A Paradox of Progress: Rising Education and Unequal Labour Market Returns in Post-Apartheid South Africa
This working paper by Timothy Köhler for the COVID-Generation project analyses the evolution of the labour market returns to education…
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Linguistic interdependence? Foundation Phase mastery in home language as a predictor of grade 4 repetition and EFAL marks
For most South African learners, the destination language of instruction (typically English) is not their mother tongue; thus, proficiency in English is necessary for educational…
February 6, 2025 PDF
The impact of the 2023 Back-on-Track Programme on learning
The 2023 Back-on-Track (BoT) programme, launched by the Western Cape Education Department (WCED), aimed to address significant learning deficits caused by the COVID-19 pandemic over…
February 6, 2025 PDF
Research on Socioeconomic Policy (RESEP) is a group of scholars and students interested in issues of poverty, income distribution, social mobility, economic development and social policy. Based at the Department of Economics at the University of Stellenbosch. The team is lead by Servaas van der Berg, whose position as the Chair in the Economics of Social Policy since 2008, has lead to the further consolidation of research within these areas.
The Teacher Demographic Dividend (TDD) project addresses South Africa’s need for teachers as half of the current teachers will retire by 2035. Over three years (2022-2024), the project aims to model teacher demand and supply, assess the impact of retirements on education, and identify opportunities for improvement, producing numerous research outputs. It involves 27 researchers from various universities, research organizations, consultancies, and the Department of Basic Education.
Recent Papers
The latest working papers, publications, reports and policy briefs by RESEP researchers.
This working paper by Timothy Köhler for the COVID-Generation project analyses the evolution of the labour market returns to education and their drivers in post-apartheid…
February 27, 2025 PDF
Linguistic interdependence? Foundation Phase mastery in home language as a predictor of grade 4 repetition and EFAL marks
For most South African learners, the destination language of instruction (typically English) is not their mother tongue; thus, proficiency in English is necessary for educational…
February 6, 2025 PDF
The impact of the 2023 Back-on-Track Programme on learning
The 2023 Back-on-Track (BoT) programme, launched by the Western Cape Education Department (WCED), aimed to address significant learning deficits caused by the COVID-19 pandemic over…
February 6, 2025 PDF
Avoiding inaccuracy: How should learner disability status be identified in EMIS?
We report on the quality and completeness of disability-disaggregated enrolment data in the education management information system (EMIS) in two provinces in South Africa. We…
February 6, 2025 PDF
What SA-SAMS and LURITS Data Tells Us About Education
This report presents groundbreaking insights into South Africa’s education system, leveraging extensive data from SA-SAMS, LURITS, and the Data Driven Districts (DDD) programme. Authored by…
January 23, 2025 PDF
Ongoing Projects
The Teacher Demographic Dividend (TDD) project looks at the challenge of replacing older teachers, but it also offers the opportunity to renew the teaching workforce.…
July 26, 2023 PDF
This project is a collaboration between Stellenbosch University, Theewaterskloof municipality and Western Cape Department of Human Settlements. The aim is to use upward and downward…
August 11, 2021 PDF
This project is linked to the Early Learning Programme (ELP) and uses data from the Readership and Literacy project but is also supplemented by others…
October 22, 2020 PDF
Team
RESEP (Research on Socio-Economic Policy)
RESEP is a group of researchers in the Department of Economics at the University of Stellenbosch.
Funding
RESEP has received funding for its research from various organisations and governments. In recent years, funding for research has been provided by, amongst others, Allan & Gill Gray Philanthropies, FEM Education Fund, the Epoch & Optima Trusts, The UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC); UNICEF offices in South Africa, Namibia and Eswatini; Zenex Foundation, Tshikululu Social Investments, PSPPD (Presidency/European Union) and the National Research Foundation (NRF).
