Education

South African national pass rate of the National Senior Certificate examinations fell once again in 2009, reaching only 60.7 percent. The National Senior Certificate examinations are held at the end of high school (grade 12) and are a necessary requirement for enrolling into the institutions of higher, tertiary education.

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Illiteracy rates in South Africa are high and stand at about 24 percent of the population over 15 years of age: 4.7 million adults never went to school, and further 4.9 million are functionally illiterate. Provinces with the largest number of illiterate people are KwaZulu-Natal, Limpopo and the Eastern Cape, followed by Gauteng, Mpumalanga and North West. The lowest numbers occur in the Free State, the Northern Cape and the Western Cape. ... more

Higher or tertiary education includes education for undergraduate and postgraduate degrees, certificates and diplomas, up to the level of the doctoral degree. ... more

School life of young South Africans spans over 13 years or grades. The first year of education, Grade R (reception year), is not compulsory. Grades 10, 11 and 12 are also not compulsory. Children usually enroll into grade 1 at the age of five and a half. In South Africa, the school year starts in mid-January and ends at the end of November or the beginning of December.

In 2007, there were 26,065 ordinary primary and secondary schools with 12,401,217 learners and 394,225 teachers:  ... more

The 1996 South African Constitution stipulates that everyone has the right to a basic education, including adult basic education and further education, which the state, through reasonable measures, must progressively make available and accessible.

Until such time, education comes with a fee. The state schools are subsidised by the government, but the students fill in the gap between bare necessities and decent education. The state school-funding norms are primarily geared towards redressing inherited inequalities between poor, mostly black, areas and the affluent ones. ... more