Measuring the Gap: Female Education in Sub-Saharan Africa Page 1 of 6

THE WORLD BANK GROUP 2A2 7 8r6 A '.ri of Pitirly XW 7

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Findings reports on ongoing operational economic and sector work carried out by the World Bankand its member governments in the Africa Region. It is published periodically by the Africa Technical

Department on behalf of the Region.

Measuring the Gap: Female Education in Sub-Saharan Africa

The beneficial effects of female education have been well documented, and current levels of femaleparticipation in SSA suggest that much can be done to extend these benefits in the region. There isample research that demonstrates that education increases the productivity and earnings of both menand women: econometric studies estimate an increase in income of as much as 10 to 20 percent witheach additional year of schooling. Moreover, while the impact of additional schooling on earnings issimilar for males and females, educating females generates more substantial social benefits. Educatedwomen have healthier, fewer, and more educated children. As schooling tends to improve a mother'sknowledge and use of health practices, each additional year of schooling is estimated to decrease themortality rate of children under the age of 5 by up to 10 percent. In addition, educated women havefewer children; it is estimated that one extra year of schooling reduces fertility by approximately 10percent. Because educated women have fewer children, fewer will die in childbirth. Finally, womenwith schooling are more likely to send their own children, females in particular, to school.

Female education and national development have been proven to be closely linked. While theeducation of both males and females is crucial to development, the failure to ensure equality ineducation between the sexes can reduce the potential benefits that educating men has on socialwelfare. Further, a nation with a large gender gap in enrollments will have lower economicproductivity than another country with similar capital and labor resources but a smaller gender gap inschooling.

Given the significance of female education for development, there is an enormous need for dataacross countries that can be used to inform policy discussions within and among individual countries.Nowhere, perhaps, is this need greater than in Sub-Saharan Africa where female participation ineducation is inordinately low, and where the disparities between females and males vary greatlyamong countries.

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Measuring the Gap: Female Education in Sub-Saharan Africa Page 2 of 6

The study, Statistical Indicators of Female Participation in Education in Sub-Saharan Africa,responds in two ways to this need for statistics on female education. First, it defines a set of statisticalindicators that can be used to describe the level of female participation and the disparities betweenmales and females in education systems. The report introduces the concept of the Gender Ratio (GR)as a generic tool for comparing male and female participation in education across all indicators usedto assess the performance of education systems. Second, the report presents data from existingsources for the forty-six countries in Sub-Saharan Africa.

The report defines eighteen indicators that provide information on the performance of educationsystems, formulating them to take advantage of country-level statistics from existing sources. Theseindicators are grouped into three categories of educational performance: access, attainment, andaccomplishment. Access refers to the decision to enter females in school (five indicators); attainmentto the length of time females remain in school and to the level of education to which they progress(nine indicators); and accomplishment to their success once they leave school (four indicators).Achievement, measuring academic performance once females are enrolled in school, is certainlyanother category deserving inclusion. However, because cross-nationally comparable data onacademic achievement are limited, this important area was excluded.

The Gender Ratio for each of these eighteen indicators is calculated by dividing the females' rate bythe males' rate. A Gender Ratio of 1.00 for a given country therefore means that females are doingjust as well as males on that indicator; a female to male ratio of 0.50 suggests that females are doinghalf as well as males; and a Gender Ratio of 0.32 implies that females are at a rate that is 32 percentof the males' rate. By organizing the Gender Ratios to follow a student's flow through the entireeducation system (i.e., from admission to primary through employment), the Gender Ratios canpinpoint the level and/or area in which females are at a disadvantage, particularly when comparedwith the profile of regional medians.

The regional profile of female participation in education is presented above. The female rate and theGender Ratio are listed for each of the eighteen indicators. In Sub-Saharan Africa, a gender gap existsin education that increases in severity with each level of education. Females are somewhatdisadvantaged in both primary admission (GR=0.88) and gross enrollment (GR=0.77), and repeat atapproximately the same rate as males (GR=1.01). Once females are enrolled in primary school, anapproximately equal percentage persists to Grade 4 compared to males (GR=0.99). Although asmaller proportion of females enrolled in Grade 1 actually completes primary school (GR=0.8 1),those enrolled in the final grade of primary continue on to secondary at close to the same rate asmales (GR=0.92). Severe disparities exist in females' access to secondary school, however, as isindicated by the gross secondary enrollment Gender Ratio of 0.50, despite a primary completionGender Ratio of 0.81. In secondary school, females repeat at a rate slightly higher than males(GR=1.10), and the secondary completion Gender Ratio of 0.64 indicates that substantially fewerfemales than males complete secondary school. At the tertiary level, females are under-represented,with a gross tertiary enrollment Gender Ratio of 0.22, and proportionately fewer females than malesare enrolled in a sciences curriculum. Females make up 34 percent, 22 percent, and 12 percent of theprimary, secondary, and tertiary level teaching staff, respectively. Disparities are evident on theoutput side as well. Women have, on average, slightly more than three-quarters of a year ofschooling, a rate that is 40 percent of the male rate, and only 30 percent of adult women are literate,just over half the male rate (GR=0.57). Finally, 32 percent of women participate in the labor force, arate that is 63 percent of the male rate.

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Measuring the Gap: Female Education in Sub-Saharan Africa Page 3 of 6

Female Participation in Education in Sub-Saharan Africa:Regional Medians

h. ofIndicator Fgmae Ra2te Cnder Ratio Csrvations*Primy hAdmniwion Rate, 1987 76% 0.88 28OwrcsPjinryE&uolhentRatio, 1986 630 0.77 43RpetitionRa*, Primary, 1987 22% 1.01 27Persistence b Grade 4, 1985 83% 0.99 22PuimeryCompletion Rate, 1987 36% 0.81 25ContintaliorRte from Primary to SeconIary 41% 0.92 151987Gross SecordayEnollmenxt Ratio, 1986 11% 0.50 43Repetition Rate, Secondarg 1987 19% 1.10 17SecondaryCompletion Rate, 1987 18% 0.64 27ContinuationRate fumSecondarytoTertiaxy, 70% 1.20 11987ross TertiaryEEollment Ratio, 1986 0.6% 0.22 38

Emrollment in Sciences at Tertiary 1987 23% 0.67 19Female Teachers as % of Total, 1987:

Primary 34% .. 46Secondary 22% .. 46Tertazy 12% .. 10

Mean Years of Schooling, 1990 0.8 0.40 46Adult LitercyRate, 1990 30%4 0.57 34Labor Fmrce Particip31ion RAte, 1987 32%/o 0.63 43

-Number of countries for which data i s available.na=not availableSource: Teresa Hartnett and Ward Heneveld. Statistical Indicators of FemaleParticipation in Education in sub-Saharan Africa. AFTER Technical Note No.7. June, 1993. This report primarily relies on Unesco data.

The data and Gender Ratios may be most useful when analyzing gender disparities in educationwithin a country; a country profile for the Central African Republic is presented above. The dataindicates that females enter and remain enrolled in primary school at rates that are approximatelytwo-thirds the males' rates, indicating difficulties with females' access to primary education.Inefficiency is high at this level, with high repetition rates for both males and females (GR=0.97),suggesting a system-wide problem rather than a gender disparity. Females persist to Grade 4 at a rateslightly below the males' rate (GR=0.93), but just 30 percent of females complete primary school,slightly more than half the males' rate (GR=0.56), indicating that females are dropping out of schoolat a higher rate than males. Gender differences are more substantial at the secondary level, with afemale gross secondary enrollment ratio that is 42 percent of the male rate and a females' completionrate that is 52 percent of the males' rate, indicating difficulties for females in both access and

attainment at the secondary level. Further, the tertiary enrollment Gender Ratio of 0.13 highlights thegender disparities at this level, particularly when compared with the regional median of 0.22. Womenhave, on average, just one-half of a year of schooling, a figure that is 31 percent of the male rate, andthe female literacy rate is approximately half the male rate (GR=0.48).

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Measuring the Gap: Female Education in Sub-Saharan Africa Page 4 of 6

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discussions about female participation in education, especially if they are formulated into a countryprofile. This said, the data's incompleteness and inaccuracies need to be recognized. Also, thereporting period for the data varies among the indicators (but not within them), and no time seriesdata has been introduced, so that it is impossible to assess whether conditions are changing in

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Measuring the Gap: Female Education in Sub-Saharan Africa Page 5 of 6

individual countries or in the region. Despite these problems with the data, we believe that this firstcomprehensive statistical report on the state of female participation in education in Sub-SaharanAfrica will prove useful to researchers, planners and policy makers.

Teresa Hartnett and Ward Heneveld. 1993. Statistical Indicators of Female Participation inEducation in Sub-Saharan Africa. AFTHR Technical Note No. 7. Africa Technical Department.Washington, D.C.: World Bank.

SfARc FEDsAcK SE A SI O"SME

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