MORE SOUTH AFRICANS ABLE TO READ: SURVEY.

More and more South Africans have the benefits of being able to read, and of school, a survey released on Friday has shown. The South African Advertising Research Foundation (SAARF) released its second All Media and Products Survey. The foundation does two surveys a year 2001A was released earlier, with 2001B released on Friday. SAARF spokesman Allan Fabig said a representative sample of 28915 respondents aged 16 years and older were interviewed for both surveys. In the area of literacy/education, the survey showed an upward trend with literacy improving by 0.4 percent to 92.4 percent. The average education level amongst South Africans also showed a slight increase. Ten years ago, a SAARF survey showed that 15.3 percent of South African adults had no schooling at all, a figure which dropped to 9.2 percent in the current survey. Primary schooling also increased over the 10 year period from 61.6 percent to 77.4 percent, and qualifications of matric and above swelled from 21.2 percent to 31.9 percent. On a less positive note, Fabig said employment levels had again dropped, although average household incomes had increased in line with the consumer price index (CPI). On average, South African households earned R3522 per month, up 4.6 percent on the previous year. However, in real terms, Fabig said it was only a rise of 0.6 percent if the CPI of 4 percent as at October 2001 was taken into account. Fabig said levels of full-time work dropped off significantly. The survey of 2000 pegged full-time employment at ...