and due to their relative advantages, Tigrigna and Arabic, as well as English (for functional reasons) are used as languages of communications. However, they do not possess any juridical privilege on Level Grade Age the other languages. The Eritrean languages are thus Pre-school 2 years 4-5 progressively promoted and utilized in administration, Elementary 1-5 6-10 judiciary, education, culture, media and other aspects of Middle 6-8 11-13 daily life. Mother tongue education as a right in Secondary 9-12 14-17 particular is respected and protected as an essential element of maintaining social justice. The right of every child to learn in his/her own mother tongue or any other local language of choice at primary school level has been implemented as a policy and is also sanctioned by law. The policy also promotes the opportunity to continue the mother tongue as a subject beyond elementary, but this has not been implemented fully due to circumstances and limitations of capacity. 165. Mother tongue primary schools are opened and the right is respected no matter the size of the student population. The range of the use of the mother tongues in the six regions has thus dramatically increased from the lowest 3 in the Southern Red Sea Region to the highest 6 medium of instruction languages in the Gash Barka Region. The policy has contributed in maintaining social justice, social emancipation, transfer of basic values as cultural heritage and ensuring the effectiveness of education from the early ages. The myth that the huge economic and management cost of the mother tongue education policy will be a burden to the government and the society and hinder progress has been shattered by its great value. 166. The situation of out of school children is a critical issue equity in education. The 2016 MOE study has identified the reasons and has come up with recommendations. The study revealed that 33.7% children fail to enroll in pre-primary, elementary and middle levels. The data also shows that out of school children encompass 64,123 (73%) of age 5, 65,063 (19%) age 6-10 and 91,410 (41%) of age 11-13. Hence, Elementary Complimentary Education (ECE) is introduced as a programme to addresses the right of the 9-14 age children who are out of school. In 2016, the number of beneficiaries of this programme reached 6,751 children (46% of them girls) in 108 villages from disadvantaged areas. During this period 81% completed the 3 year programme and continued in the middle level regular schools. Relevance of Educational Provision 167. In terms of relevance, age across educational levels (table below) has been defined by policy. Accordingly, the right of children to enroll at the right age has improved. In spite of some irregularities and back log in implementation, the age ranges of education in the school system are thus working effectively contributing to reduction of opportunity cost due to various factors. 168. In general, Gross Enrolment Ratios (GER) and Net enrolment ratios (NER) have increased at all levels of the schools system. While the level of the NER at the primary level Page 37 of 100