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.

-Newsday