Jordan Times
Wednesday, April 20, 2005
Kingdom attains highest
primary school attendance ratio in MENA region
By Dalya Dajani
AMMAN — More than two decades of investment in the education sector paid off
this week as the Kingdom attained the highest primary school net attendance
ratio in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.
UNICEF's “Progress for Children” report, released
in Geneva on Monday, revealed a 97.2 per cent net attendance ratio (NAR) of
schoolchildren in the country's primary schools.
The attendance ratio stood at 95.1 per cent among boys and 99.2 per cent among
girls, according to the report.
The report, which analyses primary education and gender parity in the region,
found that the percentage of schoolchildren attending primary schools in Jordan
exceeded that of Egypt, Bahrain and Lebanon, which registered 96.7 per cent,
93.8 per cent and at 93.7 per cent respectively.
Although trailing behind countries such as Syria (97.4) Algeria (96.9) and the
occupied Palestinian territories (98.6), in 2001, Jordan's Net Enrolment and
Attendance Ratio (NE/AR), was also high that year, particularly among girls.
The Kingdom, which has been working hard over the past two decades to ensure
that boys and girls have equal access to education, attained an NE/AR of 94.9
per cent in 2001.
Figures showed that the net enrolment and attendance ratio among schoolgirls
(95.5 per cent) was slightly higher than that of boys (94.3 per cent).
The report cited the region as having achieved the highest average annual rate
of increase in school participation between 1980-2001, with an increase of 1.4
per cent for boys and 1.2 per cent for girls during this time period.
The authors of the report commended the strides taken in the MENA region to
ensure equal access to education despite prevailing gender imbalances in the
region.
The report noted that Jordan, Algeria, Bahrain, Egypt, Lebanon, the occupied
Palestinian territories, Qatar, Syria and Tunisia in particular were on track to
meet the universal primary education goals for 2015 set by the UN's Millennium
Development Goals.
Amongst the poorest performers in terms of girls' access to primary education in
the Arab world are Yemen, Iraq and Egypt.
According to the report, Arab girls have performed better academically than boys
in almost every subject over the past decade.
In the vast majority of Arab countries, girls have a lower repetition rate than
boys.
However, despite such progress, the report's authors expressed concern at the
barriers facing Arab girls in terms of completing their schooling.
“Many are withdrawn from school near or after puberty, and many drop out due to
early marriage. Girls of all ages often carry a heavy load of domestic duties,
hampering their studies and leading many to leave school,” according to the
report.
The report noted that the enrolment of girls in primary schools across the world
during the 1990s exceeded that of boys.
A total of 8 per cent of the world's children out of school in 2001 are in the
Arab world, according to the report, which said that 57 per cent of the
estimated 115-million primary-age children out of school worldwide are girls.