11 December 2009

There is little difference between the enrollment rate of boys and girls in secondary education in the UNECE region. This is an important sign of progress towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDG): as described in the latest MDG report*, gender differences should be eliminated in all levels of education by 2015.

In most European Union countries, there are slightly more girls enrolled in secondary education (in Portugal, girls enrollment exceeds boys by 7.6 percentage points, in Ireland by 4.2 and in Luxembourg by 3.5).

However, in Bulgaria and Romania, the gap is narrower and in favour of boys, with around 1.5 percentage points more boys, than girls, enrolled.

A different gender disparity can be seen in East European, Caucasus and Central Asian countries. Tajikistan is one of the countries where the gender difference, favouring boys, is the largest of all UNECE member countries. In school year 2006-2007, there was a gap of 12.5 percentage points between the number of girls and the number of boys enrolled in secondary education.

Over the years, the enrollment rate is increasing in all UNECE countries for both girls and boys.

Source: UNECE Statistical Database

Note:  Gender gap is calculated from net enrolment ratio - number of pupils of the official school-age group (defined by each country) enrolled in secondary-level education per 100 persons of the same age group.

*The Millennium Development Goals Report 2009