Literacy-the ability to read and write-is arguably the single most important factor in determining a person’s career arc. For those who can read and write, the range of possible vocations is vast-even highly skilled, high-paying careers are within reach. Globally, some progress on women’s rights has been achieved.
Quality education has always been inaccessible to females in Africa. Whether it is due to poverty, climate change, cultural resistance, or blatant unwillingness, the gender education gap in Africa has been prominent for decades. Investing in education is crucial for female empowerment and sustainable development.
Here, we delve into the female literacy rate statistics in South Africa, examining the progress, challenges, and factors influencing these trends.
Global Literacy Rates: An Overview
As a whole, the global literacy rate is high. The literacy rate for all males and females that are at least 15 years old is 86.3%. Males aged 15 and over have a literacy rate of 90%, while females lag only slightly behind at 82.7%. However, massive country-to-country differences exist.
Developed nations almost always have an adult literacy rate of 96% or better. In contrast, the least developed nations manage an average literacy rate of only 65%. Direct country-to-country comparisons of literacy tend to be inexact. Poverty and illiteracy tend to go hand-in-hand.
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There is also a gender gap in literacy: Of the roughly 781 million adults worldwide who cannot read or write, nearly two-thirds are female. This disparity is particularly noticeable in less-developed countries, in which women are often expected to stay at home and care for the house and children while the men go off to work. The developed nations of the world have much higher literacy rates with smaller gaps-if any-between the genders.
According to data released by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, literacy rates for adults and youth continue to rise. Young women aged 15-24 are making the strongest gains, but still lag behind young men. In 2011, 87% of female youth had basic literacy skills, compared to 92% of males. Despite these gains, 774 million adults (15 years and older) still cannot read or write - two-thirds of them (493 million) are women. Among youth, 123 million are illiterate of which 76 million are female.
A combination of ambitious goals, insufficient and parallel efforts, inadequate resources and strategies, and continued underestimation of the magnitude and complexity of the task accounts for this unmet goal.
South Africa's Female Literacy Rate: A Closer Look
Since 2010, South Africa has had a good female literacy rate. In 2010, the female literacy rate was 98.90%. With time eventually, the rate has decreased. Between 2010-2021, the female literacy rate in South Africa has decreased by 6.81%. In 2021, the rate was 92.17%.
Statista also published The Gender Parity Index for gross enrollment in tertiary education for South Africa. The GPI increased by 0.03 (2.26%) in 2020 to 1.36.
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To address illiteracy, the South African government launched the Kha Ri Gude Mass Literacy Campaign in February 2008, with the intention of enabling 4,7 million adults above the age of 15 years to become literate and numerate in one of the eleven official languages. Initiated and managed by the Department of Basic Education, Kha Ri Gude delivers across all nine provinces in a massive logistical outreach.
However, work still needs to be done in South Africa to achieve gender equality. As of Dec-20, only 45.9% of indicators needed to monitor the SDGs from a gender perspective were available, with gaps in key areas, in particular: key labour market indicators, such as the gender pay gap. In addition, many areas - such as gender and poverty, physical and sexual harassment, women’s access to assets (including land), and gender and the environment - lack comparable methodologies for regular monitoring.
For this score, we use the 72 gender-specific SDG indicators in the Women Count Data Hub’s SDG Dashboard for the 193 UN Member States. For each indicator, we calculate the 33rd and 66th percentiles of the distribution and, based on those two values, countries are classified as belonging to high performance, medium performance and low performance categories.
Rate of out of school children.
The adolescent birth rate is 1.3 per 1,000 women aged 15-19 as of 2015, down from 76.83 per 1,000 in 2014.
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Table: Gender-Specific SDG Indicators
| Indicator | Description |
|---|---|
| 1.1.1 | Employed population below the international poverty line. |
| 5.2.1 | Proportion of ever-partnered women and girls subjected to physical and/or sexual violence by a current or former intimate partner in the previous 12 months. |
| 5.4.1 | Proportion of time spent on unpaid domestic chores and care work. |
| 4.c.1 | Proportion of teachers who have received at least the minimum organized teacher training. |
| 8.5.2 | Unemployment rate. |
Factors Affecting Female Literacy in Africa
Some factors contributing to this disparity are poverty, climate change, traditional gender roles, child marriages, rapes, and more. Poverty is the root of almost every problem faced by girls in Africa. According to the Africa Renewal report, poverty-stricken families are forced to make decisions about how to utilize highly limited resources.
Low-income families in rural Africa prefer to send boys out for education and earn money while keeping girls at home for household chores and family maintenance. The chances of women dropping out due to this social imposition on girls to uphold family values are high. Thus, parents eventually withdraw their girls from school even if female enrolment rates increase.
These traditional values are a major obstacle to female education. Africa still follows traditional gender roles where women are homemakers and men are family breadwinners. Fueled by gender inequality, poverty, and traditional values, child marriage is still prevalent in most regions of Africa.
Niger, a country in West Africa, has the highest rate of child marriage globally. 3 out of 4 girls in this region get married before they turn 18. A 2022 UNICEF Report showed that in Eastern and Southern Africa, 32% of females were married before the age of 18, making up more than 50 million women. This significantly impacts female enrolment and literacy rates at all education levels.
Another major concern is making the educational facilities safe enough for girls of all ages to gain knowledge freely. A Global Campaign for Education remarked, “Schools should be free and safe for girls.
Climate change is a major factor contributing to the inaccessibility of quality education for women. In the same report, H.E.
Across the region, 9 million girls between the ages of 6 and 11 do not have any chance of going to school, compared to 6 million boys. 23% of girls are out of primary school compared to 19% of boys due to many factors, including poverty, child marriage, the responsibility of household chores, or sheer bias against further educating them.
As the GEM Report stated, only 85 girls for every 100 boys of lower secondary school age attend school. The gender gaps in literacy rates are far wider in the poorer regions of Africa than in any other.
Global Literacy Rates by Region. Source: UNESCO
Progress and Initiatives
Despite this improvement, however, the representation of females in secondary education as compared to men is still low. The increase in Sub-Saharan Africa has been the most prominent. In Africa, significant progress has been made regarding female to male ratio in educational institutes.
Over the past few years, there has been an overall increase in female enrolment and female literacy rates in Africa. Countries show varying rates, but most have steadily risen in recent years.
Literate women are becoming inspirational models for the underprivileged, encouraging them to strive harder for a good education. Old-fashioned attitudes towards female education are changing.
Sustainable Development Goal 4: Quality Education
According to UNESCO estimates, globally 129 million girls are out of school, including 32 million of primary school age, 30 million of lower-secondary school age, and 67 million of upper-secondary school age. Gender parity in elementary education has only been reached in 49% of the world's nations.
The Impact of Female Education
Female education reduces gender inequality and ensures economic growth. It increases productivity levels and earnings for both men and women, which helps to reduce poverty rates.
By supporting girls' education, communities, nations, and the world are transformed. Girls who acquire an education are more likely to lead healthy, fulfilling lives and are less likely to marry early. Education for girls boosts economies and lowers inequality.
Investing in girls’ education at both primary and secondary levels will improve the country’s economic conditions.
Literacy is a cause for celebration since there are now close to four billion literate people in the world.
Hope For Africa's Girls: The Importance of Education
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