The State of Education Series

Pre-Primary
Education
A Global Report

March 2013

Acronym Guide
Acronym

Name

EAP

East Asia and Pacific

ECA

Europe and Central Asia

LAC

Latin American and the Caribbean

MNA
SAS
SSA
WLD
NER
GER
PTR
GDP p.c.
GNI
GPI

Middle East and North Africa

South Asia
Sub-Saharan Africa
World (Global Aggregate)
Net Enrollment Rate
Gross Enrollment Rate
Pupil-Teacher Ratio
Gross Domestic Product per capita
Gross National Income
Gender Parity Index (female value/male value)

Pre-Primary
Enrollments

How many children are enrolled in

pre-primary education?

Around 164 million

children were enrolled in
pre-primary education in
2010. This is up from
134 million in 2005 and
112 million in 1999.
Over half of enrolled
students were in either
SAS or EAP (48 and 40
million respectively).
25% of total pre-primary
enrollments were in
India and 16% were in
China.
79 million (48.2%) were
girls.

Share of Total Pre-Primary Enrollments by Region (%)

2010

SSA; 8%
EAP; 24%
SAS; 29%
ECA; 6%

MNA; 2%

LAC; 13%

HIC; 18%

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, November 2012;

Notes: Regional aggregates are World Bank regions;
HIC = high income countries in all geographic regions.

How many children are enrolled?

Pre-Primary Gross Enrolment Rates (GER)

Globally, less than half of

pre-primary age students
were enrolled in preprimary education in
2010, but all regions
increased pre-primary
enrolments between
2000 and 2010.

SAS almost doubled its

pre-primary GER
between 2000 (25.4%)
and 2010 (48.3%).

LACs GERs are

consistently the highest
among regions ranging
from 56.8% to 70.1%.

SSA and MNA lag behind

other regions with 17.7%

Pre-Primary Gross Enrolment Rates have

increased in all regions since 2000

EAP

ECA

LAC

MNA

SAS

SSA

WLD

Which countries have the lowest

pre-primary enrollment rates?

8 of the 10 countries
with the lowest preprimary net enrolment
rates (NER) are in SSA.
Of the 130 countries
with data, 18 countries
had less than 10% of
their children enrolled in
pre-primary education.
36 countries had less
than 25% of their
children enrolled in preprimary.
19 countries had preprimary enrollments
higher than 90%.

10 Countries with the Lowest PrePrimary Net Enrollment Rates

(2009-2011)

Yemen, Rep.

0.35

Chad

1.77

Burkina Faso

2.75

Mali

3.37

Djibouti

3.41

Cote d'Ivoire

3.54

Ethiopia

3.92

Guinea-Bissau

4.68

Niger

4.76

Central African Republic

5.64

10

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, Nov 2012

Notes: Purple data is for 2011; Black is 2010; Blue is 2009;
Data were not available for 84 of 214 countries.

Which countries have increased preprimary enrollment rates the most?

These countries
have increased their
pre-primary GERs
by 25 to 66
percentage points
between 1999-2001
and 2009-2011.
Half of the countries
at least doubled
their NER over time.
Algeria improved
from 3.4% to 66%
a 1928%
improvement.
Only two of these
countries have a
current NER over
90% Barbados
and Maldives.

10 Countries with the Most

Improvement in Pre-Primary
Net Enrollment Rates
Percentage
Points
Improved

19992001
NER

20092011
NER

% Improved

Algeria

66.1

3.4

69.5

1927.9

Korea, Rep.

41.0

44.0

85.0

93.0

Moldova

37.3

36.8

74.0

101.4

Barbados

33.6

62.1

95.7

54.0

Sao Tome & Principe

32.4

24.2

56.5

133.8

Maldives

30.8

61.4

92.2

50.1

Mongolia

29.1

28.4

57.5

102.5

Nicaragua

26.7

28.6

55.4

93.5

Ghana

26.0

21.5

47.5

120.7

25.4

52.9

78.3

48.0

10 Uruguay

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, November 2012;

Note: Data were not available for 118 of 213 countries.

Net Enrollment Rate. Pre-Primary (%)

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, 2012

Note: Data displayed is for the latest available year (2008-2011)

The maps displayed were produced by EdStats. The boundaries, colors, denominations and any
other information shown on this map do not imply, on the part of the World Bank Group, any
judgment on the legal status of any territory, or any endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries.
The maps are for reference only.

Are lower pre-primary enrollment rates

related to lower national income per capita?

All the low income

countries ($1025 or less)
have less than 16% of
children enrolled in preprimary education except
Gambia (27%), Kenya
(29%), and Tanzania
(33%).
24 countries had NERs
less than 15%. Only 4 of
those had GNI per capita
higher than $1100. All the
countries were lower
than $4780 (Bosnia).
All of the countries with
NERs higher than 90%
had GNI greater than
$12,000 except Thailand,
Grenada, and Maldives.

All low income countries had less than one-third of

children enrolled in pre-primary education.
R = 0.23

Norway

Switzerland

Australia

Qatar

Ireland

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, Nov. 2012

Note: Data is for the most recent year between 2009 and 2011.

Do gender disparities exist in preprimary enrollment rates?

Gender parity indices

(GPIs) are calculated by
dividing the female value
for an indicator by the
male value, so perfect
gender parity equals 1.
A value below 1 indicates
a bias toward males. A
value above 1 indicates a
bias toward females.

Globally, the GPI has

been increasing from .98
in 2000 to perfect gender
parity (1.0) in 2010.

Most regions are very

close to gender parity (+/0.02) in 2010. Only MNA
lags behind.

4 of 6 regions have a
slight female bias.

Gender parity in pre-primary enrolments (1.0) has

been achieved globally and in most regions.

Female Bias

Male Bias

WLD

EAP

ECA

LAC

MNA

SAS

SSA

Do rural/urban disparities exist in preprimary attendance rates in ECA?

% of 3 to 4 year olds attending any type of preprimary education program

Source: Demographic and Health Surveys and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys In World Inequality Database on Education (WIDE), Nov. 2012

Do income disparities exist in preprimary attendance rates in SSA?

% of 3 to 4 year olds attending any type of preprimary education program

Source: Demographic and Health Surveys and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys In World Inequality Database on Education (WIDE), Nov.

Pupil-Teacher
Ratios

Which regions have higher preprimary pupil-teacher ratios?

Globally, pre-primary
pupil-teacher ratios
(PTRs) have remained
steady since 1999 at
around 20 pupils per
teacher.
ECA has the fewest
students per teacher:
PTRs ranged from 8 to
10 students over time.
South Asia had the
highest PTRs as of
2007 at 40 students per
teacher. The next
closest region was SSA
at around 27 students
per teacher in 2011.

South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa have higher

pre-primary pupil-teacher ratios.

EAP

ECA

LAC

MNA

SAS

SSA

WLD

Which countries have the highest

pre-primary pupil-teacher ratios?

These countries
have between 35
and 57 pre-primary
students per teacher.
Eight of the 10
countries are in
SSA.
Less than 11% of
children are enrolled
in pre-primary
education in 5 of
these countries.
There are 22
countries with preprimary PTRs less
than 10. Most are in
ECA or are high
income countries.

10 Countries with the Highest

Pre-Primary Pupil-Teacher Ratios
(2006-2012)
Pupil-Teacher Net Enrolment Rate.
Pre-Primary
Ratio. Pre-Primary

Tanzania

56.6

33.2

Central African Rep.

44.3

5.6

Mali

44.0

3.4

India

40.3

Bolivia

38.8

32.1

Rwanda

38.0

10.5

Eritrea

37.9

9.1

Angola

37.1

65.9

Ghana

36.4

47.5

35.4

6.9

10 Burundi

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, March 2013

Note: Data is for the most recent available year; Black data are for 2011; Blue = 2010;
Purple = 2012; Data were not available for 58 of 214 countries.

Pupil-Teacher Ratio. Pre-Primary

(2006-2012)

Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, 2013

Note: Data displayed is for the most recent available year

The maps displayed were produced by EdStats. The boundaries, colors, denominations and any
other information shown on this map do not imply, on the part of the World Bank Group, any
judgment on the legal status of any territory, or any endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries.
The maps are for reference only.

Data Sources
This presentation utilizes the following data sources:
1) UNESCO Institute for Statistics data in the EdStats Query

The presentation was created with the most recent UIS data
release that included 2009 data for most indicators and 2010
data for some countries.

Indicators were calculated by UIS according to definitions

available in the EdStats Query.

2) Demographic and Health Surveys and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys

in the World Inequality Database on Education (WIDE)

The State of Education Series

The following State of Education presentations
are available on the EdStats website:

Topics:

Access
Quality
Expenditures
Literacy
Equity
Gender

Educational Levels:

Pre-Primary Education
Primary Education
Secondary Education
Tertiary Education