Andrew
Online Reporter
About 94 percent of Zimbabwe’s population is literate, a report released on Tuesday shows.
According to the 2022 Population and Housing Census Preliminary Report on Education, all provinces across the country have a literacy rate above 90 percent.
“The population aged 15 years and above who had completed at least Grade Three of primary education was classified as literate,” the report reads.
“National literacy rate was 93, 7 percent and was higher in the urban areas (97, 1 percent) compared with rural areas (91, 3 percent). Literacy rate was 95, 2 percent for males and 92, 4 for females.”
The literacy rate was highest in Harare and Bulawayo provinces, with the two provinces recording 97,5 percent and 96,9 percent, respectively.
The report also showed that there is a low uptake in sciences, while disciplines such as business, administration and law had the highest uptake.
“The major fields of specialisation as indicated by the number of persons specialising in the respective disciplines were Business, Administration and Law (154 742 persons), Education (141 184 persons) and Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction, (109 238). Natural sciences, mathematics and statistics were the least, with 14 843 persons specialising in them,” the report added.
“There were different preferences in fields of specialisation between males and females. For males, the main field of specialisation was Engineering, Manufacturing and Construction constituting 25,2 percent of the total while for females, Education was the main field of specialisation with 27,6 percent of the total.”
Online Reporter