East Asia and the Pacific Global Initiative on Regional Office Out-of-School Children REGIONAL SYNTHESIS EAST ASIA AND THE PACIFIC November 2012 1 TABLE OF CONTENTS ABBREVIATIONS ........................................................................................................................................................ 6 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................................................................. 8 EXECUTIVE SUMMARY .............................................................................................................................................. 9 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................. 10 GLOBAL INITIATIVE ON OUT OF SCHOOL CHILDREN ........................................................................................................... 10 SOCIO-ECONOMIC CONTEXT .............................................................................................................................................. 10 OVERVIEW OF EDUCATION IN EAST ASIA AND THE PACIFIC ................................................................................................ 12 Notable trends ........................................................................................................................................................ 12 Pre-primary education .......................................................................................................................................... 13 Primary Education ................................................................................................................................................. 13 Transition to Lower Secondary Education ......................................................................................................... 13 Secondary Education ............................................................................................................................................. 14 Gender ...................................................................................................................................................................... 14 Ethnicity ................................................................................................................................................................... 15 THE FIVE DIMENSIONS OF EXCLUSION ................................................................................................................................ 16 CHAPTER 2: PROFILES OF EXCLUDED CHILDREN ................................................................................................ 19 INTRODUCTION ................................................................................................................................................................ 19 Analytical Framework ........................................................................................................................................... 19 Basis of Data Sources Used in the Country Reports .......................................................................................... 21 Effect of Survey Time on OOSC .............................................................................................................................. 22 Education Systems of Different Countries .......................................................................................................... 23 UIS Data ................................................................................................................................................................... 23 DIMENSION 1: OOSC OF PRE-PRIMARY AGE ..................................................................................................................... 24 Disparities in Dimension 1.................................................................................................................................... 27 DIMENSIONS 2 AND 3: OOSC OF PRIMARY AND LOWER SECONDARY AGE .......................................................................... 30 Dimension 2: Primary age children out of school ............................................................................................. 30 Disparities in Dimension 2.................................................................................................................................... 33 DIMENSION 3: LOWER SECONDARY AGE CHILDREN OUT OF SCHOOL .................................................................................... 34 Disparities in Dimension 3.................................................................................................................................... 38 Number of Children in and out of School ............................................................................................................ 39 Attendance Rate of School Age Children ............................................................................................................. 40 DIMENSIONS 4 AND 5: CHILDREN AT RISK OF EXCLUSION ................................................................................................... 42 Dropout .................................................................................................................................................................... 44 Repetition ................................................................................................................................................................ 47 Over-age .................................................................................................................................................................. 48 ANALYTICAL SUMMARY OF PROFILES OF EXCLUDED CHILDREN ........................................................................................... 52 Dimension 1: Pre-primary school age children ................................................................................................. 53 Dimension 3: Lower secondary school age children ......................................................................................... 55 CHAPTER 3: BARRIERS AND BOTTLENECKS ........................................................................................................ 58 SOCIAL CULTURAL, DEMAND SIDE BARRIERS ...................................................................................................................... 59 Perception on the value of education .................................................................................................................. 59 Limited right-age entry to school ........................................................................................................................ 60 Gender bias and discrimination .......................................................................................................................... 60 Disability ................................................................................................................................................................. 62 Migration and lack of birth registration ............................................................................................................ 64 ECONOMIC DEMAND SIDE BARRIERS .................................................................................................................................. 65 Direct and indirect fees ......................................................................................................................................... 66 Health and Nutrition .............................................................................................................................................. 66 Natural disasters .................................................................................................................................................... 68 2 SUPPLY SIDE BARRIERS .................................................................................................................................................... 68 Access ....................................................................................................................................................................... 69 Water and Sanitation in Schools .......................................................................................................................... 70 Quality...................................................................................................................................................................... 71 Language ................................................................................................................................................................. 73 Lack of early childhood development services .................................................................................................. 73 POLITICAL, GOVERNANCE, CAPACITY AND FINANCING......................................................................................................... 74 Decentralization and governance ....................................................................................................................... 74 Education financing ............................................................................................................................................... 75 CHAPTER 4: POLICIES AND STRATEGIES .............................................................................................................