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Literacy in South Africa

September 20, 2017 in Education

Literacy is typically described as the ability to read and write. For the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), literacy is the ability to identify, understand, interpret, create, communicate, compute and use printed and written materials associated with varying contexts. Statistics South Africa defines literacy as the ability to read and write in at least one language.

The table above highlights the distribution of literacy levels among adult individuals aged 25–64 across all provinces. The province with the highest proportion of literate adults was Gauteng at 87,5%, followed by Western Cape (85,9%) and Free State (75,9%). Although some variations in literacy were observed across provinces, the percentages were comparable among similar provinces such as mostly traditional or mostly urban provinces. By contrast, as expected, these provinces were likely to have the highest number of adults who were not literate, namely North West (71,7%), followed by Northern Cape (72,1%) and Limpopo (71,3%).

The table above shows that nationally, the proportion of adults aged 35–64 who indicated that they were literate was 79,3%; whilst those who indicated they were illiterate was 20,7%. Despite this pattern nationally, there was a notable difference in the proportion of individuals who indicated they were literate and lived with a disability, and those who were literate and did not live with a disability. The proportion of those who were classified as not disabled and literate was 81,7%, while the percentage of those classified as not disabled and illiterate was 18,3%. The percentage of adults who were literate and lived with a disability was 58,9%, while the percentage of those who were classified as disabled and illiterate was 41,1%. This high level of functional illiteracy amongst adults living with a disability is the consequence of the lack of educational opportunities for children with disabilities.

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