EPDC Research

For International Literacy Day, EPDC examined the usefulness and comparability of different types of literacy data across the globe. This policy brief discusses the analysis, with specific examples drawing from Uganda.

Over the past decade, as Sub-Saharan Africa saw the expansion of universal primary enrollment policies, gender balance in primary school participation improved considerably, with girls now attending school almost at the same rate as boys. Gains in primary school, however, have not carried over to secondary: for every 100 boys, only 82 girls of secondary school age are enrolled across the region, up from 80 in the year 2000.

The last decades have seen an impressive growth in school participation in developing countries. As countries have made remarkable progress towards universal primary school completion, the focus in the development community has shifted to reaching the most disadvantaged populations, and improving the quality of education. Is school access truly universal? And now that most children are in school, do we know whether they are actually learning?