Education

Despite commendable progress on expanding school access at the pre-primary, primary, and secondary school levels, educational disparities and high out-of-school rates persist in the Ethiopian education sector. Moreover, recent developments such as the global COVID-19 pandemic and armed conflicts, inter-communal violence, and humanitarian crises in the regions of Tigray, Benishangul-Gumuz (Metekel Zone), Oromia (west Guji Zone), and SNNP (Konso Zone) have impeded efforts to expand educational access in Ethiopia. To understand the current challenges and barriers that are driving out-of-school rates, UNICEF Ethiopia, in partnership with the Ethiopian Ministry of Education (MoE), contracted the American Institutes for Research (AIR) to provide consultancy services for a National Study on the Situations of Out-of-School Children (OSSC) in Ethiopia. The objectives of this study were to provide updates on the prevailing trends and profiles of out-of-school and at-risk primary and secondary students in Ethiopia, to highlight the factors that drive out-of-school rates, and to analyse the gaps in existing policies, strategies, and programmes that aim to improve school enrolment and retention. Ultimately, the study aims to help UNICEF, Ethiopia’s MoE, and other key stakeholders to more effectively address the barriers that keep children out of school. The findings of the study will also inform the implementation of the Education Sector Development Programme VI and the country’s 2020-2025 Country Programme Document.

The Ethiopian education system has faced many challenges in achieving access to quality education for all. As a result of efforts made over the last two and a half decades, remarkable improvements have been made. The COVID-19 pandemic has brought further challenges, as school closures have increased the number of out-of-school children (OOSC). Unless extra efforts are made, the country may not achieve its commitment to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG), to which Ethiopia is a signatory. It is a critical time to meet the needs of OOSC throughout the country, through the design of evidence-based education modalities. The Ministry of Education (MoE) of Ethiopia, with financial support from the Luminos Fund, has conducted a study on the status of OOSC. The study has been conducted in two phases. The first phase provides a quantitative analysis of the evidence on OOSC before the COVID-19 pandemic. The second phase analyzes qualitative evidence on the effect of COVID-19 on OOSC throughout the country.

In the wake of persistent fragility and conflict, at least 2.2 million school-aged children are estimated to be out of school with thousands more at risk of dropping out. The number of out-of-school children (OOSC) in South Sudan has increased in recent years and this trend is projected to continue, reaching over 2.4 million in the next two years, if present circumstances are maintained. Although the country has made efforts to increase access to education prior to the country’s conflict in 2013, barriers to education existed before the conflict including but not limited to extending access to remote areas, high levels of poverty, and socio-cultural dimensions, in which OOSC was a challenge before 2013. However, the challenges still exist in today’s landscape across geographies and education levels as well as new challenges brought about from the conflict. In terms of some of the challenges, girls are more likely than boys to be excluded from education in South Sudan – in some parts of the country, over 75 per cent of primary-aged girls are not in school. Children in rural areas and those displaced by conflict are also amongst the most educationally-disadvantaged in the country, but nearly all South Sudanese children fit into at least one of the at-risk profiles, including children who are overage for their grade level, child labourers, children with disabilities, and street children, with a danger that the current schooling crisis will become the status quo. This study analyses and uses available data to examine who and where these children are, unpacking the major barriers and bottlenecks that hinder school participation for so many children in South Sudan and mapping the existing policies and strategies that are in place to tackle these key issues. It culminates with a series of concrete, evidence-based recommendations for action aimed at enabling South Sudan’s large out-of-school population to enrol in – or return to – school.

This fact sheet gives detailed statistics and data on the situation of out-of-school children in Tunisia between the years 2000 and 2013. It provides statistical information and graphs, highlighting the following areas; Numbers and percentages of out-of-school children The Five Dimensions of Exclusion Classification of the out-of-school population Schooling pathways of school aged children Out-of-school children by background characteristics Cumulative out-of-school risk related to combined characteristics Out-of-school children by location Barriers and policies/strategies