Zimbabwe’s used to boast of one of the top literacy rates in Africa, but the nation is now worse than it was in 2002.
Zimbabwe’s much touted literacy rate of more than 90% has been disputed as having been outdated since the figures are based on data collected by UNESCO and the government more than a decade ago.
According to a Zimbabwe Reads survey conducted in 2011 based on interviews with donor organizations, booksellers, publishers, librarians and educators late 2011 “best guesses are that Zimbabwe’s current literacy rate is now in the low-80s and is dropping. We roughly estimate that the literacy rate for those over 15 is dropping
a half percent each year and that will accelerate to 1% each year as those who left school after 2005 reach age 15,” writes Zimbabwe Reads in its website.
The same organization goes on to state that the Zimbabwean education situation is likely to worsen if the current conditions continue to prevail adding that Zimbabwe might not even be the continent’s highest literary country.
“If current conditions continue, Zimbabwe will have a literacy rate of 70% in 2020. At this stage, it seems unlikely that Zimbabwe still has the highest literacy rate in Africa, with the more reliable estimates from Botswana (85%) and Tunisia (87%) probably surpassing it,” it states.
Zimbabwe Reads observes what it refers to as “a very disturbing tendency” of high rate of children dropping out of school since 2005 where it states that about 15% of the country’s children never enter the school system while a further 30% never make it to secondary schools.
According to the organization, the number of patrons in almost all the libraries in the country continue to decrease since the late 80s with the current figures standing at as less as half the 1989 figures. “In 1989, there were more than 150,000 registered public library users using 76 public libraries. The user numbers for 2011 are certainly less than half of that. The Bulawayo Public Library reported 10,289
patrons for the year preceding July 2011; the National Free Library had 8016 patrons (but only 250 paid the registration fee to borrow).”
The organization has also noted that most libraries in the country carry materials that are published only in English at the neglect of local languages estimating fewer than 50 titles in indigenous languages. Most books with titles in local languages are reported to have been published long ago and have been kept in stock by local
bookshops like Mambo Press.
The Zimbabwean government and UNESCO reports that the country has a literacy rate of more than 90% with the current Minister of Education David Coltart intensifying efforts to restore the education sector which had sharply declined as a result of the economic meltdown which characterized the country for a period spanning to more than a decade.
Meanwhile the United Kingdom through its Department of International Development (DFID), has injected 24 million pounds (around 38 million USD) into the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) in Zimbabwe, to support the country’s second phase of the Education Transition Fund (ETF II) which is a multi-donor pooled fund set up at the inception of the inclusive government in 2009 by Education, Sports, Arts and Culture Minister David Coltart in partnership with UNICEF in a bid to bridge the sector’s funding gap from emergence to recovery.
45 Replies to “Zimbabwe’s literacy rate now very poor”
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Aaah, the sun and the gun, the blaze and the salute! Cde Naked if this not a cock and bull story then tell what is. I did not expect this. Now I belive that it is not wise to let people hear you praise them.
Shobele you are adding another dimension and this time your want us to focus on english spellings when you know you are not good at epellings.
Shobele even your name suggests that you are humpty-dumpty. You love the english language so much. You even see knowledge of it as being a sure way of proving that one is educated.
The ability to read and write has nothing to do with the ability to speak they can exist independent of each other. What do you think of the deaf and dumb.
You are not careful when you write and then start blaming me for being dull enough to see that the emperor is naked. Sebentin when you go I am dirty(thirty) my brother is dirty too (thirty two.) You will never be shobele you are just shona period, my people do not have the type of traits I see in you. ShonaNdebele get lost shobaboon.
Lies zimbos can read nd write better than most. why is this an issue. i wonder
Mugabe is an asshole!!!
@Tich, that was back then bro. Write O’ level Cambridge at any of the centres and see if you can earn a placement with any university, even Zou won’t take you. Things change over time and even if our education standards leave a lot to be desired they are still recognised no wonder we have lots of students going abroad on scholarships and some paying for themselves. if we were down there no university would take us
Thanks R.G. Mugabe for destroying a robust education system that the Rhodesians had established over decades. I recall with very good Cambridge O Levels we could enter some universities and if we talk of A Levels then any reknowned international university would fight to offer us places.
Now enter this dark baboon from Zvimba everything went down the drain. What legacy will he leave behind this bwidi?
TBAristo. you the man!! you don’t scold anyone but you argue your case logically. even if one differs in opinion, you got their attention. you the man!! not all these other thugs who hide behind tribalism and think that if they are Ndebele then every Shona is to blame for the faults of many.
I like the way you argue. keep it clean man. thanks for shading light.
Zimbabwean education standards have dropped so low under Mugabe, that he and the corrupt Zanu PF elite now refuse to allow their children to be educated at home, choosing instead to have them attend expensive private schools and universities in the west, yes you read that right, at the expense of the Zimbabwean taxpayers.
Mugabe and his Military dictatorship are responsible for turning Zimbabwe into the poorest country in the world, with the highest unemployment and lowest life expectancy.
So no amount of clever words and pretty pretences should ever distract attention from the massacres, torture camps, murders, repression, thieving, greed and contempt for the common man that now defines Mugabe and his thuggish Zanu PF party.
It should always be remembered that tyranny is not a political but a humanitarian issue.
Sometimes it is possible to love a country and hate a government. With Mugabe and Zanu PF it should be compulsory.
You simply hate zim to hell with ur lies puppets
Nxa!! Uyahlanya yini wena“ hiya” yini leyo are u inviting the evil spirits of Nehanda n kaguvi na?
I stand out like the sun and blaze all that come my way… love me hate me but never under-rate me. no son of a gun, but a son to a Great God. I blaze, moronic elements, intoxicated by hatred and blinded by evil passions flee from my sight…for i blaze like a 21gun salute… hiya…I am a hummer…shuttering the folly minds and grounding/pulping lame brains to dust. hokoyo…qaphela, ndouyako
utter folly!!! you wonder how some people think. hahahaha. folly unleashed by moronic elements bent on fighting reason and embrace stupidity. spitting venom and reeking like a hyena’s offals. ptu. umlomo wako uyanuka. ptu
Yu are the man juju not this horny dog called Nehondo who’s trying by all means to sleep with Bla Maki like the dying Chando kupisa
Yu are the man juju
“computers have made it possible for students to study at home” really in Zimbabwe? Maybe 70% of school going children might have seen a computer, just as more have seen a car so what? Talk about delusions of grandeur. When you inherited Rhodesia, you also inherited the brits mindset (they still think they pack the punch of an empire). Keep lying to yourself and that wont change the truth, how did the Indian Ambassador Ashok Venkatesan put it…they think they are ‘the most beautiful bride at the wedding,’ apparently unaware of how outsiders view them.” Get your finger out and spit that leathery and wrinkly matibili thing out of your mouth and make progressive contributions to your country. In any case what’s the point of a 90%+ literacy rate when you can’t invent anything and you can’t change the living conditions of your lot? Isn’t it a shame that other countries tax payers invest more to educating zimbabweans than the zimbabwean government? Isn’t it a shame that they spend millions on military expenditure to victimise rural folk, buying expensive foreign cars (mainly German) to drive on substandard roads, globe trotting round the world attending all manner of conferences & living in plush hotels drinking foreign mineral water when their own people are drinking sewerage water? Above all isn’t it a shame that you have uncouth people on such forums who deliberately confuse being patriotic with being partisan and defend these “retrogressive” leaders and policies?
N then ishona lona lithini,eat izi thi Bhiritish ask Bob ukuthi uzama ukuthini
The bottom line is most Zimbabeans can read and write and are therefore are literate. The standard of education and/or quality are subject to debate on another topic.
Wena jumpdaki ungabongisukela! English is the medium by which we teach our children. If a Russian cant read and write his own language and none other he is illiterate. How dull of you to showcase your dullness on such a big platform. At least it does not make you illiterate, neither does pronunciation, (not pronounciation). I dont laugh at my Ndebele friends who say sebentin( seventeen).
Anonymous you are fighting a loosing sole battle. Lay my facts on the table for idiots like you no,no. I lay my facts bare to those who have the capacity to recognise fact from heresy.
Until such a time that we have reasonable people from your clan I will not waste my precious time. I admire your bravery mr Anonymous but cetainly not your lack of tact.
Jumpdaki u remind me of my Shona hoe she is former teacher turned prostitute but I like the way she pronounces the word womb (hwumbuu)
omuzenda bakhithi. kikikiki
Jumpdaki…udakiwe mfo. uyanyanyisa. as if you are better human. lay the facts on the table and argue your case out than to expose your incompetence and ignorance that way. stand up, fyt like a man. abafazi like you are good at churning inhlamba but when challenged to say out the facts they shy away like darkness fleeing from the feeblest of candlelight
When buying the clear beer called eagle they go igolo pint. These species kikikikiki. A dogi.
@ Bro Xo; did i say m afraid…no. you are the one who feels so challenged. if you are intelligent enough to read in-between the lines you would realise that I respect a person for who they are not for where they originate from. it’s all about values and being level headed. I don’t mind leaders from minority ethnic group as long as they are worth their salt. I support people with a vision and and a strategy. look at the politics of the land today. all are interested in lining their pockets at the expense of the suffering public. I don’t mind being led by anyone who knows the way than you who wants to polarise and tribilise (sic) everything. what we want in a leader is someone of repute, integrity, good moral standing and goal driven. for your own infor, I don’t support any of the above mentioned parties as they represent greed and mediocrity. why is it that whenever you feel challenged you throw in dung? let the facts fight not zvako avekuda kujikela amasimba into the ring… if you man enough lay the facts on the table. m ready for you and don’t fool yourself into thinking that you can scare me off by your foul mouth….facts skeem sami
Haa zwanakonapo, the Koreans can donate more PhDs to all our teaboys and garden boys and we will be no .1 again.
There goes shallow minded Jesuit with a naked mind like Naked. If u dont want or u cant send yo kids 2 skul coz u r lazy 2 work dont think everyone must teach kids ukorokoza. Wther thoz computers where bought or donated 2 president Mugabe doesnt matter,what matters z they serving the intended. Dnt jus oppoz 4 the sake of opposing lyk Tsvangirai does tht Mugabe z moving in black car so he wants white.
Very well spoken Anonymous and l guess you are referring to the overzealous Gayhora.
anonymous some of us can speak better Shona than al of you put together. We do not mind a Shona leader even in the heart of Matabeleland, but you, you are so tribal-phobic that you fear another tribe leading. How about a Bemba, or Venda leading for a change? Why not rotate leadership so we can create competition of ideas, thought, and concepts? Are you MaShona so clever that you want to remain exclusive?
you are such a bitter zanu idiot intoxicated with blood of thousands.
you will rot in your hatred. Being Shona or Ndebele doesn’t mean anything. what have you to show for being Ndebele, or Zulu or Shona. It goes to show how your intellect is shallow. you waste your intellectual faculties in churning out rubbish and hatred instead of building a legacy. shame on you. umuntu ngumuntu ngabantu. kwete zvenyu izvi. you are less man if you rejoice in belonging to a certain ethnic group but having nothing to show for it. ptu
kikikikiki
Kikikiki jumpdaki u made my day something is not right ngala maShona,Bla Miki reminds of Shona refugees who say Phuthiko instead of Putco they can’t even tell a difference between a scam n scum,duck duke,do u still remember the word taught Bla Miki
hahaha. wow. I wonder why we try and polarise issues. inasmuch as politics has a hand in it, let’s not be looking for people to blame but let’s think critically and bring about home grown solutions. why complain about this and that when you are sitting on your laurels and complain all day?
the more you complain the less opportunities you see in the world out there. all you believe in is that you are not educated enough, you are being suppressed, you are hungry…bla bla bla but you continue being a mediocre someone. thatha machance and upgrade yourself. you would appreciate our education if you were to go out to some of these countries you so envy. ngiyavuma our education standards are not at their best but we rule the roost, our aptitude and IQ are very high. look at where we are coming from and how we managed to survive and you still think that you don’t have what it takes. vhuka and start doing something. talk does not cook rice. stop complaining and start seeing opportunities out there. no wonder maChineese Nigerian and other nationals are opening businesses right under our noses because we are too busy talking rather than acting.
Must read you give a vuvuzela to a lunatic at midnight nobody will sleep.
This shona ndebele cross breed thinks literacy means the ability to speak english. Chineeese, japanees, russians are iliterate according to him..
You hand over a vuvuzela at midnight nobody will sleep. I mean keep dimwits away from the internet. I sympathise with anonymous for his battles to educate these dull people. Anonymous you are very energitic but zizophelela eboyeni boyi.
Retrogressive individuals want us to think that everything is OK when clearly standards have dropped drastically. How can someone say computers have made it possible for students to study at home, when there isn’t even enough electricity to power those computers even in towns. In rural areas there isn’t even a grid! And how many computers has the so-called president handed out? a hundred? How many students are there in Zimbabwe with access to a computer, even in urban areas? What is the textbook/student ratio? the few computers that the so-called president handed out to an insignificant number of schools have made Zanu surrogates here wag their tails in misguided euphoria of a false dawn for Zimbabwe’s dysfunctional education system,. Education is much, much bigger than just handing out a few token computers to a few token rural schools, some of which don’t even have electricity connections, that is just pure populist politics with no effect on the dropping literacy rates… We have a problem, so lets just admit it!! Just look at the flight of teachers for instance, the number of parents who can afford to pay the fees for their children, and you have a wider problem… what will a few computers do? Nonsense!
sambiri, it is not even research because the person doesn’t even know the meaning of the term LITERACY
literacy only refers to the ability to read and write, not to the quality of education offered. saka you think UNESCO doesn’t know what it is saying? these unscrupulous and misinformed or uninformed data publishers vanongonyora before they even make adequate research as to the subject matter thay are presenting on. musatinyeperewo… kana streetkid rinoverenga pepanhau wani and being a dropout doesn’t mean kuti you are illiterate.
saka asina degree is illiterate in the near future? is that what youare implying…. go and look for the right definition then rewrite your nhanganyaya or simply substitute literacy na quality of education
This research is a lot of hogwash and not based on anything serious but speculation and hatred for Zimbabwe. I would like to know who these people are and where they are based. We are still the best despite all you prophets of doom.
if only you knew what literacy rate implies you wouldn’t make a fool of yourself. if you were discussing on quality of education, i would have understood….
Bla Milk hapana zvaurikutaura apa.Those computers were given to Roberto then wen donating he would say they come from him or zanupfutseki. Donations have nothing to do with letaracy rate. u have chased teachers, parents dont want their children tot by green mambas, its beta vana varege kuinda kuchikoro than 4 them to go n b sent 4 a zanupfutseki rally. its beta vatsvake ngoda or gold. nxcaaa.
I agree very well with you Nambya. Anything Zimbabwean is despised by most puppets. Surely one cannot link a drop in library patronage to a drop in our literacy rate. Did it ever occur to the so called researchers that times are changing and that computers have made it possible for students to study at home? Over 70% of the school going children have access to these user friendly gadgets where study solutions are available. Even the rural school children have access as well to computers thanks to President Mugabe’s donations to all schools. If the library authorities therefore say patronage has gone down by half, it literary means there is actually an increase on our literacy rate than a decrease, l think we are at 97% and the best in Africa. Bhuku riri kurohwa vakomana. Ko SA iri papi nefundo?
These are naked lies. Despite all we went through children never stopped going to school. Even the Marange postoris are now sending their children to school more than ever before. The quality is what is questionable and quality is not directly proportional to literacy. Literacy is the ability to read and write, finish! So even those who are street kids Naked, they can speak better english than your Matriculants.
This is more of speculation.
That’s is true thank u Mugabe for destroying Smith regime education there are many children from Mashonaland in neighbouring countries who are street kids,beggars n vendors who should b at school n thank u Dr Swangilai who has received a degree without going to any university n not forgetting Gono n their so called educated managers who are just incompetent n the brainwashed maShona who can not tell a difference between a leader n dictator
some people seems to be against everything that is zimbabwean.