Zim literacy rate drops to 93,7% 

Source: Zim literacy rate drops to 93,7% –Newsday Zimbabwe

THE Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (ZimStat) preliminary education survey results have revealed that nearly a million Zimbabweans aged four years and above are illiterate.

The education survey, part of the 2022 population and housing census, indicates that 6% of the country’s population aged from four years and above have never been to school.. With Zimbabwe’s population now pegged at about 15 million, it means roughly 900 000 people fall in this category.

The survey also revealed that the country recorded a 2,3% decline in literacy rate from 96% in 2012 to 93,7% in 2022.

ZimStat said some of the benchmarks used to measure the literacy rate included the population aged at least 15 years, which has completed at least Grade 3 being classified as literate.

The literacy rate in the country is said to be higher among men at 95,2% compared to 92,4% for women.

In both rural and urban areas, the main reasons for not attending school were financial constraints, affecting 42,6% of the children in urban areas, compared to 35% rural children.

Some of the reasons were failure to value education, and viewing oneself as still too young to attend school.

In both urban and rural areas, females constituted a greater proportion of persons who never attended school.

“The 2022 population and housing census collected information on the reasons for leaving school. Among the population aged four to 24 years, 44,9% cited financial constraints as the main reason for leaving school,” the ZimStat report read.

“Marriage or pregnancy-related reasons were cited by 18,2%.   About 52 % of the males left school due to financial constraints, compared with 38,8% of females. Marriage or pregnancy-related reasons were cited more among females (31,7%) than males (3%). Financial constraints were the main reasons why persons aged four to 24 years left school for both rural (50,2%) and urban (36,7%) areas. This was followed by marriage or pregnancy-related reasons for both rural (19,8%) and urban areas (15,7%).”

Another ZimStat survey conducted earlier this year showed that parents and guardians could no longer afford paying school fees, with only 26% able to meet education expenses for their children.

The survey was conducted through telephone interviews by ZimStat in partnership with the World Bank and United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund. It was based on the poverty, income, consumption and expenditure surveys of 2017 and 2019.

The results showed that the highest proportion of school attendance was recorded in Masvingo province (71,6%) and the lowest proportion of 63,5% was recorded in Mashonaland Central province.