SOUTH Africa spends the bulk of its budget on education but adult literacy level remains lower than those of various other emerging markets.

This is according to findings by the South African Institute for Race Relations research.

South Africa's public education spending as a proportion of total government spending amounted to 18% in 2009-10.

Data sourced from the United Nations Development Programme's Human Development Report shows that South Africa has an adult literacy rate of 89%.

The UN defines the adult literacy rate as the proportion of people aged 15 years and above who can read, write, and speak.

According to Jonathan Snyman, a researcher at the institute, South Africa's relatively high education expenditure is not enough to address the issue of poor education results.

The Department of Basic Education has been trying to get principals to be more responsible by getting them to sign performance agreements this year.

The contract is aimed at improving pupils' performance, with the officials held accountable.

The performance would be measured against academic performance of schools and be linked to performance in the Annual National Assessments and National Senior Certificate exams

But teacher unions and the department have been unable to reach an agreement on the contracts.