Higher number of children attending school

30 June 2016 - 21:43 By Penwell Dlamini

The number of children and youth undergoing compulsory schooling in South Africa has increased substantially. The Community Survey 2016 released by Statistics SA on Thursday showed that enrolment rates of children between the ages of five and nine years has quadrupled from 22.5% in 1996 to 91% in 2016. Enrolment rates among children aged six in the same period have nearly doubled from 49.1% to 95.7%.However‚ enrolment rates from the age of 18 showed a decline with enrolment for individuals aged 24 declining by nearly two thirds‚ from 23.1% to 14.8%.The report also showed that among children aged five years and older‚ females (51.7%) were more likely to not attend educational institutions than males. Three provinces reflected this trend - Limpopo at 56%‚ Eastern Cape 54% and KwaZulu-Natal at 53.8%.However‚ the number of people who had no schooling at all declined from 3.7 million in 1996 to 2.3 million in 2016.There has also been an increase in the number of people who have completed a bachelor's degree‚ from 410‚686 in 1996 to 1.2 million in 2016.In the same period‚ people who have completed secondary education tripled from 3.5 million to 11.9 million. In the age group of 55 to 64 years‚ the number of people with a bachelor’s degree increased five-fold from 33‚549 in 1996 to 171‚424 in 2016. ..

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