Statistical Analysis
TABLE
1 LITERACY STATUS BY AREA
Analysis of the data by area clearly shows that illiteracy is greater in the Central region and in the South at 10%. The North East, which includes most of the East West corridor, showed the highest rate of literacy (80.3%) with the North West, or Capital region close behind. The literacy rate for Tobago was slightly lower at 75% but with less illiteracy also, 18% falling in the middle group (functionally illiterate). Both illiteracy and functional illiteracy were higher in rural areas. 10% of those living in rural areas were illiterate and 15.5% were functionally illiterate. Even more significantly, of those found to be illiterate, 65.1% live in rural areas while 53.5% of those who are functionally illiterate, also live in rural areas. The fact that 46.5% of the functionally illiterate are in urban areas is due to the high levels of functional illiteracy in low income urban areas. Overall, literacy in urban areas was somewhat higher than the national average at 80.6% while rural areas were lower at 74.1%.
TABLE
2 LITERACY STATUS BY AGE GROUP (YEARS)
The proportion of literacy was markedly lower for the older age groups, as may be expected as fewer educational opportunities were available in their young days. A similar trend was apparent throughout the table. For the age groups from 15 to 44 years literacy rates ranged from almost 90% to 82%. From age 45 rates were much lower. When the youngest of these people were aged 15 in 1964 there were only limited facilities for secondary education. This can also be seen from the table on highest level of schooling. TABLE 3 LITERACY STATUS BY YEARS OF
SCHOOLING
The number of years schooling received was a major factor in determining the degree of literacy. Thus, of those with 9 or more years schooling - a full course - only 2.1% remained illiterate and 88.3% were literate (with 9.6% semi-literate). This contrasts sharply with the group which had only 3 years or less schooling, which recorded 65.7% as illiterate, 20.2% as still functionally illiterate, with only 14.1% actually literate. The groups with 4-6 and 7-8 yrs schooling show expected rates between the extremes of the range, with 49% literacy for 4-6 years and 70% for 7-8yrs TABLE 4 LITERACY STATUS BY TYPE OF
SCHOOL LAST ATTENDED
According to the last type of school attended, literacy rates ranged from a low of 5.1% for no schooling to 95.2% for the few who attended University. For those whose highest level was Primary school 62.4% were literate and 13% remained illiterate with 25% recorded in the functionally illiterate group. Those who attended Junior Secondary achieved 80% literacy and only 6.0% were completely illiterate For the regular Secondary and Senior Secondary the rates were 88-92% literate and just under 2% illiterate. TABLE 5 LITERACY STATUS BY GENDER
From a total survey population of 1868 (less 7 in the not stated category) an effective sample of 1861 was analysed with 1086 women and 775 men. The functionally literate group comprised 77.4% of this number. The functionally illiterate 14.6% and that part of the population which was completely illiterate was 8.0%. Illiteracy among women was slightly higher than among men, with 8.4% of women counted as illiterate compared with 7.5% for men. Similarly the functionally illiterate averaged 14.6%, with 13.8% recorded for women and 15.6% for men. For the functionally literate group, slightly more women than men were recorded as literate (77.8%) with 76.9% for men. In all regions, except the North West, in the older age groups (45+) there were noticeably higher rates of illiteracy among women compared to men. Thus in Central, of females aged 61 and over, 54% were illiterate compared to 38% of males in the same age group. Different internal migration patterns may explain why women in the North West were rather more literate. Central Statistical Office figures show that more women than men migrate to urban areas within Trinidad. Among the younger age group, in every region and particularly in the Central area, rates of literacy for women were higher and showed more improvement than for men. Thus, in Central in the age group 15-24, 91% of the females were literate as compared to 83% of the males. This suggests that women, starting from lower levels, are catching up rapidly. TABLE 6 LITERACY STATUS BY ETHNICITY
Analysing by ethnicity, the survey included 43.7% of Africans and 42.2% people of East Indian origin, with a further 14.1% of the respondents being of the mixed or other category. The percentage of literacy was highest among this last group, at 86%. The African group showed a rate of functional literacy of 78.3% whereas the East Indian group had a rate of 73.7% - somewhat lower. For the functionally illiterate category, the Africans had 16.5% and East Indians 14.5% with mixed/other at 8.7%. The percentage of illiteracy was markedly higher among the East Indians at 11.8% compared to 5.2% and 5.3% for Africans and Mixed. The average rate of illiteracy was 8.0%. These findings may be explained by other factors such as age, area of residence and years of schooling. TABLE 7 LITERACY STATUS BY RELIGION
Illiteracy was found to be noticeably higher amongst Hindus, 14.6% compared to an average of 8.0% for all groups. The next highest proportion was Presbyterian at 10.3%. The lowest illiteracy rates recorded were for Anglicans, Roman Catholics and those who gave no religion. The low rate of 5.6% among Pentecostals was also significant. Muslims and Baptists rated at the 8.0% average. These results may be due to the overwhelming effect of location (in rural/underdeveloped areas). Generally, 77.4% of the total population was functionally literate. Among the different religious groups, the Anglicans, Muslims and Roman Catholics reached a rate of 80.0% as did the residual ‘other’ group. The Pentecostals attained 87.4% literacy - the highest rate. TABLE 8 LITERACY STATUS BY WORK STATUS
The working population showed a higher rate of literacy than the unemployed or those keeping house. This last category showed the highest rate of illiteracy at 11.7% - well above the average 8.0%. TABLE
9 LITERACY STATUS BY INDUSTRY
Generally, the employed were more literate than the unemployed, but within the employed, the rates of literacy varied considerably between industries in which the respondents worked. Agriculture had the lowest literacy rate at 67%. Similarly, just 75% of those working in construction were functionally literate whereas manufacturing had 87% literacy. Of the workers in Government and banking, 84.4% were rated literate and 2.0% illiterate. The industries where no illiteracy or functional illiteracy were found were education, research and the oil industry. TABLE 10 LITERACY STATUS BY OCCUPATION
Generally, the employed were more literate than
the unemployed, but within the employed those in certain industries
showed lower literacy rates. Of those who were employed, functional
literacy was lowest among manual workers and tradesman at 77.6%.
This group also had the highest illiteracy at 8.2%. Literacy among
service workers and the self-employed was slightly higher, 79.9% and
80% respectively. Those with professional or administrative jobs had
the highest proportion of functionally literate persons, (90%),
closely followed by clerical/sales personnel, (87.8). |
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