part a: strategic overview - Department of Education

When comparing the school-age population (Graph 5:7-18 age group) with the actual
learner enrolment recorded in the Annual Survey, a pattern emerges for the period 1995
to 2001 that was reversed in 2002. School enrolment for the seven-year period 1995 to
2001 was consistently higher than the equivalent school-aged population. This normally
indicates that a proportion of the learner enrolment is either over-aged or under-aged
and probably both. In 2002 however, the reported enrolment in the Annual Survey was
slightly below the total population aged 7 to 18. This will be investigated further in the
section dealing with indicators.
Graph 5: School Age Population Aged 7-10 Years compared with reported Learner Enrolment for
the Period 1995-2002
2500000
2000000
1500000
1000000
500000
0
1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002
School Age Population Learner Enrolment
13.4 Socio-economic Deprivation in Eastern Cape Communities
Since communities play a vital part in supporting the provision of education, it is
important to review the socio-economic environment in which those communities exist.
In order to undertake a comparison, a socio-economic deprivation index has been
calculated for education districts by combining various social and economic criteria from
the 2001 Census.
The following criteria were used to create the index:
� Functional Literacy - percentage of the adult population that has attained at least
Grade 6 schooling, divided by the total number of adults (age 20 and above) See
Map 4 on page 80.
� Per Capita Income - total annual income divided by the total population
� Percentage of households with electricity (supplied by Eskom or a local municipality)
Each criterion was ranked from worst to best, given equal weight and combined into a
single standardized index ranging from 1 (most poor) to 0 (least poor). It is important to
note that the score measures relative rather than absolute disadvantage within the
Eastern Cape, and compares the performance of districts to one another and not to a
defined national benchmark.
Education districts with the highest score, or those identified to be the most
disadvantaged in terms of the criteria used, are typically characterized by:
� High unemployment
5 Year ECDoE Strategic Plan for 2005/06 to 2009/10. March 2006 Page 68
5 Year ECDoE Strategic Plan for 2005-06 to 2009-10. 21 F (4) Page 64
part C: background information