Within the Africa region, the general trend is highly diverse, with notable progress between 2000 and 2012 recorded in Ghana (net increase of 38.6 per cent), Rwanda (26.9 per cent), Morocco (25.7 per cent) and the United Republic of Tanzania (22.5 per cent), slight stagnation in others, and severe declines in Benin, Burkina Faso, Chad, Cote d’Ivoire, Eritrea, Mali and Niger. Subregional differences are shown in figure 3.7, with North and Southern Africa having higher schooling rates than the other sub-regions, and Central Africa scoring significant lower for women - a dramatically low 2.5 years of schooling for girls and the widest gender gap (almost two years). This has been a critical factor in arriving at close to universal primary education enrolment.