Back to school: How many children are repeating their year?

Many children start school late and repeat classes. The result is that many leave school early, as they have not progressed quickly enough through the education system and are instead pulled into work, marriage and childbearing. At least partly because of the rapid expansion of primary and lower secondary education since the late 1990s, which led to overcrowding and other challenges in learning environments, repetition rates started to increase in the 2000s. Less discussed than other angles on the topic of access to education, this third blog in the back-to-school series looks at how prevalent repetition is and where.

Why is school repetition an important policy issue?

While repetition has been conceived as a positive measure, aiming to give students who have not achieved the expected level of proficiency a second chance, there are in fact negative consequences of repetition. Not only has it been difficult to prove that repeating a grade has the expected effect on learning (or that having let these students progress would not have helped them catch up) but delaying progression by a year or more has impact on student well-being as well, ultimately, on their chance to reach the end of the education cycle.

Simply put, when children are too old for their grade, the risk that they will eventually drop out increases.

“I dropped out when I was in my last year of primary school. When it was time to pass the exams, our teacher found that my age had exceeded the normal age allowed for primary school because I enrolled very late. So, he asked me to look for a new birth certificate which would reduce my age. However, because I didn’t want to go through the process of getting a new birth certificate, I simply decided to drop out and started to learn some work skills till I got married.”

In many poorer countries, the percentage of children, adolescents and youth who reach the end of primary, lower and upper secondary school on time (timely completion – or within 3 to 5 years of the official graduation age) is much lower than the percentage of those who eventually graduate with even more years of delay (ultimate completion). This implies that either the children are entering school (and therefore finishing school) late, or that they are repeating years and taking longer to finish each education level.

The gap between those completing on time, and those completing late is higher in low- and lower-middle-income countries, especially in Africa, than the rest of the world – and in primary and lower secondary than in upper secondary education. For instance, in low-income countries the completion rate is lower than the ultimate completion rate by 11 percentage points in primary education and by 9 percentage points in lower secondary education.

Many children complete school late

How many are repeating?

Repetition rates ave been falling in most countries. In primary education, for instance, 118 countries have data on repetition for both 2000–04 and 2020–24. Repetition rates fell in practically every country, on average, in these 20 years by about two thirds. Among countries where repetition was over 10% in 2000–04, repetition fell by at least 85% in Ethiopia, Guatemala, the Lao People’s Democratic Republic and Malawi. However, it remained high in Cameroon (13%), Chad (14%), Rwanda (23%) and Madagascar (27%).

In lower secondary education, over this 20-year period, 113 countries have data on repetition for both 2000–04 and 2020–24. At this level, too, repetition rates fell in most countries, on average by about 40%, although it increased in a few countries, notably in Ethiopia and Malawi, two countries that had almost eliminated repetition in primary education.

At this level, as the figure below shows, among countries where repetition was over 10% in 2000–04, repetition fell by at least 85% in Costa Rica, Oman and Venezuela. However, repetition remains high in others. In Benin, Chad, Ethiopia and Niger, around one in five children or more are repeating years in lower secondary education.

The large fall in repetition rates is the main reason for the apparent inconsistency between stagnating out-of-school rates and increasing completion rates. As systems in low- and middle-income countries expanded and their capacity strained to absorb more students, quality declined in many countries, forcing repetition rates up and halting students’ progress. But as systems have been adjusting in recent years, student numbers may no longer appear to increase as fast, partly because there are fewer repeaters – which also means that students are more likely to progress and reach the end of each cycle.

More analysis is needed to understand the characteristics of repetition

Despite the positive trends, repetition remains difficult to measure accurately, especially in early grades, where persistently high gross intake ratios in grades 1 and 2 suggest that repetition may be under-reported in some poorer countries. Some studies show inconsistencies between repetition rates from administrative statistics and surveys. For example, in Uganda, administrative records showed that 11% of grade 1 students were repeaters in 2017, while surveys of teachers (41%) and parents (52%) suggested repetition was much higher.

One way to assess whether repetition data are accurate is to examine the age of students as they move up grades. Logically, students in grade 2 should be, on average, one year older than those in grade 1 unless they have repeated a grade or more. The GEM Report cross checked repetition data against the age of students in grade 1 and found a positive relationship. Countries with low repetition rates have more children of the expected age for their grade in school, while countries such as Burundi, Madagascar and Rwanda show both high ageing and high reported repetition.

Many children are over-age for their grade

However, there is no direct correlation between repetition rates and children’s age/grade in all countries, which suggests that some countries may be underreporting repetition in administrative data. Repetition may also be under-reported in countries with automatic promotion policies, because schools may hesitate to report it.

In other contexts, high repetition in grade 1 may, in fact, be because children started primary school early, and repeated the year to wait until they are of the right age to move on. Parents may enrol under-age children directly in free primary school rather than in fee-paying or less accessible preschools, increasing the likelihood of grade repetition. Cameroon provides an example, which this teacher’s testimony also shows. In 2023, there were 260,000 7-year-olds enrolled in grade 1. Around 30,000 may have been entering school for the first time. This means that at least 230,000 were probably repeating grade 1. Yet only 160,000 repeaters were officially recorded, leaving more than 70,000 unaccounted for.

Progression requires support

A policy lesson is that interventions are needed before students become stuck: identify learning difficulties early, provide effective remedial support, and monitor whether children are progressing at the right age. Although the idea of going back to school for most indicates opening a school gate, much closer attention is needed to whether students falter along the way.

As part of the 2026 GEM Report cycle, the fourth in the Spotlight series on Africa – the region most affected by these phenomena – will look at late enrolment and repetition.

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