Literacy and Education
School attendance

From figure 3.2 below on literacy and education, a total proportion of 47.5 percent of persons in the district have never attended school. 40.4 percent currently attend school while 12.1 percent have attended school in the past. More females, 50.5 percent, compared with 44.4 percent males have never attended school and more males 14.0 percent than females 10.0 percent are currently in school.

The question on literacy referred to the respondent's ability to read and write in any language. A person is considered literate if he/she can read and write a simple statement with understanding. The question on literacy was asked only of persons 11 years and older.

Table 3.8 presents data on the population aged 11 years and above by sex, age and literacy status. The table shows that out of the population of age eleven years and older in the District, 13,431 are not literate and 9,586 are literate. Out of the literate population, 82.3 percent are literate in English only, 1.4 percent in Ghanaian Language only, 16.1 percent in English and Ghanaian Language, 0.1 percent in English and French and 0.2 percent in English, French and Ghanaian language.

This shows that majority of literates in the District could only read and write in the English language and a few could read and write in Ghanaian language. It also shows that literacy in French is very low in the district. In all, out of the total of 9,586 literates in the district, males constitute 54.7 percent, higher than females 45.3 percent in the district.

School Attendance

Table 3.9 shows population 3 years and older by educational level and school attendance. The data shows that a greater proportion of those currently attending school in the district are at the primary school (56.9%) while 15.1 percent are at JSS/JHS level. The proportion at SSS/SHS is 5.3 percent, Tertiary 0.5 percent while Vocational/Technical/Commercial constitutes only 0.2 percent.

In terms of sex distribution, 57.3 percent of males currently attending school are in primary school, slightly higher than the females who constitute 56.5 percent. Again, 0.7 percent of males are in Tertiary schools compared with 0.2 percent of females. The table also shows that a greater proportion of those who attended school in the past completed primary school (50.4%) followed by JSS/JHS (17.8%) and SSS/SHS (11.6%). Tertiary education accounts for only 3.9 percent. There are more males (67.4%) than females (42.6%) who have attended school in the past in Nabdam District.