General household survey - Statistics South Africa

Statistics South Africa 14
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According to Figure 11, the percentage of individuals over the age of 20 years who could be regarded as
functionally illiterate has declined from 27,9% in 2002 to 18,1% in 2011. Individuals over the age of 60
years remain most likely to be functionally illiterate, followed by individuals in the age groups 40–59 and
20–39. Improved access to schooling has led to a significant decline in the percentage of functional
illiterate individuals in this group. Between 2002 and 2011, the prevalence of functional illiteracy in the age
group 20–39 years declined noticeably for both men (17,2% to 8,6%) and women (15,8% to 6,5%).
With the exception of women in the age group 20–39, women remain more likely to be functionally illiterate
across all age groups. The difference between men and women has, however, declined significantly over
time. Whereas women over the age of 60 years were much more likely to be functionally illiterate than
males in 2011 (49,3% compared to 43,1%), the difference has declined in each successive age group, to
the point that women in the age group 20–39 were actually less likely to be functionally illiterate than their
males peers in 2011 (6,5% compared to 8,6%).
Figure 11: Percentage of persons aged 20 years and above with no formal education or highest
level of education less than Grade 7 within each gender group, 2002–2011
Literacy rates are used as a key social indicator of development by government and international
development agencies 4 . Although a simple definition of literacy is the ability to read and write, its simplicity
is confounded by questions such as: “Read and write what, how well and to what purpose?” 5 Because it is
so difficult to measure literacy, the GHS has historically measured adult literacy rates based on the
individual’s completing at least Grade 7. Since a specific educational achievement is, however, not
necessarily a good reflection of an individual’s literacy ability, a question that directly measures literacy was
introduced in 2009. The question requires respondents to indicate whether they have 'no difficulty', 'some
4 Dorit Posel. 2011. Adult literacy rates in South Africa: A comparison of different measures. Language matters, 42(1): 39-49
5 Pretorius, in Posel, 2011: 41.
General Household Survey, July 2011