North Macedonia’s Population Poorly Educated, Census Data Show

More than 508,000 residents of North Macedonia, more than a quarter of the 1.8 million population, have either not received any formal education, or started but did not finish high school, data on education and literacy from the census conducted last year show.

The newly published data from the State Statistical Office show that over 23,000 people, 1.5 per cent of the population, have no formal education at all and more than 62,000 or 4.1 per cent, did not finish elementary school.

A more concerning figure of 423,000 people only finished elementary school.

The head of the Statistical Office, Apostol Simovski, said the discrepancy between educational levels in urban and rural environments might explain this figure.

"We in [the capital] Skopje see only a narrow picture, but if we look further, and I am talking about the rural areas, we will see there many mature groups of people who did not have much education but who are alive and well," Simovski said.

He added that some included of those in this number are still in school.

"The data refer to people over 15 years old. So there are many who have not finished high school but are in the process [of doing so]. This should be taken into account," Simovski said.

The newly published data reveal that about 19,000 people, or 1.2 per cent, are illiterate. Over 13,000 of these are women.

Concerning higher education, the data show that only 17 per cent of the resident population finished a faculty or college education.

Simovski said this number may in fact be higher, but that many of the best educated citizens had left the country and so are not represented in the data.

"We are producing people with degrees but this number is only [relevant] for the resident...

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