Read, write, develop: the socio-economic impact of literacy in South Africa
International Journal of Social Economics
ISSN: 0306-8293
Article publication date: 29 April 2021
Issue publication date: 13 July 2021
Abstract
Purpose
Taking motivation from South Africa's ranking of 50 out of 50 countries who participated in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study of Grade four learners in 2016, this paper examines the social and economic outcomes of literacy in South Africa.
Design/methodology/approach
Using unemployment, income and crime rates as proxies for social and economic outcomes, the effect of literacy is examined by employing the fixed- and random-effects techniques to estimate a panel data covering nine provinces in South Africa from 2008 to 2017.
Findings
The results show that literacy rate worsens unemployment but improves crime rate and income per capita across South African provinces.
Practical implications
Policymakers need to consider an expanded view of literacy by extending investments to cover financial and technology literacy in addition to functional literacy to fully maximise the benefits of education.
Originality/value
To the authors’ best knowledge, this is the first empirical assessment of literacy outcomes in South Africa.
Keywords
Acknowledgements
The authors are grateful for the constructive feedback from two anonymous reviewers, which enhanced the quality of the paper. The authors also acknowledge the insights from participants at the 2019 Global Development Finance Conference, between 5th and 6th November 2019, Kopanong Hotel, Benoni, Johannesburg, South Africa, where the initial draft of the paper was first presented. All caveats apply.
Citation
Khumalo, Z. and Alhassan, A.L. (2021), "Read, write, develop: the socio-economic impact of literacy in South Africa", International Journal of Social Economics, Vol. 48 No. 8, pp. 1105-1120. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJSE-07-2020-0448
Publisher
:Emerald Publishing Limited
Copyright © 2021, Emerald Publishing Limited