There are approximately 70,000 children aged 6-11 in each year and approximately
11,000 aged 12 (exact sample sizes are in the Tables). Construction of the estimation
samples is described in Table 1. Comparing (weighted) averages from the two rounds
of the survey shows that attendance amongst 6-11 year-olds increased from 69.5 per
cent in 1992/3 to 82.5 per cent in 1998/9, and that growth in attendance was more
rapid for girls than for boys (see the bottom of Table 4). In contrast, the primary
school completion rate declined, from 65.3 per cent to 61.7 per cent. The decline was
larger for girls than for boys, suggesting that the gender gap in completion widened
even as the gap in attendance shrunk (see the bottom of Table 5).