Last update: June 2022
- Current status
- Available data
- Recent resources
- Notes on the data
Access to primary education is a basic right of every child. An effective primary education can build a solid foundation and open avenues for future success. With its profound implications on both the individual and society, primary education plays a crucial role in reducing extreme poverty and promoting social changes. The Sustainable Development Agenda acknowledges the importance of primary education in Goal 4 which stipulates that by 2030, the world should ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all, including a target on universal access to primary education. Though there are varying standards, primary education is typically designed for children 6 to 11 years of age.
Significant progress has been made towards achieving universal primary education. Globally, the adjusted net attendance rate reached 87 per cent in 2021, and about four out of five children attending primary education completed it. Additionally, over the past two decades, the number of out-of-school children was reduced by over 35 per cent. However, there is still a long way to go: 64 million children of primary school age remain out of school, with the majority of them coming from marginalized groups.
Read more
Primary education data
Build and download your own customisable dataset
Query data
Out-of-school rates
June 1, 2022
Adjusted net attendance rates
June 1, 2022
Completion rates
June 1, 2022
Foundational learning skills
June 1, 2022
School-age digital connectivity
May 24, 2021
Resources
The State of Global Education: From crisis to recovery
Ensuring equal access to education in future crises: Findings of the new Remote Learning Readiness Index
Publications
How are children progressing through school? An Education Pathway Analysis
Interactive data visualizations Publications
EduView Dashboard
Interactive data visualizations
Which children have internet access at home? Insights from household survey data (blog post)
Suriname education fact sheets
Publications
UNICEF strategic plan country and regional education profiles
Country profiles
Notes on the data
For a full picture of children’s school participation, UNICEF uses two sources of data: enrolment data, which are based on administrative records, and attendance data from household surveys. In half of all countries, data on primary and secondary education come from more than one source. All data on primary and secondary education used by UNICEF are based on official International Standard Classifications of Education (ISCED) and may deviate somewhat from those used by country-specific school systems.
Definition of indicators
Primary school adjusted net attendance rate–Percentage of children of primaryschool agewho attend primary orsecondaryeducation.
Primary school completion rate–Total number of children who are 3 to 5 years older than the intended age for the last grade of primary education who completed primary education, expressed as a percentage of the total number of children who are 3 to 5 years older than the intended age for the last grade of primary education.
Primary school out-of-school children–Total number of children of primaryschool ageand who are not enrolled in pre-primary,primary education, or secondary education.
Gender parity index–The ratio of female-to-male values of a given indicator.Normally, aGPIbetween 0.97 and 1.03indicates parity between the sexes, whereas a GPI lower than 0.97 indicates girl disadvantage and a GPI greater than 1.03 indicates boy disadvantage.
Foundational reading skills–Foundationalreadingskills measure the minimum proficiency skills in reading expected in Grade 2/3. Foundational readingskills are divided into three categories: 1) wordrecognition (correctly reading 90 per cent of words in astory), 2) literal questions (replying correctly to all threeliteral questions), and 3) inferential (replying correctly tobothof two inferential questions). If the child succeedsin all three tasks, s/he is considered to have foundationalreading skills.
Foundational numeracy skills–Foundationalnumeracy skillsmeasure the minimum proficiency skills innumeracyexpected in Grade 2/3.Foundational numeracy skills are divided into four tasks: 1) number reading, 2) number discrimination, 3) addition, and 4) pattern recognition. Each task is composed of several questions and the child must correctly answer all questions to successfully complete the task. If the child succeeds in all four tasks, s/he is considered to have foundational numeracy skills.
Related Topics
- Education
- Pre-primary education
- Primary education
- Secondary education
- Learning and skills
- Remote learning and digital connectivity
