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📚 The UNDP MPI School Attendance Indicator: Measuring Educational Deprivation
The School Attendance indicator is a crucial component of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), which measures acute poverty across more than 100 developing countries. The MPI moves beyond income alone to capture the multiple, overlapping deprivations people face in their health, education, and standard of living.
Purpose and Context
The education dimension of the MPI is essential because lack of education is both a cause and a consequence of poverty, limiting opportunities and perpetuating deprivation. This dimension includes two equally weighted indicators: Years of Schooling and School Attendance.
The School Attendance indicator focuses on current enrollment of children. It ensures that the MPI captures not only the historic educational attainment within a household (measured by Years of Schooling) but also whether the children currently eligible for school are actually attending, which is a direct measure of an immediate, essential human functioning.
Indicator Details and Deprivation Cutoff
The School Attendance indicator identifies a household as deprived based on a specific cutoff. This is applied at the household level, meaning if any child in the house is deprived, all household members are considered deprived in this indicator.
Here are the precise details of the indicator:
| Component | Definition and Weight | Deprivation Cutoff |
| Dimension | Education (1/3 total weight) | - |
| Indicator | School Attendance | Deprived if any school-aged child in the household is not attending school up to the age at which they would complete class 8. |
| Weight | $1/6$ (Half of the education dimension's weight, $1/3 \times 1/2 = 1/6$) | - |
Note: The "school-aged child" is defined as a child of official school entrance age up to the age at which he or she would normally complete class 8. This is typically a standard age range defined nationally, often covering primary and part of lower secondary education.
Role in the Global MPI Calculation
The School Attendance indicator, like the other nine MPI indicators, contributes to a household's overall deprivation score.
Deprivation Score: Each of the two education indicators (Years of Schooling and School Attendance) carries a weight of $1/6$. If a household is deprived in the School Attendance indicator, the deprivation score for that household increases by $1/6$ (or approximately 16.7%).
Poverty Identification: A household (and all individuals within it) is classified as multidimensionally poor if their total weighted deprivation score, summed across all 10 indicators, is $1/3$ (33.3%) or higher.
MPI Value: The final MPI value for a country is the product of the Headcount Ratio ($H$) (the percentage of the population who are MPI poor) and the Intensity of Poverty ($A$) (the average share of weighted deprivations experienced by poor people).
By focusing on School Attendance, the MPI highlights households where children are currently missing out on education, enabling policymakers to specifically target interventions—such as conditional cash transfers or school infrastructure improvements—to address this critical barrier to human development.
.jpg "Measuring the UNDP MPI School Attendance Indicator")
📐 Measuring the UNDP MPI School Attendance Indicator
The School Attendance indicator is one of the ten components of the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), which is jointly published with the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI). This indicator is designed to capture the current educational deprivations faced by children in a household.
The measurement process is straightforward, using data collected through household surveys (such as Demographic and Health Surveys - DHS, and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys - MICS) to determine if a household crosses a defined deprivation cutoff.
Step-by-Step Measurement Methodology
The measurement of the School Attendance indicator follows a clear dual-step process: defining the target group and establishing the deprivation cutoff.
1. Defining the School-Aged Child (Target Group)
The indicator does not apply to all children; it targets the population expected to be in primary or lower secondary school.
Age Range: The relevant population is all children in the household who are of official school age, up to the age at which they would normally complete Class 8 (typically covering primary and part of lower secondary education).
Example: If primary school entry age is 6, and Class 8 is completed at age 13, the indicator applies to all children aged 6 to 13.
2. Establishing the Deprivation Cutoff
The indicator is measured at the household level. A household is considered deprived in School Attendance if any single school-aged child (as defined above) in the household is not attending school.
Rule: If at least one child in the eligible age group is out of school, the entire household is counted as deprived for this indicator.
Significance: This single-child criterion reflects the high priority given to universal education, especially in poverty measurement. A household is not considered non-deprived unless all eligible children are attending school.
Contribution to the Overall MPI Score
Once deprivation is determined, the indicator's weight is added to the household's total deprivation score.
| Component | Standard | Weight in the MPI |
| Dimension | Education | $1/3$ (of total MPI weight) |
| Indicator | School Attendance | $1/6$ (Half of the education dimension's weight) |
| Deprivation Cutoff | Any school-aged child is not attending school up to the age they would complete Class 8. | - |
| Deprivation Score Contribution | If deprived, the household's score increases by $1/6$ (approx. 16.7%). | - |
Identifying the Multidimensionally Poor
A household is identified as multidimensionally poor (or MPI poor) if the sum of their weighted deprivations across all 10 indicators (Health, Education, and Living Standards) reaches a score of $\mathbf{1/3}$ (or $\mathbf{33.3\%}$) or more.
If a household is deprived in only the School Attendance indicator, its deprivation score is $1/6$, which is below the $1/3$ poverty threshold. This highlights the core concept of the MPI: acute poverty is defined by multiple, simultaneous deprivations. A household must be deprived in School Attendance plus other indicators (e.g., Years of Schooling, Nutrition, or multiple Living Standards indicators) to be classified as multidimensionally poor.
.jpg "The UNDP MPI School Attendance Indicator")
🎓 Measuring Deprivation: The UNDP MPI School Attendance Indicator
The Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), published by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), offers a comprehensive measure of acute poverty that goes beyond income. It captures simultaneous deprivations across three key dimensions: Health, Education, and Standard of Living.
The Education dimension includes two indicators: Years of Schooling and School Attendance. The School Attendance indicator is crucial for revealing current deprivations in a child's right to education.
The School Attendance Indicator: Target Group and Measurement
The School Attendance indicator focuses on ensuring that children of school age are actively participating in the education system. Unlike some other MPI indicators that focus on adult achievement (like Years of Schooling), this indicator directly targets the current educational status of children in the household.
Key Details of the Indicator
The following table outlines the target group, the deprivation cutoff (the condition under which a household is considered deprived in this indicator), and its weight in the overall MPI calculation.
| Feature | Description |
| Dimension | Education |
| Indicator Name | School Attendance |
| Target Group | Any school-aged child in the household. |
| Deprivation Cutoff | The household is deprived if any school-aged child is not attending school up to the age at which they would normally complete Class 8. |
| Poverty Cutoff Definition | A household is deprived if at least one child of school-going age for up to the age they should complete class 8 is out of school. |
| Weight in MPI | $\frac{1}{6}$ (The Education dimension has a total weight of $\frac{1}{3}$, and this is one of two indicators in the dimension). |
Note on School-Aged Child: The specific age range for a "school-aged child" is determined by the official school entrance age and the typical age for completing Class 8 in each country. This ensures that the measurement is culturally and nationally relevant.
How Deprivation is Assessed
The MPI is calculated at the household level. This means:
Data Collection: Household surveys (like Demographic and Health Surveys - DHS, or Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys - MICS) collect information on whether each child in the household, up to the relevant age for completing Class 8, is currently attending school.
Deprivation Status: If even a single school-aged child in the household is found not to be attending school (up to the specified age for Class 8 completion), the entire household (and every person in it) is marked as deprived in the School Attendance indicator.
Contribution to Poverty: This deprivation contributes a weighted score of $\frac{1}{6}$ (or approximately $16.7\%$) to the household's total deprivation score.
MPI Poor Classification: A person is classified as multidimensionally poor if their total weighted deprivation score across all ten MPI indicators is $\frac{1}{3}$ ($33.3\%$) or greater. A deprivation in School Attendance alone is not enough to classify a household as MPI poor, but it is a substantial contributor, making it a critical measure of educational hardship.
Policy Relevance
The School Attendance indicator serves as an essential policy tool because:
It reflects current hardship: It captures a contemporary deprivation, unlike the Years of Schooling indicator which reflects past achievements.
It highlights the need for targeted intervention: A high deprivation rate in this indicator points directly to systemic failures in school enrolment or retention, requiring policies focused on getting children into classrooms and ensuring they stay there.
It aligns with Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG 4): By measuring non-attendance, it helps monitor progress toward the goal of inclusive and equitable quality education.
The MPI's School Attendance indicator thus serves as a high-impact, policy-relevant metric for understanding acute poverty. By identifying households where even one school-aged child is out of school, it cuts through national averages to highlight the most vulnerable families facing concurrent deprivations in health, living standards, and education. The $\frac{1}{6}$ weighting ensures that educational exclusion carries significant importance in a person's overall poverty profile. Ultimately, tracking this indicator allows governments and international bodies to effectively monitor and target the interconnected hardships that prevent millions of children from achieving their right to education, thereby enabling more precise and impactful poverty reduction strategies aligned with global goals like SDG 4.
.jpg "The Deprivation Cutoff for UNDP MPI School Attendance")
📚 The Deprivation Cutoff for UNDP MPI School Attendance
The Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), a vital measure of acute poverty used by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI), is based on deprivations across three dimensions: Health, Education, and Standard of Living.
The School Attendance indicator, within the Education dimension, is designed to capture current educational exclusion. It assesses whether school-aged children within a household are actively participating in the education system. Unlike the Years of Schooling indicator, which looks at completed education, this indicator focuses on present opportunity.
The Deprivation Cutoff Explained
For the School Attendance indicator, the deprivation is assessed at the household level. The cutoff is set to identify whether any child within the household is being denied or is missing out on their right to a basic education.
A household is considered deprived in the School Attendance indicator if the condition described in the table below is met.
| Feature | Details |
| Dimension | Education |
| Indicator | School Attendance |
| Target Group | Any school-aged child in the household. |
| Deprivation Cutoff | The household is deprived if any school-aged child is not attending school up to the age at which they would normally complete Class 8. |
| Unit of Measurement | Household Level |
| Indicator Weight | $\frac{1}{6}$ (of the total MPI score) |
Critical Components of the Cutoff:
"Any school-aged child": The focus is on the most vulnerable members—the children. If a household has multiple children, only one child being out of school is enough to mark the entire household as deprived in this indicator.
"Up to the age... complete Class 8": This establishes the relevant age range. The age range is determined by the official school entrance age in the country up to the age at which a child should complete Class 8 (typically corresponding to lower secondary education). This ensures that the global standard aligns with national educational structures.
"Not attending school": This is the core condition of deprivation. Simply being enrolled is not sufficient; the child must be actively attending school.
Impact on the Multidimensional Poverty Index
Once a household is identified as deprived in School Attendance, this deprivation contributes to the household's overall weighted deprivation score.
Weighting: The School Attendance indicator is one of the ten MPI indicators, and one of two within the Education dimension (which is weighted at $\frac{1}{3}$ of the total MPI). Therefore, the School Attendance deprivation has a weight of $\frac{1}{6}$ in the final calculation.
Poverty Identification: To be classified as multidimensionally poor, a person must be deprived in at least $\frac{1}{3}$ (33.3%) of the weighted indicators. A deprivation in School Attendance ($\approx 16.7\%$) is a significant portion of this threshold.
This mechanism ensures that current educational exclusion is treated as a major component of acute poverty, providing policy makers with a clear metric to target interventions aimed at improving school enrolment and retention for children.
.jpg "Educational Poverty for UNDP MPI School Attendance")
🎯 The Threshold of Educational Poverty for UNDP MPI School Attendance
The Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), a joint initiative of the UNDP and OPHI, measures acute poverty by identifying multiple and overlapping deprivations at the household level. It employs a two-tier system of cutoffs: an indicator-specific deprivation cutoff and an overall poverty cutoff.
The School Attendance indicator, crucial for reflecting current educational exclusion, must satisfy its own deprivation cutoff before contributing to a household's overall poverty score.
The Two Cutoffs: Deprivation vs. Poverty
It is important to distinguish between the two types of cutoffs used in the MPI methodology:
Deprivation Cutoff ($z$): The minimum standard or threshold for a single indicator. If a household falls below this standard, it is marked as deprived in that specific indicator.
Poverty Cutoff ($k$): The overall threshold for a person to be classified as multidimensionally poor. This is the aggregate score of weighted deprivations a person must reach or exceed.
The table below focuses on the Deprivation Cutoff for the School Attendance indicator and its role in calculating the final poverty score.
| Component | Description | Calculation Detail |
| Indicator | School Attendance (Education Dimension) | $\frac{1}{6}$ (of the total MPI score) |
| Target Group | All children in the household who are of school-going age up to the age at which they would normally complete Class 8. | Defined by national laws/norms (e.g., ages 6 to 14 or equivalent). |
| Deprivation Cutoff ($z$) | The household is marked as deprived if ANY child in the target group is NOT ATTENDING SCHOOL. | This is an absolute binary cutoff (attended/did not attend) at the household level. |
| Contribution Score | If the household is deprived, a score of $\frac{1}{6}$ is added to the total deprivation score of every person in that household. | $\frac{1}{6} \approx 16.7\%$ |
| Overall Poverty Cutoff ($k$) | A person is identified as Multidimensionally Poor (MPI Poor) if their total weighted deprivation score across all 10 indicators is $\frac{1}{3}$ (33.3%) or higher. | The School Attendance score ($\frac{1}{6}$) must be combined with at least one other major deprivation (e.g., Years of Schooling, $\frac{1}{6}$) or multiple smaller ones to cross the $\frac{1}{3}$ threshold. |
The Poverty Cutoff Mechanism for the Indicator
The School Attendance indicator's contribution is assessed as follows:
Measuring Deprivation: The data collected from household surveys determines if any eligible child is out of school. If the answer is "Yes," the household has met the deprivation cutoff ($z$) for this indicator.
Weighting: This deprivation is then assigned its weight of $\frac{1}{6}$.
Determining Poverty Status: Since a single deprivation of $\frac{1}{6}$ (or $16.7\%$) is less than the poverty cutoff of $\frac{1}{3}$ ($33.3\%$), a household is not classified as poor based on school non-attendance alone.
Simultaneous Deprivation: To be classified as MPI Poor, the lack of school attendance must overlap with other severe deprivations. For example:
School Attendance ($\frac{1}{6}$) + Years of Schooling ($\frac{1}{6}$) = $\frac{2}{6}$ or $33.3\%$ (exactly the poverty cutoff).
School Attendance ($\frac{1}{6}$) + Child Mortality ($\frac{1}{6}$) + Lack of Electricity ($\frac{1}{18}$) + Lack of Improved Sanitation ($\frac{1}{18}$) = $\frac{6}{18}$ or $33.3\%$ (exactly the poverty cutoff).
In this way, the School Attendance indicator acts as a critical component that, when combined with other fundamental deprivations, identifies a person as acutely multidimensionally poor. It provides a direct measure of educational exclusion as a major facet of poverty.
.jpg "The Unit of Measurement for UNDP MPI School Attendance")
📏 The Unit of Measurement for UNDP MPI School Attendance
The School Attendance indicator in the UNDP Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) does not use a traditional physical unit of measurement (like kilograms or kilometers). Instead, it uses a binary categorical measure applied at the household level to determine deprivation.
Here is a breakdown of the measurement unit, the unit of analysis, and how this indicator contributes to the final MPI score.
Unit of Analysis and Measurement
The unit of analysis for measuring deprivation in the School Attendance indicator is the household, although the ultimate goal is to identify individuals living in poverty.
| Component | Description |
| Unit of Analysis | Household |
| Unit of Measurement | Binary (Categorical) |
| Measurement Values | 1 (Deprived) or 0 (Non-deprived) |
| Deprivation Cutoff ($z$) | The household is marked as Deprived (1) if any school-aged child (up to the age at which they would complete Class 8) is not attending school. |
| Aggregation Rule | This is a "global" or "union" approach: if a single school-aged child is out of school, the deprivation status is applied to every person in that household. |
This structure means that the indicator acts as a switch: if the household fails the minimal standard for even one child, the entire household is considered deprived in that dimension.
Contribution to the Overall MPI Score
The MPI uses a dual-cutoff method: first, determining deprivation in each of the ten indicators, and second, aggregating those deprivations to identify the poor.
1. Indicator Weight
The School Attendance indicator belongs to the Education dimension, which has an overall weight of $\frac{1}{3}$. Since Education has two indicators (Years of Schooling and School Attendance), each indicator is given an equal weight of $\frac{1}{2}$ within the dimension.
A person deprived in the School Attendance indicator contributes $\frac{1}{6}$ (approximately 16.7%) to their total individual deprivation score.
2. Poverty Identification Cutoff
A person is identified as Multidimensionally Poor if their total weighted deprivation score ($c$) is equal to or greater than the poverty cutoff ($k$), which is set at $\frac{1}{3}$ (or $33.3\%$) of all weighted deprivations.
Because the School Attendance indicator has a weight of $\frac{1}{6}$, a person who is deprived in this indicator is already halfway to being classified as multidimensionally poor. This highlights the severe impact that current educational exclusion has on a household's poverty profile.
.jpg "UNDP MPI: School Attendance Indicator Data and Trends")
📊 Understanding UNDP MPI: School Attendance Indicator Data and Trends
The School Attendance Indicator is a critical metric used by educational authorities to monitor and assess student engagement and identify trends in absenteeism. High attendance is strongly correlated with better academic outcomes, making this indicator vital for policy-making and targeted intervention strategies.
Data Source for the School Attendance Indicator
The data underpinning the School Attendance Indicator is typically derived from daily attendance records collected directly from schools. In many systems, such as the one used in England, this data comes from the School Census or automated daily submissions by participating schools to the Department for Education (DfE).
Key characteristics of the data source include:
Collection Frequency: Data is often collected on a daily or session-by-session basis (one session equals half a day).
Data Points: The records include the attendance code for each pupil for both the morning and afternoon sessions, allowing for the distinction between authorised and unauthorised absence.
Purpose: The daily data serves as an early indicator to highlight emerging trends, which is later complemented by less frequent but more detailed Accredited Official Statistics that offer granular breakdowns (e.g., by school type, pupil characteristics, and reason for absence).
The overall absence rate is calculated as the total number of sessions missed due to absence for all pupils as a percentage of the total number of possible sessions. A particularly significant measure derived from this data is the persistent absence rate, which counts the percentage of pupils who miss a set threshold of sessions (e.g., 10% or more of possible sessions).
Recent School Absence Trends (Example Data)
The following table presents an illustrative breakdown of overall absence and persistent absence rates by school type, drawing upon combined autumn and spring term data from a recent academic year, reflecting the type of information generated by the School Attendance Indicator.
| School Type | Overall Absence Rate (%) | Persistent Absence Rate (%) |
| Primary Schools | 5.16% | 13.31% |
| Secondary Schools | 8.09% | 21.86% |
| Special Schools | 12.77% | 35.21% |
| All Schools (Combined) | 6.63% | 17.63% |
Note: Data is illustrative of official statistics from Pupil absence in schools in England, Autumn and spring term 2024/25 (UK Department for Education), reflecting combined autumn and spring terms.
The table highlights that:
Overall absence is noticeably higher in Secondary Schools and significantly higher in Special Schools compared to Primary Schools.
The rate of persistent absence is a major concern across all sectors, particularly in Secondary and Special Schools, where more than one-fifth and one-third of students, respectively, are missing a substantial amount of school time.
🌍 Key Data Sources for UNDP's Education and Attendance Indicators
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) does not typically collect raw, school-level attendance data itself. Instead, it relies on major international statistical agencies and national data sources, which are standardized for global comparison.
The UNDP School Attendance Indicator is commonly found as a component of the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) or in its broader Human Development Reports (HDR), and the data is sourced from partners specializing in education statistics and household surveys.
| UNDP Indicator Context | Primary Data Collecting Institution (Source) | Data Source Mechanism/Type |
| Global Education Statistics (e.g., Net Attendance Ratios, Out-of-School Rates) | UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) | Data collected directly from National Ministries of Education and standardized for international comparison. |
| Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) - School Attendance Dimension | Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS) and Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS) (implemented by national agencies, UNICEF, and UNFPA) | Household Survey Data that asks if children of official school age are currently attending school. |
| Human Development Index (HDI) - Education Component | UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) and other international statistical bodies (e.g., World Bank) | Measures based on Expected Years of Schooling and Mean Years of Schooling, which are derived from a combination of administrative and census data. |
| United Nations Statistics | United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) | Collects data on school attendance from National Statistical Offices through population censuses. |
Conclusion
The data collected for the School Attendance Indicator is indispensable for measuring the health of the education system. The recent statistics confirm that while overall absence rates may show signs of recovery or stabilization from post-pandemic peaks, they often remain above pre-pandemic levels. Crucially, the high rates of persistent and severe absence in all school types—especially in secondary and special schools—signal an ongoing challenge that requires urgent, targeted interventions.
The indicator's consistent monitoring, rooted in reliable daily data submission, allows policymakers and school leaders to identify vulnerable student groups and implement evidence-based strategies to address the root causes of absenteeism, ensuring that all pupils have the consistent access to education necessary for their development and success.