1. Pre-Primary
Education
The State of Education Series
March 2013
A Global Report

2. Acronym Guide
Acronym Name
EAP East Asia and Pacific
ECA Europe and Central Asia
LAC Latin American and the Caribbean
MNA Middle East and North Africa
SAS South Asia
SSA Sub-Saharan Africa
WLD World (Global Aggregate)
NER Net Enrollment Rate
GER Gross Enrollment Rate
PTR Pupil-Teacher Ratio
GDP p.c. Gross Domestic Product per capita
GNI Gross National Income
GPI
Gender Parity Index (female value/male
value)

3. Pre-Primary
Enrollments

4. How many children are enrolled in
pre-primary education?
 Around 164 million
children were enrolled in
pre-primary education in
2010. This is up from
134 million in 2005 and
112 million in 1999.
 Over half of enrolled
students were in either
SAS or EAP (48 and 40
million respectively).
 25% of total pre-primary
enrollments were in India
and 16% were in China.
 79 million (48.2%) were
girls.
EAP
24.3%
ECA
6.4%
HIC
18.1%
LAC
12.5%MNA
2.0%
SAS
29.1%
SSA
7.6%
Share of Total Pre-Primary
Enrollments by Region (%)
2010
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, November 2012;
Notes: Regional aggregates are World Bank regions;
HIC = high income countries in all geographic regions.

5. How many children are enrolled?
Pre-Primary – Gross Enrolment Rates (GER)
 Globally, less than half of
pre-primary age students
were enrolled in pre-
primary education in
2010, but all regions
increased pre-primary
enrolments between
2000 and 2010.
 SAS almost doubled its
pre-primary GER
between 2000 (25.4%)
and 2010 (48.3%).
 LAC’s GERs are
consistently the highest
among regions ranging
from 56.8% to 70.1%.
 SSA and MNA lag
behind other regions with
17.7% and 23.8% GERs
respectively in 2010.
Pre-Primary Gross Enrolment Rates have
increased in all regions since 2000
34.1 34.7
37.1
40.9
45.6
48.3
0
10
20
30
40
50
60
70
80
2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010
GrossEnrolmentRate.Pre-Primary.Total(%)
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, November 2012
EAP ECA LAC MNA SAS SSA WLD

6. Which countries have the lowest
pre-primary enrollment rates?
 8 of the 10 countries
with the lowest pre-
primary net enrolment
rates (NER) are in SSA.
 Of the 130 countries
with data, 18 countries
had less than 10% of
their children enrolled in
pre-primary education.
 36 countries had less
than 25% of their
children enrolled in pre-
primary.
 19 countries had pre-
primary enrollments
higher than 90%.
10 Countries with the Lowest Pre-
Primary Net Enrollment Rates
(2009-2011)
1 Yemen, Rep. 0.35
2 Chad 1.77
3 Burkina Faso 2.75
4 Mali 3.37
5 Djibouti 3.41
6 Cote d'Ivoire 3.54
7 Ethiopia 3.92
8 Guinea-Bissau 4.68
9 Niger 4.76
10 Central African Republic 5.64
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, Nov 2012
Notes: Purple data is for 2011; Black is 2010; Blue is 2009;
Data were not available for 84 of 214 countries.

7. Which countries have increased pre-
primary enrollment rates the most?
 These countries
have increased their
pre-primary GERs
by 25 to 66
percentage points
between 1999-2001
and 2009-2011.
 Half of the countries
at least doubled
their NER over time.
 Algeria improved
from 3.4% to 66% –
a 1928%
improvement.
 Only two of these
countries have a
current NER over
90% – Barbados
and Maldives.
10 Countries with the Most
Improvement in Pre-Primary
Net Enrollment Rates
Percentage
Points
Improved
1999-
2001
NER
2009-
2011
NER
% Improved
1 Algeria 66.1 3.4 69.5 1927.9
2 Korea, Rep. 41.0 44.0 85.0 93.0
3 Moldova 37.3 36.8 74.0 101.4
4 Barbados 33.6 62.1 95.7 54.0
5 Sao Tome & Principe 32.4 24.2 56.5 133.8
6 Maldives 30.8 61.4 92.2 50.1
7 Mongolia 29.1 28.4 57.5 102.5
8 Nicaragua 26.7 28.6 55.4 93.5
9 Ghana 26.0 21.5 47.5 120.7
10 Uruguay 25.4 52.9 78.3 48.0
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, November 2012;
Note: Data were not available for 118 of 213 countries.

8. Net Enrollment Rate. Pre-Primary (%)
The maps displayed were produced by EdStats. The boundaries, colors, denominations and any
other information shown on this map do not imply, on the part of the World Bank Group, any
judgment on the legal status of any territory, or any endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries.
The maps are for reference only.
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, 2012
Note: Data displayed is for the latest available year (2008-2011)

9. Are lower pre-primary enrollment rates
related to lower national income per
capita?
 All the low income
countries ($1025 or less)
have less than 16% of
children enrolled in pre-
primary education except
Gambia (27%), Kenya
(29%), and Tanzania
(33%).
 24 countries had NERs
less than 15%. Only 4 of
those had GNI per capita
higher than $1100. All
the countries were lower
than $4780 (Bosnia).
 All of the countries with
NERs higher than 90%
had GNI greater than
$12,000 except Thailand,
Grenada, and Maldives.
All low income countries had less than one-third of
children enrolled in pre-primary education.
R² = 0.229
0
20
40
60
80
100
0 20 40 60 80
NetEnrollmentRate.Pre-Primary.Total
GNI per capita, Atlas method (current US$)
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, Nov. 2012
Note: Data is for the most recent year between 2009 and 2011.
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, Nov. 2012
Note: Data is for the most recent year between 2009 and 2011.
Ireland
Switzerland
Qatar
Australia
Norway

10. Do gender disparities exist in pre-
primary enrollment rates?
 Gender parity indices
(GPIs) are calculated by
dividing the female value
for an indicator by the
male value, so perfect
gender parity equals 1.
A value below 1 indicates
a bias toward males. A
value above 1 indicates a
bias toward females.
 Globally, the GPI has
been increasing from .98
in 2000 to perfect gender
parity (1.0) in 2010.
 Most regions are very
close to gender parity (+/-
0.02) in 2010. Only MNA
lags behind.
 4 of 6 regions have a
slight female bias.
Gender parity in pre-primary enrolments (1.0) has
been achieved globally and in most regions.
0.98
0.99
0.99 0.99
0.99
1.00
0.75
0.80
0.85
0.90
0.95
1.00
1.05
2000 2002 2004 2006 2008 2010
GenderParityIndex(GPI)forGrossEnrolmentRatio.Pre-Primary
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, November 2012
WLD EAP ECA LAC MNA SAS SSA
Female Bias
Male Bias

11. Do rural/urban disparities exist in pre-
primary attendance rates in ECA?
Source: Demographic and Health Surveys and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys In World Inequality Database on Education (WIDE), Nov. 2012
% of 3 to 4 year olds attending any type of pre–primary education program

12. Do income disparities exist in pre-
primary attendance rates in SSA?
Source: Demographic and Health Surveys and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys In World Inequality Database on Education (WIDE), Nov. 2012
% of 3 to 4 year olds attending any type of pre–primary education program

13. Pupil-Teacher
Ratios

14. Which regions have higher pre-
primary pupil-teacher ratios?
 Globally, pre-primary
pupil-teacher ratios
(PTRs) have remained
steady since 1999 at
around 20 pupils per
teacher.
 ECA has the fewest
students per teacher:
PTRs ranged from 8 to
10 students over time.
 South Asia had the
highest PTRs as of
2007 at 40 students per
teacher. The next
closest region was SSA
at around 27 students
per teacher in 2011.
South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa have higher
pre-primary pupil-teacher ratios.
5
10
15
20
25
30
35
40
1999 2001 2003 2005 2007 2009 2011
Pupil-teacherratio.Pre-Primary
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, March 2013
EAP ECA LAC MNA SAS SSA WLD

15. Which countries have the highest
pre-primary pupil-teacher ratios?
 These countries
have between 35
and 57 pre-primary
students per
teacher.
 Eight of the 10
countries are in
SSA.
 Less than 11% of
children are enrolled
in pre-primary
education in 5 of
these countries.
 There are 22
countries with pre-
primary PTRs less
than 10. Most are in
ECA or are high
income countries.
10 Countries with the Highest
Pre-Primary Pupil-Teacher Ratios
(2006-2012)
Pupil-Teacher
Ratio. Pre-Primary
Net Enrolment Rate.
Pre-Primary
1 Tanzania 56.6 33.2
2 Central African Rep. 44.3 5.6
3 Mali 44.0 3.4
4 India 40.3
5 Bolivia 38.8 32.1
6 Rwanda 38.0 10.5
7 Eritrea 37.9 9.1
8 Angola 37.1 65.9
9 Ghana 36.4 47.5
10 Burundi 35.4 6.9
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, March 2013
Note: Data is for the most recent available year; Black data are for 2011; Blue = 2010;
Purple = 2012; Data were not available for 58 of 214 countries.

16. Pupil-Teacher Ratio. Pre-Primary
(2006-2012)
Source: UNESCO Institute for Statistics in EdStats, 2013
Note: Data displayed is for the most recent available year
The maps displayed were produced by EdStats. The boundaries, colors, denominations and any
other information shown on this map do not imply, on the part of the World Bank Group, any
judgment on the legal status of any territory, or any endorsement or acceptance of such boundaries.
The maps are for reference only.

17. This presentation utilizes the following data sources:
1) UNESCO Institute for Statistics data in the EdStats Query
 The presentation was created with the most recent UIS data
release that included 2009 data for most indicators and 2010
data for some countries.
 Indicators were calculated by UIS according to definitions
available in the EdStats Query.
2) Demographic and Health Surveys and Multiple Indicator Cluster
Surveys in the World Inequality Database on Education (WIDE)
Data Sources

18. The State of Education Series
The following State of Education presentations
are available on the EdStats website:
Educational Levels:
 Pre-Primary Education
 Primary Education
 Secondary Education
 Tertiary Education
Topics:
 Access
 Quality
 Expenditures
 Literacy
 Equity
 Gender