Modest progress despite the demographic dividend
Across the region, about 9.1 million pupils in primary school repeated a grade in 2009. The situation is improving slightly. Between 2000 and 2010, the regional percentage of repeaters remained the same at about 5%, even though the number of students enrolled in primary education rose considerably. This modest progress is largely the result of improvements in four countries:
- Nepal, which reduced its repetition rate from 26% to 12% (between 1999 and 2009);
- Bhutan, where the rate fell from 14% to 6%;
- Iran, where the rate fell from 5% to 2%; and
- India, where a slight drop in the rate (from 4.3% to 3.5%) led to a significant reduction in the absolute number of pupils repeating a grade.
While primary school enrolment has risen over the past decade, growth in the school-age population has slowed down considerably in the region. This represents an opportunity to not only widen access to primary education but to ensure that children complete it. However, the regional dropout rate remains high at 33% and has fallen by just two percentage points between 1999 and 2009.
The biggest changes occurred in:
- Pakistan, where the repetition rate rose from 30% to 38% between 2004 and 2009;
- Bhutan, which managed to reduce the rate from 18% to 9% between 1999 and 2009; and
- India, where the repetition rate fell by ten percentage points from 38% to 28% between 1999 and 2006.
Other regional findings:
Additional resources: