Gender Parity in Access to Education (The Case of Secondary Level Education in Urban and Rural Areas of Iran)

The aim of present study is to examine Gender Parity Index (GPI) in access to secondary level of education in urban and rural areas of Iran. Using data from 2006 national census on the school-aged population as well as data from the statistical yearbook of the Ministry of Education on the number of student population, Gender Parity Index (GPI) has been calculated for each grade through dividing the female Gross Enrolment Ratio by the male Gross Enrolment Ratio. Analysis of GPI reveals gender difference between boys and girls across districts. For the first grade, in urban areas there were 74% disparities in favour of boys, 7% in favour of girls and 19% tended towards gender parity. This pattern is in sharp contrast with rural areas, where disparities in favour of boys were 100%. For rural and urban areas on the whole, gender disparities in favour of boys existed in 97% of cases while only in 3% of cases there existed gender parity. For the second grade, in urban areas 17% disparities found in favour of boys, 14% in favour of girls and in other remaining 69% of cases there were gender parity. On the contrary, in rural areas there were 90% disparities in favour of boys, and 10% tend towards gender parity., Corresponding figures for rural and urban areas on the whole were 77% and 23% respectively. Gender disparities in the third grade and for urban areas, were 30% in favour of boys, 7% in favore of girls, and in other 63% remaining cases, it was equally balanced between sexes. These figures are comparable with 90%, 7%, and 3% for rural areas. Results show that disparities for all the three grades of the secondary level of education in urban areas were 39% in favour of boys', 3% in girl's favour and 58% balanced towards parity. In rural areas, there were 93% disparities in favour of boys and other remaining 7% tend towards gender parity. For rural and urban areas on the whole, the analysis demonstrated that in the Secondary level of Education there are 84% disparities in favour of boys and 16% balanced towards gendered parity.