About 97,9% of Limpopo residents between the ages of 7 and 18 years were attending some form of educational institution in 2013, up from 95,1% in 2002. This is according to the Education Series I: Focus on schooling in Limpopo report released by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) today.

According to the report, 89,5% of Limpopo’s grades 1-9 pupils attending a public school and aged 5 years and older reported having been provided with workbooks for all their subjects in 2013. Just about 1,7% of the learners reported not having workbooks for any of their subjects. More than three-quarters (88,0%) of Limpopo public school learners in the further education and training (FET) phase (grades 10-12) reported having received textbooks for all their subjects in 2013.

About one in every ten learners (10,9%) attending public schools in Limpopo reported that they had experienced corporal punishment at school in 2013. This proportion was down from 14,9% the previous year and 19,2% in 2011.

The report also shows that only 21,1% of public schools in Limpopo had computer laboratories in 2013. Only about 16,2% of public schools in the province reported having access to the internet in the same year. About one in every ten public schools (10,8%) in Limpopo had access to a library while 7,8% had access to a laboratory.

Walking is the most common mode of travel used by learners in Limpopo to get to school. About 82,5% of Limpopo learners walk all the way to get to their school. The only instances where significant percentages of learners used alternatives modes of travel were in Waterberg District, where 11,2% used taxis, and Capricorn District, where 9,3% travelled by car or truck to get to school. Buses were rarely used; the highest percentages of bus-using learners in the province were found in the Mopani (3,2%) and Vhembe (3%) districts.

Less than three percent (2,1%) of Limpopo’s population aged between 7 and 18 years reported not attending any form of educational institution in 2013. The most cited reason for non-attendance was ‘poor performance’ (29,1% of those not attending an educational institution cited this reason), followed by ‘disability and illness’ (27,1%) and lack of money to pay school fees (19,1%). A notable proportion (12%) of Limpopo females in the 7-18 years age group reported not attending school because of ‘family commitments’ while none of their male counterparts indicated this as a reason for non-attendance of an educational institution.

About the report

The Education Series I: Focus on schooling in Limpopo report is the first in a series of reports aimed at providing evidence regarding the socio-economic and spatio-temporal correlates and determinants of the state of education in South Africa. It makes use of data from a number of sources, including Statistics South Africa’s General Household Survey (2013), Limpopo Learner and Educator Census of Schools (LLESC, 2013), Census 2011, the National Household Travel Survey (NHTS, 2013) and administrative data sources,  to provide evidence about the environment of education, pupil perceptions, living arrangements and access to learning infrastructure, including transport. 

Ends.

Issued by Statistics South Africa

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