4.9 Gender parity index, by state

FIGURE 4.9

Gender parity index, by state

Percent 160 140 120 100 80 60

145

124

114 84 98 84 85 86 104 87 88 91 91 92 93 94 94 95 98 98 99 100 103 94 68 68 103 88 99 100 96 96 79 77 87 90

58 57

40 20 0

KassalaCentral DarfurWest KordofanEast DarfurWest DarfurEl-GadarifRed Sea Sennar GeziraWhite NileNorthernSouth KordofanNorth KordofanNorth DarfurRiver NileBlue NileSouth DarfurKhartoum Sudan Primary Secondary

Source: World Bank calculations based on data from National Household Budget and Poverty Survey 2014–15.

feedback from state officials we consulted, this may be a result of region-specific cultural norms, especially among the nomadic tribes.

The survival rate from grades 1 to 8 stands at approximately 80 percent for Sudan, meaning that a child who enrolls in grade 1 has an 80 percent chance of reaching grade 8.2 Figure 4.10 shows the disparities between urban and rural areas in panel a and the disparities among states in panel b. Even though survival rates are relatively high across Sudan, there are clear state-specific disparities, with West and Central Darfur and Blue Nile having particularly low survival rates. There are also strong disparities between urban and rural areas. There are no significant disparities between girls (80.8 percent) and boys (80 percent); these data are not shown.

About 22 percent of children between ages 6 and 13 are out of school (OOS) in Sudan. Figure 4.11 shows the OOS rate across basic and secondary school age cohorts disaggregated by gender, area of residence, and wealth and categorized by those who have never been to school and those who have dropped out. Among children between ages 6 and 13, the OOS rate is largely made up of children who have never enrolled in school (19.5 percent) and is higher among girls (24.1 percent), children from rural areas (28.8 percent), and those from the poorest households (25.6 percent for children from the bottom two wealth quintiles). At the secondary school level (children ages 14 to 16), the OOS rate is 24.5 percent at the national level and is characterized by a large share of students who have dropped out of the education system (14 percent). Again, the rate is higher among girls (25.7 percent), children from rural households (30.9 percent), and those from the poorest households (28.5 percent for the bottom two wealth quintiles).

The disaggregation of the OOS rate among states reveals strong disparities within Sudan. Figure 4.12 shows the OOS rate for the age 6 to 13 cohort across all 18 states and disaggregated by those who have never attended school and those who have dropped out. The OOS rate ranges from a low of 4.8 percent in Khartoum state to a high of 41.8 percent in Central Darfur.

Learning outcomes in Sudan are generally poor, and improvements over time have been gradual and uneven across states. There have been two recent rounds