139
net attendance ratio with the gross attendance ratio shows the extent to which early and delayed
enrolment and grade repetition occur. At all levels, and for girls and boys much alike, this occurs to a significant extent, as indicated by the ratio between gross and net attendance of close to 1.2. This ratio
implies that close to 20 percent of pupils at respective education levels do not have the official age for those levels. The breakdown of this ratio by residence shows little variation not shown here.
With regard to gender-specific educational attendance, a standard pattern can be observed. Girls and women are disadvantaged compared to boys and men, and this effect is more pronounced for each higher
level of education. This is reflected in MDG indicator 3.1
– the gender parity index for the gross attendance ratio
– which evaluates gender disparity in different levels of education. As
shown in Table 9.1, this index declines from primary education with a relatively high 0.71
even 0.88 for urban populations to tertiary education with 0.41 and only 0.22 for rural
populations. Education beyond primary school for Kuchi girls is virtually non-existent.
9.2.2 Developments in educational attendance
Successive rounds of NRVA and the 2010 Afghanistan MICS demonstrated a pattern of improvement of net attendance ratios, but also a slowdown of the rate of improvement. ALCS 2013-14 confirms this
pattern and observes for primary education indicators even a decrease in performance.
Figure 9.2
specifies the primary net attendance rates by sex for the successive surveys since NRVA 2005. From the population of primary school-age children, a smaller proportion attended primary school than at the
time of NRVA 2011-12, a difference of 2.3 percentage points. For girls this deterioration seems even somewhat more pronounced than for boys. The observed development of this education indicator means
that Afghanistan’s target of 100 percent net enrolment in primary education in 2020 is out of reach. The gross primary attendance rate not shown here, has also declined since NRVA 2011-12. After an
increase from NRVA 2007-08 67 percent, the GAR for primary education reached 72 percent in 2011- 12 and is now back at 67 percent. The decrease in the primary GAR does not necessarily reflect a
deterioration of educational performance. At least part of the explanation can be found in the clearance of the backlog of children who could not go to school due to restrictions of the Taliban regime or because
education facilities were not available. This explanation is supported by the decrease in the ratio: from 1.33 in NRVA 2007-08 to 1.28 in NRVA 2011-12 and 1.22 in ALCS 2013-14. These figures imply that
the number of children in primary school that do not have the age corresponding to primary school has decreased from 33 to 22 percent in the eight years since the NRVA 2007-08.
ANDS indicators 4.a-c MDG Indicator 3.1 Ratio of girls to boys in primary, secondary and
tertiary education
Primary
0.71
Secondary
0.55
Tertiary
0.41
140
Figure 9.2: Net primary attendance ratio, by sex, and by survey in percentages
Contrary to the primary net attendance ratio, the NAR for secondary education has maintained the upward trend that was observed in previous NRVAs. This means that more children of secondary school
age are attending secondary school than in the past.
Figure 9.3
shows that the secondary NAR increased to 37 percent, up from 33 percent in NRVA 2011-12 and 16 percent in NRVA 2007-08. Although the
NAR for girls lags far behind that of boys, its relative increase since 2007-08 from 10 to 27 percent is larger than that of boys from 22 to 47 percent.
For secondary education, also the gross attendance ratio increased. Whereas the secondary GAR was a low 26 percent in 2007-08 and increased to 42 percent in 2011-12, it now stands at 46 percent data not
shown. This indicates an increased capacity of the educational system to provide education for children of secondary school age.
As indicated by the net attendance ratio for tertiary education, only 8.7 percent of tertiary-age education participates in any education of tertiary level. However, relatively this is a large increase from 5.4
percent in NRVA 2011-12. In absolute terms, the increase of the tertiary NAR was larger for males from 8.1 to 12.7 percent than for females from 2.7 to 4.7 percent, but in relative terms the situation
improved more for females data not shown here. The gross attendance ratio for tertiary education increased with the same order of magnitude as the
tertiary NAR, up from a very low 2.7 percent in NRVA 2007-08 to 6.5 percent in NRVA 2011-12 and to 10.1 percent in ALCS 2011-12. Relative to the population of tertiary education age, now 56 percent
more students participate in any level of tertiary education than in 2011-12, and close to three times more for females even four times more than in 2007-08. This indicates a rapid expansion of tertiary
education opportunities in Afghanistan. A large part of this expansion is due to education provided by private universities or schools. However, ALCS does not have information about the private-public
distribution of education facilities.
43 60
63 64
62
29 42
46 48
45 37
52 55
57 55
10 20
30 40
50 60
70
NRVA 2005
NRVA 2007-08
MICS 2010
NRVA 2011-12
ALCS 2013-14
P er
ce n
tag e
Boys Girls
Both sexes
141
Figure 9.3: Net secondary attendance ratio, by sex, and by survey in percentages
The developments in educational attendance of boys and girls had also impacts on the gender equity situation. The MDG indicator of the gender parity index in primary, secondary and tertiary education is
presented in
Figure 9.4
indicates that only in secondary education progress in the MDG and ANDS target to eliminate gender disparity in education has been achieved in the period since NRVA 2011-12.
The MDG and ANDS target to eliminate gender disparity in education by achieving a 100 percent parity index is far out of reach given these results.
In ALCS, the number of girls in secondary school was 55 percent, compared to 53 percent in 2011-12 and 49 percent in 2007-08. This modest increase is because the relative increase in secondary school
attendance of girls was a little larger for girls than for boys. The strong improvement of gender equity in tertiary education that was observed between 2007-08 and 2011-12 from 28 to 42 percent has stalled,
because of the very similar relative increase of numbers of males and females in higher education. The decrease in the gender parity index for primary education since 2011-12 from 73.6 to 70.6 occurred
because relative to the primary school age population fewer children attended school, but the decrease in the gross attendance rate is larger for girls than for boys.
22 43
42 47
10 21
23 27
16 32
33 37
10 20
30 40
50 60
70
NRVA 2007-08
MICS 2010 NRVA
2011-12 ALCS
2013-14 P
er cen
tag e
Boys Girls
Both sexes
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
