Education

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This section describes and discusses the main results on education. The entire set of results on education in available in the Education Results Tables.

This report uses several indicators on educational outcomes for adults and their households. The first one is the share of the adult population who has ever attended school. In addition, the highest level of educational attainment achieved is captured through three indicators: share of adults with less than primary school completion, the share of adults with primary school completion and the share of adults with secondary school completion or higher. The report also includes results for the literacy rate defined as the share of individuals who can read and write in any language (SDG indicator 4.6.1). At the household level, we compare for households with and without an adult with a functional difficulty, the share of household heads with less than primary school completion, the out of school rate for children age 6 to 14 in the household (SDG indicator 4.1.4) and the share of household expenditures dedicated to education (e.g. tuition, books). For children ages 6 to 14 who are not enrolled in school, it should be noted that children are not separated by disability status. Instead, the out-of-school rate is disaggregated depending on whether children live in households with and without an adult with a functional difficulty.

Results

For the share of adults who ever attended school, educational attainment indicators and literacy rates, results consistently point at adults with functional difficulties being worse off in all countries. For instance, in the Philippines, the ever attended school rate is at 91% for persons with any difficulty compared to 98% for persons with no difficulty.

In addition, there is a gradient in the disability gap for educational indicators, i.e. persons with some difficulties are worse off than persons with no difficulty, but better off than persons with at least a lot of difficulty. This is illustrated in Figure 6.1 for the 35 countries with a graded answer scale. For instance, in Mali, the ever attended school rates stand at 19%, 30% and 40% for persons with at least a lot of difficulty, some difficulty and no difficulty respectively.

Women and rural residents tend to have lower ever attended school rates, educational attainment indicators, and literacy rates compared to men and urban residents, respectively. The disability gap for these educational outcomes also tends to be larger among women than men and in rural areas compared to urban areas, leading to vast differences in most countries in terms of educational outcomes between men with no functional difficulty and women with functional difficulties, and urban residents with no functional difficulty and rural residents with functional difficulties.

In all countries, literacy rates are higher for younger age groups compared to older ones, reflecting an improved access to schooling across generations. At the same time, this report finds that the disability gap is larger among the younger age groups with a median at 11 percentage points for adults ages 15 to 29, compared to seven and six percentage points for adults ages 30 to 44 and adults 45 to 64 respectively.

Figure 6.1: Ever Attended School Rates

Table Supporting Figure 6.1

At the household level, the share of household heads who ever attended school is lower among households with any functional difficulty compared to households with no difficulty in 37 out of 41 countries.  For children’s out of school rates, results are mixed. While for most countries, there is no pattern across household functional difficultly status, in 10 countries there is a significantly higher share of children who are out of school in households with functional difficulties while in five countries the opposite is found. Finally, the share of household expenditures spent on education tends to be similar for households with and without an adult with a functional difficulty in most countries.

Discussion

This report adds to a growing literature showing that adults with disabilities tend to have lower educational attainment (United Nations 2019, pp.81-83). This report finds that gaps in ever attended school rates, educational attainment and literacy rates are consistently found across countries for the entire population of adults and for subgroups (by sex, rural/urban, all age groups). At the same time, the disability gap is larger for women and rural residents than for men and urban residents respectively. Women and rural residents with disabilities seem to experience intersectional disadvantages reflected in worse education indicators.

The disability gaps in education indicators found in this report result at least in part from lower school attendance rates among children with disabilities (Filmer 2008; Mizunoya et al 2018; United Nations 2019). A disability onset in childhood or youth may impact education due to a variety of factors that interact with each other, notably a lack of resources and environmental barriers. Under the CRPD, “States Parties recognize the right of persons with disabilities to education <…> States Parties shall ensure an inclusive education system at all levels and lifelong learning.” National education policies need to specifically include children with disabilities. Teacher training systems need to mainstream the skills and knowledge of inclusive education. The broader environment, whether physical, structural and attitudinal, needs to make it possible for children to get to school. With respect to attitudes, children, parents and community members need to be sensitized to create enabling environments that promote access to education.

The larger disability gap on literacy rates found for the youngest age group is cause for concern. It suggests that, with universalization efforts for primary and secondary education, a priority in SDG Goal 4, attendance among children with disabilities needs to improve fast. Otherwise, inequality across disability status in terms of literacy may be widening and feed into a disability and development gap, a situation where disability related inequalities may expand as countries develop (Groce and Kett 2013). Disability-inclusive universalization policies are necessary so as to avoid the increase in inequality and the marginalization from schools for children with disabilities.

The disability gaps in education found in this report could be due to other factors (Cutler et al 2010).  It may be that having less education results from early life conditions such as extreme poverty or malnutrition that also lead to functional difficulties. Having less education may put persons at higher risk of getting a health condition or injury and a resulting functional difficulty perhaps through jobs with risky working conditions or lack of access to health care. Research and policies that aim to prevent the onset of functional difficulties among persons with low educational attainment are necessary.

This report finds a gradient in the disability gap for educational indicators, i.e. that persons with some difficulties are worse off than persons with no difficulty, but better off than persons with at least a lot of difficulty. The group of persons with some functional difficulties should not be ignored in research and policy and data on functional difficulties should be collected with a graded answer scale rather than yes/no.

Finally, the mixed results on children out of school rates and the absence of a difference found for education expenditures depending on the household’s functional difficulty status is surprising given the results from a small but growing literature on the negative relationship between parental disability and children’s educational outcomes (e.g. Mont and Nguyen 2013). The data sets used in this study could be used in further research on parental disability and children’s school enrollment and outcomes.