Definition

The Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) or Gross Enrollment Index (GEI) is a statistical measure

Statistics

Statistics is the study of the collection, organization, analysis, and interpretation of data. It deals with all aspects of this, including the planning of data collection in terms of the design of surveys and experiments....

 used in the education

Education

Education in its broadest, general sense is the means through which the aims and habits of a group of people lives on from one generation to the next. Generally, it occurs through any experience that has a formative effect on the way one thinks, feels, or acts...

 sector and by the UN in its Education Index

Education Index

This article contains information based on the pre-2010 Human Development Reports. The HDI and its education component have changed in 2010.The United Nations publishes a Human Development Index every year, which consists of the Education index, GDP Index and Life Expectancy Index...

 to determine the number of students enrolled in school at several different grade levels (like elementary, middle school and high school), and examine it to analyze the ratio of the number of students who live in that country to those who qualify for the particular grade level.
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization(UNESCO), describes 'Gross Enrollment Ratio' as the total enrollment within a country "in a specific level of education, regardless of age, expressed as a percentage of the population in the official age group corresponding to this level of education."

Calculating GER

An elementary formula used by most countries to calculate the Gross Enrollment Ratio is that, the country divides the number of children who are of school enrollment age by the number of individuals who are actually enrolled in schools.
Gross Primary School Enrollment Ratio considers children usually between the age of 6 - 11.
Gross Secondary School Enrollment Ratio considers children usually between the age of 12 - 17.
Gross Tertiary Education Enrollment Ratio considers the number of young people in the five-year age group following the secondary school leaving age, that is usually, 17.

Example

For example, if a nation has 900,000 people enrolled in school in the academic year 2005/06, this number is divided by the total number of school-age individuals. Suppose this number is 1,000,000. This means 90 percent of the people are enrolled; or that 90 perecent is the Gross Enrollment Ratio of that nation.

GER = number of actual students enrolled / number of potential students enrolled

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UN Human Development Index use

A combined gross enrolment ratio (CGER), incorporating all three levels of education, is used to calculate the Human Development Index (HDI)

Human Development Index

The Human Development Index is a composite statistic used to rank countries by level of "human development" and separate "very high human development", "high human development", "medium human development", and "low human development" countries...

, an annual gauge of well-being for UN

United Nations

The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...

 member states

United Nations member states

There are 193 United Nations member states, and each of them is a member of the United Nations General Assembly.The criteria for admission of new members are set out in the United Nations Charter, Chapter II, Article 4, as follows:...

. Amongst other measures used in the calculation, the CGER is given one-third weight in assessing the knowledge

Knowledge

Knowledge is a familiarity with someone or something unknown, which can include information, facts, descriptions, or skills acquired through experience or education. It can refer to the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject...

 component, represented by gross enrolment, while the adult literacy

Literacy

Literacy has traditionally been described as the ability to read for knowledge, write coherently and think critically about printed material.Literacy represents the lifelong, intellectual process of gaining meaning from print...

rate is assigned two-thirds weight.