Chronicle Editor
Nqobile Tshili, Chronicle Reporter
A report has revealed that six percent of the country’s population aged 25 and above has never attended formal education and the majority of them come from Matabeleland North.
The Zimbabwe National Statistics Agency (Zimstat) Education Statistics Report of 2018-2020 released on Tuesday shows that from the country’s adult population, 331 000 people have never been in school.
“Of the 5,5 million people aged 25 and above in 2019, 331 000 (six percent) of them had never been to school. Most of the people who had never been to school were at least 50 years old,” reads the report.
The Zimstat report shows that Matabeleland North, at 10,8 percent, has the highest number of citizens who have never been to school followed by Mashonaland Central with 9,7 percent and Midlands with 7,3 percent.
Masvingo has 7,2 percent, Matabeleland South 7,1 percent, Mashonaland East 6,5 percent, Mashonaland West 6,4 and Manicaland has 5,9 of their population aged 25 years and above that have never been in school.
Bulawayo at 1,3 percent has the least number followed by Harare at 3,1 percent.
“Reasons for having never attended school also include financial constraints, health related problems, among others.
Looking at the population that had never been to school, the highest proportion was from the poorest households,” reads the report.
The report also shows that some parents have not fully embraced the country’s Early Childhood Development learning as they delay to send their children to school.
“Out of the 1,2 million children in the age group 3-4 years, a majority of them, 60 percent had never been to school.
This is despite the fact that children in this age group are expected to be attending early childhood education.
Studies have shown that children at this age do not attend school mainly because parents feel that they are still too young,” reads the report.
Zimstat shows that 97 percent of pupils aged six to 12 have remained in school while 11 percent proceed to tertiary institutions.
“Among children of lower secondary going age 13-16, about 84 percent of them were in school while about 16 percent had already left school.
Just over half of the children in the upper secondary going school age (17 to 18 years) had left school.
Between the ages 19 and 24 years, majority had left school with only 11 percent being at school and probably attending tertiary education,” read the report.
The report shows that the enrolment at universities is dominated by females but in science, engineering, mathematics and technology courses males dominate the field.
“In most of the universities, enrolment is in favour of females
. It is important to note that there are more males than females in universities that have special mandates of offering training in science and technology.
In 2020, females constituted 35 percent of the enrolment at the Manicaland State University of Applied Sciences, 39 percent at the Harare Institute of Technology, 44 percent at the Marondera University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology and 44 percent at the National University of Science and Technology,” reads the report. — -@nqotshili
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