HC Deb 19 November 2003 vol 413 cc947-9W
Mr. Bercow

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what proportion of children in each developing country receive no education. [139534]

Hilary Benn

The most recent Education For All Global Monitoring Report, published by UNESCO in November this year, estimated that 104 million children of primary school age were not enrolled in school in 2000, 96 per cent. in developing countries. Most of the out-of-school children are concentrated in the countries of sub-Saharan Africa and south and west Asia.

I have placed in the Library lists of the primary net enrolment ratio and the corresponding percentage of primary school-age children not enrolled in school in 2000. The list is called "Education Enrolment in Developing Countries, 2000", and has figures for each country where comparable data are available. The table shows that for developing countries as a whole, 17.9 per cent. of primary school-age children were not enrolled in school in 2000.

The Education For All Global Monitoring Report 2003–04, containing these data, is available at: http:// www.efareport.unesco.org

Mr. Bercow

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what percentage of primary age children enrolled in primary school in sub-Saharan Africa in each of the last 10 years. [139539]

Hilary Benn

Due to the difficulties of collecting reliable and comparable data consistently across the whole of sub-Saharan Africa there are not internationally agreed figures for primary school enrolment for each of the last 10 years. However the most recent Education For All Global Monitoring Report published by UNESCO in November this year has a comparison of the Net Enrolment Ratio (NER) for most countries in sub-Saharan Africa between 1990 and 2000.

These figures show that in sub-Saharan Africa enrolment has improved but only slightly. In 1990, 55 per cent. of primary school age children were enrolled; in 2000 58 per cent. were enrolled. Within these figures there is wide variation by regions—from 89 per cent. in South Africa to 30 per cent. in Niger in the year 2000.

The Education For All Global Monitoring Report 2003–04, containing these data, is available at http:// www.efareport.unesco.org

Mr. Bercow

To ask the Secretary of State for International Development what the ratio of girls to boys enrolled in primary school in sub-Saharan Africa was in 2003–04; and what it is expected to be in 2005–06. [139613]

Hilary Benn

Due to the difficulties of collecting reliable and comparable data consistently across the whole of sub-Saharan Africa the most recent internationally agreed figures for gender parity are for 2000. These are in the most recent Education For All Global Monitoring Report published by UNESCO in November this year.

In 2000, there were 88 girls to every 100 boys in primary school classrooms in sub-Saharan Africa. This figure is the number of children of any age enrolled in primary school (the gross enrolment ratio).

There is no predicted ratio of boys to girls for 2005–06. However the Global Monitoring report estimates that of 128 countries for which data are available, 35 countries are not likely to meet the 2005 goal of gender parity in primary education. 19 of these are in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Education For All Global Monitoring Report 2003–04, containing this data, is available at http:// www.efareport.unesco.org.

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