Asia Education Sector Profile

Education in South Asia

Introduction

Increased access to education

• Available data indicate that in this period, the number of out-of-school children of primary school age decreased by about 11.5 million in India, 3 million in Afghanistan, 2 million in Pakistan, and 1 million in Bangladesh.
• There was also a substantial increase in enrollment rates at the secondary level though the overall numbers are still low.
• At the tertiary level, enrollment rates in the region increased to 10 percent.

• At the primary school level, gender parity has been achieved in the Maldives, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Bangladesh and India. Progress is being made in Afghanistan, Nepal and Pakistan.
• In Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and the Maldives gender parity has also been achieved at the secondary level.

• In Nepal, the government has transferred about 2,000 schools to communities for management.
• In Bangladesh, the government subsidizes a privately-managed secondary education system.
• In India, 7 percent of primary and 40 percent of secondary schools receive government aid.

Use of incentives to promote education

• Bangladesh relies on conditional cash transfer programs (giving money to the poor to encourage them to enroll their children in school) at the primary and secondary levels. More...
• In Pakistan, the recent introduction of stipends for girls who enroll in school has had a clear impact on both girls’ and boys’ enrollment in targeted districts. More...

Providing universal quality education

• An estimated 26 million children, mostly from poor and disadvantaged backgrounds, still remain out of school. An estimated 10 percent have disabilities.
• Girls account for just 34 percent of total enrollment in Afghanistan and 41 percent in Pakistan. Within Afghanistan, wide regional disparities persist, with girls representing less than 15 percent in the southern provinces.
• In countries where gender parity has been achieved at the primary level, the challenge is now to repeat this achievement at higher levels of education
• A large proportion of children do not master basic numeric and literacy skills by the time they complete primary education. A sample study in India found that 44 percent of children in grades 2-5 cannot read a simple paragraph and close to 62 percent are unable to read a short story. More on learning achievements in Rajasthan (PDF) and Orissa (PDF).
• Owing to high dropout and repetition rates, primary completion rates in the region are among the lowest in the world. Out of every 100 students that enter the primary education cycle, fewer than 10 graduate out of secondary education.

Increasing public spending on education

• Public spending on education in South Asia currently averages about 4.1 percent of GDP – one of the lowest levels of any region.
• A large share of this very limited spending is earmarked for teachers' salaries, leaving few resources for learning materials or other expenditures.