Mr Speaker, the Kha Ri Gude Literacy Campaign concluded its second successful year of adult literacy classes in January, which means that South Africa now has approximately one million newly literate adults. This, Mr Speaker, is cause for enormous celebration.
A United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation, Unesco, report on adult learning and education refers to the failure of most countries to report on the quality of programmes aimed at adult learners. However, in South Africa the literacy campaign is able to effectively report on the quality of the learning experience and also on completion rates.
International and national statistics show that the current Kha Ri Gude rate of 87,2% of learner attendance and participation is extremely high for a campaign of this magnitude. The Eastern Cape has the highest completion rate with 98% of the enrolled learners surviving the programme, followed by the Limpopo province with a completion rate of 92%.
The ANC welcomes the results of this project and views it as a big step forward in the process of ensuring that South Africa is completely liberated from a century of illiteracy by the year 2014. I thank you. [Applause.]