Developing Education Parity
admin on November 5th, 2008
To facilitate the interpretation of complex data a newly developed Education Parity Index is introduced. The EPI combines information on disparities across different education indicators and across different groups of disaggregation. Analysis of disparities in national education systems is often limited to gender although other dimensions of disparity are also important. The publication presents data on disparity in primary and secondary education by gender, area of residence and household wealth for countries in South Asia.
This distinguishes the EPI from existing indicators of disparity in education, including the gender parity index and the EFA development index. The EPI is flexible and can be modified according to national priorities, for example by including information on disparities between different ethnic groups.
The use of the EPI as a tool to assess education disparities is illustrated with household survey data from Afghanistan, Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Pakistan. For each country, the report describes how the EPI is calculated. In addition, national trends in education disparity from 1996 to 2006 are presented.
