GLSS-6: 56.3% of Ghanaians are literate

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The Ghana Living Standards Survey Six (GLSS-6) report indicate that about 56.3 per cent of Ghanaians are literate and can read and write the English Language with understanding.

 

 

Ghana-Flag-Map
Ghana-Flag-Map

The report, released in Cape Coast by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) on Friday, indicated that 71.9 per cent of Ghanaians were currently in public schools whiles 28.1 per cent were in private schools with 20 per cent never attending school.
The GLSS-6 survey started in October 2012 and ended in September 2013 and collected detailed information on the demographic characteristics of the population, education, health, employment and time use.
Other areas covered included migration, housing conditions, household agriculture, participation in the labour force, child labour, household financial services and peace, governance and security of the country.

 
The GLSS has emerged as one of the most important tools in the welfare monitoring system of the country, it is also a nation-wide household survey which provides information in assessing the living conditions in the Ghanaian households.
So far, Ghana has conducted six rounds of the GLSS.
Mrs Samelia Minta, an official of GSS who presented the findings on Education and Health, said 66.2 per cent of the population consulted health practitioners when they were ill or injured.
She said 52.2 per cent visited public health facilities when they were ill with 44.6 per cent patronising private health facilities.

Mrs Minta said 67.6 per cent were covered by the National Health Insurance Scheme with the Brong-Ahafo Region recording the highest of 82.2 per cent whiles Greater Accra recorded the lowest of 58.3 per cent.
On Housing and Water Quality, Mr Stephen Amoah, a GSS official, said 60.6 per cent of Ghanaians lived in compound houses whiles 46 per cent lived in their own houses.
He said 28.9 per cent used pipe borne water whiles 32.3 per cent used well-water and that seven out of 10 used the national grid as their source of electricity.
Mr Amoah said 41.3 per cent used fire wood for cooking with 31.5 per cent using charcoal whiles 22.3 per cent used liquefied petroleum gas.

 
On Refuse Disposal, he said 52.4 per cent dumped their refuse in public refuse dumps whiles 23 per cent threw their liquid waste in the open, adding that 37.1 per cent used pan latrine with 18.8 per cent using the bush as their place of convenience.
Touching on Labour Force, Mr Anthony Amuzu Pharin, another official of the GSS, said about 12 million Ghanaians of 15 years and older were employed, made up of 5.783 million males and 6.257 million females.
He said of the figure, 76.8 per cent were in the agricultural sector and 14.9 per cent in services industry, while 21.8 per cent were in child labour and 14.2 per cent in hazardous activity.

 
Mrs Jacqueline Anum, who reported on the poverty profile of the country, said about 6.4 million Ghanaians were poor and that 2.2 million Ghanaians were extremely poor, representing 8.4 per cent of the population.
She said poverty had declined by 7.7 percentage points following the earlier trends of 1991 and 2006, and that in 2005/06, the poverty rate was 31.9 per cent.
According to her, nine out of the 10 regions in the country had declined poverty line except the Eastern Region which did not experience any decline.

 
Mrs Anum said the three northern regions contributed more than a third to the national poverty rate and that households headed by farmers were the poorest in Ghana, adding that households headed by private sector workers had recorded improvement in their poverty levels.
She explained that 24.2 per cent of Ghanaians who were poor could not afford to spend GH?3.60 per day which constituted the poverty line.

 
Touching on the extremely poor people, she said their situation meant ?putting all their expenditure together, they cannot afford to spend GH?2.17 per day on food (GH?792.05 per year).?
Mrs Anum said there had been a considerable nation-wide increase in all durable goods such as refrigerators, mobile phones and television sets with the northern region recording triple increases.
She said there had also been an increase across all regions in the access to potable water, use of water closet toilets, electricity as well as services.

 

 

GNA

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