Indicator 1: Gross enrolment in early childhood development programmes, including public, private, and community programmes, expressed as a percentage of the official age-group concerned, if any, otherwise the age-group 3 to 5.

Indicator 2: Percentage of new entrants to primary grade 1 who have attended some form of organised early childhood development programme.

Indicator 3: Apparent (gross) intake rate: new entrants in primary grade 1 as a percentage of the population of official entry age.

Indicator 4: Net intake rate: new entrants to primary grade 1 who are of the official primary school-entrance age as a percentage of the corresponding population.

Indicator 5: Gross enrolment ratio.

Indicator 6: Net enrolment ratio.

These indicators are not designed well for the UK education system. The UK does not have the "grades" referred to and we count total numbers of pupils in school, rather than any measure of "intake". However we can derive from the completed tables some general indicators of participation in school by children up to the end of compulsory education.

"Pre-primary" education, here, takes place in nursery schools, and nursery classes in primary schools. Excluded is a large sector of early childhood provision (i.e. playgroups, day nurseries, independent nursery schools and day care in general), on which enrolment data are currently unavailable.

Pre-primary education is concentrated between the ages of 2 and 4. However, the UK is distinctive in international terms in that primary education starts at a younger age than almost anywhere else. Although education is not compulsory until the age of 5, the large majority of 4 year olds in England and Wales are in primary (reception) classes in primary schools. For international purposes, all special school pupils, from age 2 to 10, are considered to be enrolled in primary education.

In Scotland the Government is committed to provide a pre-school education place for every child in their pre-school year whose parents wish it, and to provide a place for every child in the term after their third birthday by 2002. As of September 1997 38% of all 3 and 4year olds were in a publicly funded nursery school or class.

Hence, it is not appropriate to calculate net / gross enrolment ratios in pre-primary education, along with the percentage of primary pupils that are "under-aged" (i.e. under 5) - in practice, there is not always a clear distinction in England and Wales between the pre-primary and primary levels of education.

Instead, the proportion of 2, 3, 4 year olds enrolled, full-time or part-time, in some level of formal education (either pre-primary or primary) has increased as follows:

UK enrolment data in early years education, by year of age, prior to 1993/94 (in particular in 1992/93, which is not shown here) are incomplete. In addition, population and pupils data are collected from different source, households and schools respectively, so that exact comparisons of the two are not possible.

However, it is safe to conclude that, in the UK:

• Relatively few 2 year olds are educated in a formal setting (public-sector nursery, primary or special school) - the proportion has remained fairly constant at around 5-7% between 1989/90 and 1997/98.
• The number of 3 year olds enrolled in formal education has increased, from just under 40% in 1989/90 to 50% in 1997/98.
• The vast majority of 4 year olds are enrolled in pre-primary or primary education. This proportion has increased from just under 90% in 1989/90 to 95% in 1997/98. Although education is not compulsory until age 5, over 80% of 4 year olds in England and Wales are enrolled in primary school classes.

The "gross enrolment" ratio in UK primary education (i.e. number of primary school pupils divided by population 5-11) exceeds 100%. This reflects the large number of "under-aged" pupils (aged 2-4) in primary schools in England and Wales.

A more meaningful measure is the "net enrolment" ratio i.e. the proportion of pupils aged 5-11 that are enrolled in primary schools. This has remained constant, at around 96 - 97% between 1989/90 and 1997/98. In addition, there are a number of 9 and 10 year old pupils in "middle-deemed secondary" schools in England and Wales, counted here as secondary education.

The result is that in 1997/98 there were 39,000 5-11 year olds not enrolled in some level of formal education, less than 1% of the total population. In some cases, alternative (non-school) provision will have been made. Some of this 1% might be explained by genuine error (i.e. in comparing population and pupil data).

In practical terms, education is universal between the ages of 5 and 11.

Again, "gross enrolment" ratios are not meaningful here - as well as 2-4 year olds enrolled in primary education, there are "over-aged" secondary school pupils (i.e. aged 16-18).

The "net enrolment" ratio in compulsory education has remained fairly constant, between 96% and 97%. That is, between 3-4% of 5-16 year olds are not enrolled in education, with roughly 60% of this un-enrolled population being male. Alternative provision will sometimes have been made, and there will be some reporting error. Significantly, though, there are more permanent exclusions in secondary schools than primary schools, and the majority of these are boys.

So, in practical terms, educational is almost universal between the ages of 5 and 16, at which it is compulsory. In some cases, alternative provision is made, and a very small proportion of children are permanently excluded from school - there were 13,000 permanent exclusions from maintained nursery, primary and secondary schools in England in 1996/97.

In Scotland in 1997-98, there were 23 permanent exclusions from primary schools and 92 from secondary schools.