No Goals at Half-time: What Next for the Millennium Development Goals? MDG 2 Angela W Little Institute of Education

Millennium Development Goal 2 Achieve Universal Primary Education Target: ensure that, by 2015, children everywhere, boys and girls alike, will be able to complete a full course of primary schooling

Indicators The indicators the UN claims to use to assess progress towards this target are: – Net enrolment ratio in primary education – Proportion of pupils starting grade 1 who reach (rather than complete) last grade of primary – Literacy rate of years olds, women and men

Net enrolment ratio in primary education the number of pupils of the theoretical school-age group for primary education, enrolled either in primary or secondary education, expressed as a proportion of the total population in that age group Increase from 80% (1991) to 83% (2000) to 88% in 2006 (all developing countries)

Net primary enrolment ratios by region

1. What do the NERs overlook? (3 points) 2. What are some of the challenges within the education sector? (3 challenges) 3. What are some of the cross-sectoral issues? (3)

1. Sub Saharan Africa: NERs vary

2. NERs disguise patterns of enrolment by grade

3. NERs disguise enrolment patterns by income group and gender bb_bb60/files/_422554_1/MDG1- AndrewDorward.mp3