Less than a third in SA have matric

2012-10-30 10:39

(File, Die Burger)

Cape Town - Less than a third of South Africans have completed matric, according to the Census 2011 results released on Tuesday.

The results reveal 28.4% of the population completed grade 12, compared to 20.4% in 2001.

The percentage of people who had some form of secondary education grew from 30.2% in 2001 to 33.8% in 2011.

A further breakdown shows 8.6% have not had any schooling at all, compared to 17.9% in 2001.

"There is a relatively high percentage of persons aged 20 years and older with no schooling in Limpopo [17.3%], followed by Mpumalanga (14%)," the census document says.

The Western Cape has the lowest number of persons aged 20 and higher who have not had any form of education (2.7%).

The number of South Africans with a post-matric qualification is 12.1%, an increase from 9.1% in 2001.

"The province with the highest proportion of the population aged 20 years or more with post-grade 12 qualifications is Gauteng [18%], followed by the Western Cape [14.4%]," the document shows.

- SAPA