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Literacy Among Young Women
One of the World Fit for Children goals is to assure adult literacy. Adult literacy is also an
MDG indicator for both men and women. In the AMICS, since only a women s
questionnaire was administered to adults, the results are based only on responses from
females aged 15-24. Literacy was assessed based on the ability of women to read a short
simple statement, or based on her highest school level attained. In the AMICS, a woman
who attended secondary school or higher was counted as literate. A woman who did not
attend secondary school or higher was given a sentence to read. She was counted as literate
if she could read the entire sentence. The literate rate of young women aged 15-24 is
presented in Table 10.1.
Table 10.1: Literacy among young women
Percentage of women age 15-24 years who are literate, Afghanistan, 2010-2011
Region
Percentage
literate 1
Percentage not known
Number of women
age 15-24 years
Central 40.5 0.3 1,762
Central Highlands 34.6 0.1 343
East 16.4 0.1 866
North 24.2 0.5 1,257
North East 20.8 0.0 1,799
South 2.7 0.0 1,259
South East 16.1 0.1 1,121
West 21.9 0.6 1,213
Residence
Urban 51.6 0.6 1,868
Rural 15.1 0.1 7,752
Education
Age
None 1.1 0.1 6,749
Primary 28.9 1.1 1,135
Secondary + 100.0 0.0 1,733
15-19 27.7 0.3 5,510
20-24 14.8 0.2 4,110
Wealth index quintile
Poorest 5.1 0.1 1,673
Second 10.6 0.1 1,797
Middle 13.0 0.0 1,875
Fourth 23.8 0.3 2,029
Richest 50.3 0.4 2,245
Total 22.2 0.2 9,620
1
MICS indicator 7.1; MDG indicator 2.3
Table 10.1 indicates that less than one in five women in Afghanistan are literate and that the
women s literacy rate in rural areas is more than three times lower than in urban areas. Of
women who stated that primary school was their highest level of education attained, only
29% were actually able to read the sentence shown to them. Literacy among women living
in the poorest households is 10 times lower than their counterparts in the wealthiest
quintile.
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