Youth Literacy in Sub-Sahran Africa

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Introduction

Literacy and numeracy skills are seen as crucial prerequisites for successful participation in life. The absence of these competencies prevents social participation and, most importantly, basic career opportunities.

Despite great efforts to increase literacy rates worldwide and setting this goal high on the development agenda, it remains a great concern. According to data from 2016, 102 million people between the ages of 15 and 24 were illiterate.

SGD Target 4.6.1 “Universal Literacy and Numeracy” aims to ensure literacy and numeracy among young people and a sufficient number of adults. This target is part of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) set by the United Nations General Assembly in 2015 and addresses the proportion of the population of a given age group that has achieved at least a certain level of functional literacy and numeracy, by sex.

The aim of this specific paper is to analyze the literacy rates of sub-Saharan Africa’s youth, including assessing whether a gender gap may exist. The data was retrieved from the World Development Indicators database utilizing the wbstats library to gather statistical information.

Data Manipulation

We have selected the variables “Literacy rate, youth male (% of males ages 15-24)” and “Literacy rate, youth female (% of females ages 15-24)”, collecting the data available between 2000 and 2021.

We started by comparing the literacy rates among youth in Sub-Saharan countries in the year 2018, since it is the year with the greatest amount of data available. By plotting a table, we were able to find out that Mauritius has the highest literacy rate, while the Central African Republic holds the lowest rates.

The highest literacy rates within Sub-Saharan Africa:

The table below shows that the countries holding the highest levels of literacy rates, with disregard of the gender, are Mauritius, attaining a 99.%, Sao Tome and Principe and Eswatini, lastly followed by Namibia and Eritrea. In 2018, the youth literacy rate in Mauritius was 99.04%. The youth literacy rate in Mauritius increased from 91.19% in 1990 to 99.04% in 2018, increasing at an average annual rate of 2.80%. The high

The lowest literacy rates within Sub-Saharan Africa:

The table below indicates which Sub-Saharan countries have the lowest literacy rates in 2018. As one can see, the Central African Republic holds the lowest literacy rate, followed by Niger, South Sudan, Mali and Guinea.

The distribution of literacy rates within Sub-Saharan Africa

To further illustrate the distribution of literacy rates within Sub-Saharan Africa we created a Scatter Plot, which shows a great increase in literacy rates within the last two decades.

# Literacy rate gender gap

After having examined which countries hold the highest and lowest literacy rates, it was time to analyze the existence of a possible gender gap. In order to make a sensible analysis of this potential gender gap, we have reduced the time period to the last value reachable for each country.

In an effort to make a sensible analysis of the potential gender gap that could exist, we created a Cleveland dot plot that allowed us to visualize the gender differences more clearly.

## Warning: Ignoring unknown aesthetics: x_end, y_end

Conclusion

As stated above literacy is a crucial prerequisite for a successful participation in social life. Besides its great improvement, Sub-Saharan Africa remains the region with the lowest literacy rates. In our research we were able to find some interesting observations.

Firstly, it can be concluded that literacy rates among those aged between 15 and 24 in the region had a positive tendency over the last twenty years, which means that education is increasingly being accessible and valued within generations.

Secondly, we were able to identify a pattern regarding low literacy rates. In particular, the lowest literacy rates were found in countries which are subject to political instability. In the case of the Central African Republic (CAR), which holds the lowest literacy rate in 2018, an explanation can be found in the ongoing political instability and the civil war which has been taking place since 2012. Also, these countries possess notably low GDP per capita, which can be another determinant factor of illiteracy since it inevitably implies a consistently low public expenditure in education.

Further, the research has found that women proportionally have less access to literacy within Sub-Saharan Africa. A possible explanation for it can be found in the societal structures of Sub-Saharan countries. Besides positive developments in the last years, women still face major challenges and obstacles and remain at the bottom of the social hierarchy, which prevents them from participating successfully in education. Women and girls tend to drop out of school at an earlier age as they have to maintain the family’s household and tend to get pregnant at an early age. This is particularly true in rural areas, which is perfectly portrayed in Sub-Saharan Africa, as 60% of the population live in rural areas.

References

Center for Preventive Action (2022). Instability in the Central African Republic. Global Conflict Tracker. Retrieved from: https://www.cfr.org/global-conflict-tracker/conflict/violence-central-african-republic.

Statista (2019). The illiteracy rate among all adults (over 15-year-old) in 2019, by world region. Statista. Retrieved from: https://www.statista.com/statistics/262886/illiteracy-rates-by-world-regions/.

UNESCO (n.d.). Definitions of adult functional literacy and numeracy for SDG indicator 4.6.1. UNESCO. Retrieved from: https://gaml.uis.unesco.org/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2019/05/GAML6-WD-4-Definitions-of-adult-functional-literacy-and-numeracy-for-SDG-indcator-4.6.1-1.pdf.

World Bank (2020). Rural population (% of total population) - Sub-Saharan Africa. World Bank. Retrieved from: https://data.worldbank.org/indicator/SP.RUR.TOTL.ZS?locations=ZG.