National literacy rate expected to grow

GOTHATAONE MOENG
Staff Writer | Friday September 7, 2012 00:00

Chief adult education officer, Anna Maruatona told Mmegi yesterday that UNESCO's estimations since 2003 have placed the national literacy rate at between 84 and 85 percent.  A definitive figure will only be known next year following a new survey, as literacy rate surveys are conducted every 10 years, Maruatona said yesterday.

Maruatona was speaking to Mmegi ahead of the national commemoration of the International Literacy Day scheduled for Gantsi tomorrow.  Gantsi MP Christian De Graaf is expected to officiate at the commemoration. Excelling learners from the non-formal education sector will be awarded certificates of achievement at the event.

The learners will be drawn from Adult Basic Education, Out-of-School Children as well as Skills Development Programmes, Maruatona revealed. September 8 was declared International Literacy Day in 1965, and has been commemorated in Botswana since the 1980s, Maruatona said. In 2003 when Botswana was found to have an 81 percent literacy rate, it was fifth in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, behind Zimbabwe (90 percent), South Africa (86 percent), Namibia, (83.3 percent) and Lesotho (81,4 percent).

The decision to commemorate the day at national level was taken in 2004. Before then individual districts held their own commemorations.  Maruatona said this was problematic as it meant fragmentation of resources.  Since then, commemoration activities have rotated among different districts and towns.

In 2010, the commemorations were held in Kang while Maun was the host in 2011.