Steady progress but daunting challenges in providing educational opportunities for a growing school-age population
In 2010, 11.4 million pupils repeated a primary grade in sub-Saharan Africa, representing more than one-third of the global total. The regional repetition rate has fallen slightly, from 11% to 9% between 2000 and 2010, even though school systems have been straining to provide education to a growing school-age population.
This progress is clearly seen at the national level. In 1999, 15 African countries had repetition rates exceeding 20%, compared to only six countries in 2009. The following countries have reduced their repetition rates by more than 10 percentage points since 1999: Cameroon, Congo, Ethiopia, Madagascar, Mozambique and Rwanda.
Repetition rates are 4% or lower in Ethiopia, Ghana, Mauritius, Niger and the United Republic of Tanzania. However, primary education repetition rates remain very high in Burundi (36%), Togo (23%), Chad (23%), Central African Republic (23%), and Congo (23%).
Many of the children repeating grades leave school before completing primary education.
The region has the highest dropout rate, which rose from 40% to 42% between 1999 and 2009. This means that more than two in five children who start school will not reach the last grade of primary education.
Dropout rates are highest in Chad (72%), Uganda (68%) and Angola (68%), where more than two out of three children starting primary school are expected to leave before reaching the last grade.
In contrast, dropout rates are lowest in Mauritius (2%) and Botswana (7%).
Other regional findings:
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