Primary school age children out-of-school (%)

The share of children of primary-school age who are out of school or schooling deprived. This dimension is linked to the indicator 4.1.4 from the SDG 4 thematic framework. This element reflects the belief that all primary-age children should be learning in schools of some type, a belief that every country has enshrined in law and that is enshrined in the SDGs. In addition to fulfilling a universal right and serving as a necessary condition for sustained learning, schooling offers many benefits beyond learning. It contributes to children’s health and well-being such as promoting safety, nutrition, and socialization, and facilitating parents' labor market participation and, at the macro level, schooling can help build social cohesion, democracy, and peace. All those complementary functions mean that schooling has value over and above the measured cognitive learning that it leads to, and they justify including schooling deprivation in the concept of learning poverty.