South Africa

At the time the SACMEQ III research project was conducted the population of South Africa had grown to approximately 49 million people. This was an increase of 8.2 percent on the 1996 statistics which were used in SACMEQ II research. According to the Community Survey 2007, the percentage of the population who were 20 years and older and had post-school qualifications (above Grade 12) was 9.1 percent, which was an increase of 3.1 percent in the period between 1996 and 2007. In the same age category the percentage of the population whose highest qualification was primary school only had decreased from 24% to 5.9 percent while the percentage of those who had no schooling at all had dropped from 19% to 10.3% in the same period.