1. Experience with monitoring EFA goal 5
BEYOND PARITY Measuring gender equality in education Nicole Bella, Kate Jere
Experience with monitoring EFA goal 5
London, September 2015
The EFA Global Monitoring Report mandate over the past 13 years was to monitor in an annul basis the progress made by countries and the international community towards the 6 educfation for all goals set in Dakar in 2000 and to be achieved in 2015, that is this year. And the 2015 Report, the last of the GMR series has provided a definitive assessment of progress, achievements made over the period, highlighting challenges that remain as the world is to adopt a new universal education agenda next week.

2. Measuring and monitoring EFA goal 5 - gender parity and equality
Gender parity in primary and secondary education by 2005, and gender equality in education by 2015
2003/4 GMR: Gender and education for all – the leap to equality
Three pronged righted-based approach: a break-through to understand gender equality and education
Concepts clarification: gender parity, equality, equity
Gender parity: important step to but is not gender equality
Gender parity: equal number of boys and girls in access, participation and attainment
Among the 6 EFA goals was EFA goal 5 that call for « eliminating gender disparities in primary and secondary education by 2005, and achieving gender equality by 2015, with a focus in ensuring girls’ full and equal access to and achievement of good quality education ».
So we had two separate agendas under this goal, parity and equality that the GMR has been monitoring systematically each year, but with some unbalance at the expense of the gender equality aspect though.
Having said that, it is important to recall that gender was the theme of the 2003/4 GMR where it was addressed in extenso and its all its dimensions.
This report was a key report in the sense that it increased our understanding of the issue of gender in education and beyond, proposing a three pronged right-based approach (right to, in and trhough education) to address it and thus a monitoring framework. This latter helps identify obstacles and barriers that hinder the fulfilment of gender equality in education , and thus indicators to measure it as well as policy interventions. The approach has not truly and systematically been operationalized, including in the GMR, and surely the time has come to do so in order to move forward.
The 2003/4 Report also helped clarify concepts. Thus, regarding gender, one tends to use terms such as parity, equality and even equity as if they were the same thing, while they are not.
For example gender parity, that I will talk more specifically about in the next slide, is first of all a quantitative concept and implies equal access, participation, completion and attainment of both sexes.
Whereas, gender equality requires the achievement of equal outcomes for girls and boys, and women and men; notwithstanding that the are starting from different position of advantage, and are constrained in different ways.

3. Defining, measuring and monitoring gender parity
Gender parity is an important step to gender equality
Various indicators to measure gender disparities, including gender parity index (GPI), and our gender-specific EFA index (GEI)
Need of disaggregated data by gender for different education aspects (access, participation, attainment, completion, etc.)
Sources of data: administrative data from UIS, and from household surveys (WIDE – interaction between gender and other drivers of disadvantage)
Persisting data limitations which prevent an effective and comprehensive monitoring of gender parity
More data by gender for some education levels and aspects
Gender parity = GPI’s GER of [0.97 – 1.03]
Gender parity: Achievements and challenges by 2015
117 countries, 69%, likely to have achieved the target in primary education
76 countries, 48%, likely to have achieved parity in secondary
62 countries, 43%, likely to have achieved the target at both levels
Gender parity remains elusive, and gender equality in education even more so
Gender parity was the first sub-goal of the EFA goal 5 and is an important step to gender equality in education. It called for eliminating gender sisparities in primary and secondary education.
There are various indicators out there to measure gender disparities, among them the gender parity index (ratio of female to male rate) that the GMR has been using since it is considered as a most relevant measure to measure progress towards gender parity (it takes into account the population size of each sex).
We have also produced a gender-specific EFA index (GEI) that we used in the EDI as one of its component. The GEI is the the mean average of GPI in primary, secondary and secondary education and in adult literacy, and aim to measure gender parity and equality in the EDI.
Disaggregated data by gender are widely available to monitor progress toward gender parity in particular through administrative data UIS provides us with, but also through household survey sources that we compile through our world inequality database in education (WIDE) tool. The latter sources help look at the interaction between gender and other drivers of disadvantage (not all girls and women have equal education opportunities, and some are more discriminated and left beyind than others).
But, the data availability on GPI varies according to education level and aspects as shown in the slide, with data more available for primary education than for the other levels, including secondary education.
While we use GPI to measure gender parity, the GMR has also defined its achievement. as a GPI not of 1 as commonly understood, but as ranging between 0.97 to 1.03 instead. This tolerance of up to 3% of inequality between the reported enrolment ratios of boys and girls was to allow for measurement error in international statistics series, and does not imply a judgement about the acceptability of any particular level of disparity.
The EFA goal 5 of gender parity was one of the EFA prominent goal, together with UPE, yet despite progress made, it remain elusive since a third countries have not reached it at primary and more than half in secondary education. The achievement of gender parity in countries where it happened is certainly important and a condition to achieve gender equality, but it is not sufficient. And the GPI does not tell us the many other issues gender equality is also about , and that Kate will now will now talk about, telling you us how the GMR has been addressing and monitoring them.
GPI of
1999
2012
Pre-primary GER
158
157
Primary GER
184
169
Primary SRLG
111
126
Secondary GER
164
Lower second GER
172
165
Upper second GER
Tertiary GER
141
145

4. Defining, measuring and monitoring gender equality
GMR 2003/4 definition: “…boys and girls would experience the same advantages (or disadvantages) in educational access, treatment and outcomes.”
Implies equality in:
Access
Learning processes
Outcomes
External results
Reports have consistently acknowledged the difficulty of defining and measuring gender equality.
Monitoring and measurement carried out by the GMR are, by necessity, lead by the availability of data.
With limited availability of monitoring data at the global level, and changed little, much of the discussion on gender equality in GMRs has been explored through thematic discussion and policy analysis.
[The EFA Development Index, a measure of progress towards EFA, which incorporates data on four indicators, included data on gender parity to reflect goal 5]

5. Monitoring gender equality: Focus on inputs and outputs
Resources
% of female teachers at all levels of education (including new recruits) – UIS
Learning Outcomes
Learning assessments at primary and secondary level, including PISA, TIMSS, SACMEQ and TERCE
World Inequalities Database on Education (WIDE) explores disparities in learning outcomes across and within countries
New opportunities provided by household-based surveys that reach in and out-of-school populations – UWEZO and ASER
Measures for gender equality used by the GMR focus on two key indicators reflecting resources and learning outcomes:
The proportion of female teachers has been consistently an indicator of progress towards gender equality, based on evidence that increasing the presence of female teachers may have a positive effect on participation in countries where girls face particular disadvantage – however, evidence of impact on other aspects of gender equality is still subject to much debate.
Regional and international learning assessments at primary and secondary level, including PISA, TIMSS, SACMEQ and SERCE, indicate variation in subject-specific achievement by gender.
Developed by the GMR, the World Inequalities Database on Education (WIDE) uses a range of datasets to explores disparities in learning outcomes across and within countries
This includes, new opportunities provided by household-based surveys that reach both in and out-of-school populations – UWEZO and ASER – providing a more realistic picture of inequalities.

6. Monitoring gender equality: Institutional context
Legal and policy frameworks
OECD Social Institutions and Gender Index (SIGI)
In-house mapping of educational policy documents
UNFPA’s ‘Marrying Too Young: End Child Marriage’
Global Initiative to End all Corporal Punishment of Children
Equitable school & classroom environments
Female leadership – IIEP study
Girl-friendly schools – UIS data on single-sex toilets, but limited
Data on school violence and SRGBV available, but lacks comparability at the global level
Processes
A major gap
For work on the 2015 Report, we wanted to provide some examination of the data on institutional aspects of gender equality
Perhaps the most useful was the, Social Institutions and Gender Index as it offers data on legal and policy frameworks and the extent to which they support gender equality, for a large number of countries, but it lacks a specific education component. As such, its use was largely confined to providing contextual information.
The GMR does commission in-house mapping exercises of educational policy in relation to achieving EFA goals, including goal 5, but without specifying gender equality measures.
We also made use of various published reports
UNFPA’s recent report ‘Marrying Too Young: End Child Marriage
And the Global Initiative to End all Corporal Punishment of Children website
We also wanted to consider school and classroom environments:
We drew on information from the IIEP study on female leadership
And UNICEF and UIS data on school sanitation, though limited in coverage.
Data on school violence and SRGBV has become increasingly available, UNICEF’s report ‘Hidden in Plain Sight’ (and the recent joint UNESCO/UNGEI policy paper refer to many of these, but acknowledge the lack of comparability at the global level.
Despite an increasing awareness for the need to address educational quality, global data on processes, social dynamics and norms within schools and classrooms that support or constrain equality in education remain underdeveloped and represent a major gap.

7. Monitoring gender equality: Opportunities and aspirations
Resources
% of female teachers at all levels of education (including new recruits) – UIS
Learning Outcomes
Learning assessments at primary and secondary level, including PISA, TIMSS, SACMEQ and TERCE
World Inequalities Database on Education (WIDE) explores disparities in learning outcomes across and within countries
New opportunities provided by household-based surveys that reach in and out-of-school populations – UWEZO and ASER
Looking at rights through education: - we wanted to consider gender equality through education. However this was constrained by the word limit of the chapter discussion and priorities based on the scope of goal 5
Although limited, we looked at the following:
UIS and OECD provide gender-disaggregated data for monitoring entry into vocational tracks and subject-choice and participation in Tertiary education, although only in terms of gender parity. We also explored gender differences in students’ attitudes to different subjects, available in datasets of large-scale learning assessments (e.g. PISA)
The new SDG framework calls for skills for ‘decent work’ – new measures need to be developed for these and the wide range of non-cognitive skills, attitudes and values also mentioned: gender equality needs to have its place in these.
The World Values Survey (examined in Goal 3) provides a single measure for attitudes to gender equality – very limited in scope

8. Thank you for your attention Blog: efareport.wordpress.com
Blog: efareport.wordpress.com