THE past three months have marked a significant improvement in the country's basic literacy, which has increased by more than 6 percent
The South African Institute for Race Relations yesterday released the second update of the SA Development Index in Johannesburg for 2011.
The index assesses six performance areas - economy, education, health, living conditions, gender and crime.
In 2009, 91,6 percent of people had no difficulty reading. This number went up by 6,33 percent to 97,4percent this year.
Catherine Schulze, a researcher at the institute, said the literacy rate in education was a positive factor.
She believes that this could be an indication of good policy.
"We are very happy with the improvement made in education, and this can be attributed to good policy," Schulze said.
The health sector remained unchanged from the first quarter, with 27,3 doctors per 100 000 patients and 47 mortalities per 1000 infants.
Living conditions have improved and there is a higher number of people living in formal dwellings now. This increased from 75,5 percent to 76,9percent from 2009 to 2010.
"Conditions have improved mainly because of service delivery. I think the government has done well in the area of service delivery and this reflects in the numbers," Schulze said.
The development index shows that crime remained unchanged at 10,43 percent. The murder rate also remains unchanged at 34 murders per 100000 people.
The number of professional female employees rose from 321000 in the first quarter of 2010 to 328 000 in the first quarter of 2011.
"Overall, the gender area improved from 9.90 points to 9,97 points and the economic area showed an improvement from 19,73 points to 19,80," Schulze said.
Literacy rate up
THE past three months have marked a significant improvement in the country's basic literacy, which has increased by more than 6 percent
The South African Institute for Race Relations yesterday released the second update of the SA Development Index in Johannesburg for 2011.
The index assesses six performance areas - economy, education, health, living conditions, gender and crime.
In 2009, 91,6 percent of people had no difficulty reading. This number went up by 6,33 percent to 97,4percent this year.
Catherine Schulze, a researcher at the institute, said the literacy rate in education was a positive factor.
She believes that this could be an indication of good policy.
"We are very happy with the improvement made in education, and this can be attributed to good policy," Schulze said.
The health sector remained unchanged from the first quarter, with 27,3 doctors per 100 000 patients and 47 mortalities per 1000 infants.
Living conditions have improved and there is a higher number of people living in formal dwellings now. This increased from 75,5 percent to 76,9percent from 2009 to 2010.
"Conditions have improved mainly because of service delivery. I think the government has done well in the area of service delivery and this reflects in the numbers," Schulze said.
The development index shows that crime remained unchanged at 10,43 percent. The murder rate also remains unchanged at 34 murders per 100000 people.
The number of professional female employees rose from 321000 in the first quarter of 2010 to 328 000 in the first quarter of 2011.
"Overall, the gender area improved from 9.90 points to 9,97 points and the economic area showed an improvement from 19,73 points to 19,80," Schulze said.
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