over by the number of years or highest level of schooling completed UNESCO 2009.
Table 9.4
shows that less than one fifth 19 percent of the adult population 25 years and over in Afghanistan has any formal education. For men this share is 31 percent and for women only 7 percent.
Here, the lack of access to formal education during the Taliban regime, which was particularly affecting girls, is still noticeable. The new generation that started primary school after 2001 during the rebuilding
of the education system has not yet aged to the population of 25 years and over. In addition, during the decades of violence the country has lost a significant share of its higher-educated population, few of
whom have returned. Overall, only 12 percent of the adult population has more than primary school excluding Islamic schooling, with the corresponding figures for males and females being, respectively,
20 and 4 percent. In absolute terms, the country’s stock of persons with tertiary education college or academic is 358
thousand. This is an increase compared to the number found in the NRVA 2011-12 264 thousand and especially in NRVA 2007-08, when the tertiary-educated stock was only 93 thousand persons CSO
2009, 2012.
5 10
15 20
25 30
35 40
45
P er
ce n
tag e
Age Both sexes
Males Females
150
Table 9.4: Population 25 years over, by sex, and by educational attainment
Educational attainment In thousands
In percentages Male
Female Total
Male Female
Total Total
4,594 4,490
9,085 100.0
100.0 100.0
No education 3,189
4,181 7,370
69.4 93.1
81.1 Primary incomplete less than grade 5
79 29
108 1.7
0.6 1.2
Primary completed grade 5 or higher 380
100 480
8.3 2.2
5.3 Lower secondary completed
209 45
254 4.6
1.0 2.8
Upper secondary completed 419
76 495
9.1 1.7
5.5 Teacher college completed
109 29
137 2.4
0.6 1.5
Universitytechnical college completed 181
29 210
3.9 0.6
2.3 Post graduate completed
10 1
10 0.2
0.0 0.1
Islamic school attended or completed 18
1 20
0.4 0.0
0.2
Next to the very large share of people without formal education, the most salient finding from Table 9.4 is the large difference in educational attainment between men and women.
Figure 9.8
further visualises the gender differences in educational attainment by age, from age 15 onwards.
Except for the youngest age groups 15-19 and 20-24, 10 percent or less of the female population has completed any level of education. In the male population, on the other hand, up to age 60 a significant
minority of at least around 30 percent has done so. A second remarkable finding is the rapid expansion of the shares with completed secondary or primary education in the population under 25, especially for
women. This reflects the renewed access to education after the overthrow of the Taliban regime in 2001. As a consequence, the percentage with completed secondary education is 2.6 times higher for the
younger men aged 20-24 than it is for those aged 30-34, and for women it is even 3.8 times higher. Similarly, the percentage with completed primary education is 3.3 times higher for the men aged 15-19
than it is for those aged 20-24, and for women it is even 6.5 times higher.
151
Figure 9.8: Population 15 years and over, by educational attainment, and by age, for a males and b females in percentages
a. Males b. Females
9.4 Literacy
