Although 92 per cent of children globally have ever entered primary school, over 40 per cent of these students do not make it to upper secondary school. Instead, they either drop out of school, fail to transition to the next level of schooling, or remain in a grade lower than is appropriate for their age. What happens to children who enter primary school? Where does their education tend to go off path? Are children not completing primary school? At what point do children drop out of school? These questions can now be answered, thanks to a new UNICEF Education Pathway Analysis dashboard, which tracks the educational progression of adolescents of upper secondary school age (aged 15 to 17 years) in 103 countries and territories. The Education Pathway Analysis uses data from the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS), as well as Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), and other nationally representative household surveys. The analysis follows children’s educational progress, from entry into primary school through transition to upper secondary school, noting at each stage the percentage of children who never attend, drop out, are overage for the grade, or transition to the next level of education. Accordingly, it is possible to see children’s educational trajectory, and identify at which point they may have dropped out of school, remained at the lower level, or failed to transition to the next level. This information can call attention to inequalities in educational attainment and provide a vehicle to support evidence-based policy making.
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