Kyrgyz Republic Learning Poverty Brief June 2022 LEARNING POVERTY: A WORLD BANK-UIS INDICA- LEARNING POVERTY IN KYRGYZ REPUBLIC TOR TO HIGHLIGHT THE LEARNING CRISIS • Learning Poverty. 64 percent of children in Kyrgyz All children should be able to read by age 10. Reading is a Republic at late primary age today are not pro cient in gateway for learning as the child progresses through school— reading, adjusted for the out-of-school children. and conversely, an inability to read constrains opportunities for further learning. Reading pro ciency is also critical for • Learning Deprivation. Large-scale learning assess- foundational learning in other subjects. ments of students in Kyrgyz Republic indicate that 64 percent do not achieve the MPL at the end of primary In low- and middle-income countries, more than half the school, proxied by data from grade 4 in 2014. children cannot read and understand a simple story by the end of primary school. This learning crisis threatens coun- • Schooling Deprivation. In Kyrgyz Republic, 2 percent tries’ e orts to build human capital and achieve the Sustain- of primary school-aged children are not enrolled in able Development Goals (SDGs), undermining sustainable school. These children are excluded from learning in growth and poverty reduction. school. Tackling the learning crisis in the foreseeable future requires rapid progress at a scale that has not been seen yet. To gal- For countries with very low Schooling Deprivation, the share vanize action on this crisis, we introduced the concept of of children with Learning Deprivation will be very close to Learning Poverty (LP), a measure constructed jointly by the the reported Learning Poverty. World Bank and the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). Notes: The LP number for Kyrgyz Republic is calculated using data from NLSA and the MPL threshold used was level Basic. No learning data harmonization following the Global WHAT IS LEARNING POVERTY? Learning Assessment Database (GLAD) guidelines has been produced for Kyrgyz Republic, this limits the current analytical possibilities for this country. For more details, please Learning Poverty means being unable to read and understand consult the GLAD and Learning Poverty repositories in GitHub. a short, age-appropriate text by age 10. All foundational skills are important, but we focus on reading because: (i) read- ing pro ciency is an easily understood measure of learning; BENCHMARKING KYRGYZ REPUBLIC’S LEARNING (ii) reading is a student’s gateway to learning in every other POVERTY area; and, (iii) reading pro ciency can serve as a proxy for Learning Poverty in Kyrgyz Republic is 54.1 percentage foundational learning in other subjects. points higher than the average for the Europe and Central The Learning Poverty indicator allows us to illustrate Asia region and 4.1 percentage points higher than the aver- progress toward SDG 4’s broader goal to ensure inclusive age for lower middle income countries. and equitable quality education for all. It particularly high- lights progress towards SDG 4.1.1b, which speci es that all Figure 1. Learning Poverty and components children at the end of primary reach at least a minimum pro ciency level (MPL) in reading. HOW IS LEARNING POVERTY MEASURED? The indicator combines the share of primary-aged children out-of-school who are Schooling Deprived (SD), and the share of pupils below a minimum pro ciency in reading, who are Learning Deprived (LD). By combining schooling and learning, the indicator brings into focus both “more school- ing”, which by itself serves a variety of critical functions, as well as “better learning,” which is important to ensure that time spent in school translates into acquisition of skills and capabilities. LP = SD + [(1 − SD) × LD] where, LP is Learning Poverty; LD , Learning Deprivation, is share of children at the end of primary below minimum pro ciency, as de ned by the Global Alliance to Monitor Learning (GAML) in the context of the SDG 4.1.1b monitoring; SD , Schooling Deprivation, Source: UIS and World Bank as of May 2021. is the share of primary-aged children who are out-of-school, and is linked to SDG 4.1.4. All Notes: (1) Yellow circle represents Kyrgyz Republic; (2) Gray circles represent other countries; out-of-school children are implicitly assumed to be below minimum pro ciency. and, (3) Vertical lines re ect the averages of Kyrgyz Republic’s region and income group. The data used to calculate Learning Poverty has been made possible thanks to the work of the Global Alliance to Moni- tor Learning led by UIS, which established minimum pro- ciency levels that enable countries to benchmark learning across di erent cross-national and national assessments. Kyrgyz Republic Learning Poverty Brief June 2022 HOW DOES KYRGYZ REPUBLIC’S GENDER GAP COM- PRIMARY EDUCATION EXPENDITURE PARE GLOBALLY? There is no UIS comparable data on primary education ex- In Kyrgyz Republic, lack of data prevents comparisons of penditure per child in Kyrgyz Republic so only region and Learning Poverty for boys and girls. income level of Kyrgyz Republic is displayed. Table 1 shows sex disaggregation for Learning Poverty and Human Capital Index (HCI) education components when- Figure 3. Expenditure per child of primary school age ever available. Table 1. Sex Disaggregation Indicators and Components Boys Girls All Learning Poverty NA NA 64.5 Learning Deprivation NA NA 63.8 Schooling Deprivation NA NA 1.9 Source: UIS and World Bank as of May 2021. Note: Primary education expenditure per child Human Capital Index 0.58 0.62 0.6 is calculated as total expenditure on primary education divided by total number of children Learning-Adjusted Years of Schooling 8.5 8.8 8.7 of primary school age. Source: UIS and World Bank for LP, LD and SD as of May 2021; EdStats/WDI (World DATA AND DATA GAPS ON LEARNING AND SCHOOL- Development Indicators) for HCI and LAYS (Learning-Adjusted Years of Schooling); The ING IN KYRGYZ REPUBLIC Full Learning Poverty database is available for download at the Development Data Hub. Kyrgyz Republic administers a National Large-Scale Assess- ment (NLSA) at the end of primary school, according to UIS Figure 2. Gender Gap - Learning Poverty by Sex SDG 4.1.1b monitoring. This NLSA is currently being used for interim reporting on SDG 4.1.1 and to monitor Learning Poverty. Kyrgyz Republic participated in the following published cross-national learning assessments in recent years: PISA (2006, 2009). According to the World Bank’s 2009 LeAP diagnostic analysis of Kyrgyz Republic’s assessment system, the country’s ratings on large-scale assessment activities were Emerging (2 out of 4) on Cross-National Learning Assessment and Emerg- ing (2 out of 4) on NLSA. Latent is absence of, or deviation from, attribute. Emerging is partial presence of attribute. Established is acceptable minimum standard on indicator. Advanced is ideal or current best practice. To update results, contact LeAP team. The out-of-school adjustment in Learning Poverty relies on enrollment data. Our preferred de nition is the adjusted net Source: UIS and World Bank as of May 2021. Notes: (1) No gender split in Learning Poverty primary enrollment rate (ANER) as reported by UIS. This is available for Kyrgyz Republic. Only countries with data displayed; and, (2) The closer a data relies both on the population census and EMIS (Educa- country is to the dotted line the smaller its LP gender gap. tion Management Information System). We use enrollment data for the year closest to the assessment year. In the case of Kyrgyz Republic, ANER based on EMIS data is for 2014. Notes: The de nition of NLSA does not include National Exams; LeAP: Learning Assess- ment Platform (LeAP-team@worldbank.org). PISA: Programme for International Student Assessment. For questions related to the data in the brief, contact the EduAnalytics team (eduanalytics@worldbank.org). POINT OF CONTACT Kyrgyz Republic: Gulmira Sultanova Europe and Central Asia: Syedah Aroob Iqbal #LearningPoverty Disclaimer: The numbers in this brief are based on data harmonization e orts by UIS and the World Bank to increase cross-country comparability of learning data. Therefore, numbers may be di erent from o cial statistics reported by governments. Such di erences are due to their di erent purposes, which can be global comparison or meeting national de nitions.