Bangladesh 1993-1994 Demographic and Health ... - Measure DHS

with no education and more men than women with secondary education. However, over time, the sexdifferential is narrowing; differences in educational attainment between school-age boys and girls havebecome almost insignificant (see Figure 2.3).Substantial urban-rural gaps in educational attainment persist. Over one-third of rural men (37pereent)haveneverattendedschool---comparedtoonlyone-fifthofurbanmen(2Opercent). The differencesare also striking for women---50 percent of rural women have never attended school, compared to only 34percent of urban women. Urban-rural gaps are much larger at the secondary and higher level of education.Only about 5 percent of men and 1 percent of women in rural areas have received some secondary education;for urban areas the rates are 21 percent for men and 10 percent for women.As for differences by division, both men and women in Barisal and Khulna Divisions have highereducation attainment than residents of other divisions. The proportion of population with no education islower and the mean number of years of schooling is higher in both these divisions than in the other divisons.Table 2.5 presents enro//ment rates by age, sex and residence oftbe population age 6-24 years. Ofevery ten children age 6-15 years, almost seven (68 percent) are enrolled in school. But enrollment dropssubstantially after age 15; only about three out of ten older teenagers (29 percent) are still in school and onlyone out of eight in their early 20s (13 percent) are still in school. The substantial decline after age 15 may bepartly due to the fact that many families need their grown children (age 16-24) for work or do not have themeans to bear their educational expenses.It is encouraging that urban-rural gaps in enrollment of children have become virtually non-existent,with 68 percent of both urban and rural children age 6-15 currently enrolled in school. In fact, rural areashave a slightly higher proportion than urban areas of children 6-10 years enrolled in school. The increasedrural enrollment of children may be a result of the recently launched 'Food For Education' program designedto encourage rural residents to send their children to school. However, rural enrollment rates still lag farbehind urban rates among children older than 15. At ages 16-20 years, only 26 percent of adolescents are stillin school in rural areas, compared to 45 percent in urban areas; at ages 21-24 years, only 10 percent of ruralyoung adults are in school, compared to 26 percent in urban areas.The sex differential in school enrollment also seems to be disappearing, at least among youngerchildren. At ages 6-15, only a slightly higher percentage of boys than girls are enrolled (69 vs. 66 percent).However, by ages 16-20 years, men are much more likely than women to be enrolled (38 vs. 21 percent),presumably due to early marriage or social seclusion, which cause young women to drop out of school.Table 2.5 School era'ollmentPercentage of the de facto household population age 6-24 years enrolled in school, by age group, sex, and urbanruralresidence, Bangladesh 1993-94Age groupMale Female TotalUrban Rural Total Urban Rural Total Urban Rural Total6-10 72.1 75.1 74.8 71.0 72.7 72.5 71.5 73.9 73.711-15 67.1 62.1 62.7 62.7 57,9 58.5 64.9 59.9 60.66-15 69.6 69.4 69.4 66.9 65.9 66.0 68.2 67.7 67.816-20 51.4 36.0 37.9 40.2 17.7 20.7 45.3 26.4 28.821-24 34.2 19.6 21.7 19.6 3~7 5.8 26.2 10.4 12.615