Gross enrolment ratio

The gross enrolment ratio (GER) or gross enrolment index (GEI) is a statistical measure used in the education sector and by the UN. The GER gives a rough indication of the level of education from kindergarten to postgraduate education – known in the UK and some other countries (mostly in the Commonwealth of Nations) as primary, secondary, and/or tertiary – amongst residents in a given jurisdiction.

In the UN, the GER is calculated by expressing the number of students enrolled in primary, secondary and tertiary levels of education, regardless of age, as a percentage of the population of official school age for the three levels. [http://hdr.undp.org/hdr2006/statistics/indicators/4.html]

Example

* Locale A has 950,000 pupils enrolled in education in the academic year 2005/06.
* Locale A has 1,000,000 pupils of school age.

GER = number of actual students enrolled / number of potential students enrolled:= $(950,000/1,000,000)\; =\; 0.95$

:= $0.95\; *\; 100\%\; =\; 95\%$

UN Human Development Index Use

A combined gross enrolment ratio (CGER), incorporating all three levels of education, is used to calculate the Human Development Index (HDI), an annual gauge of well-being for UN member states. Amongst other measures used in the calculation, the CGER is given one-third weight in assessing the knowledge component, represented by gross enrolment, while the adult literacy rate is assigned two-thirds weight. [http://hdr.undp.org/hdr2006/pdfs/report/Techinical_notes.pdf page 2]

References