Life after school for recent matriculants in South Africa
In this policy brief, Gabrielle Wills, identifies six insights into the realities facing young matriculants after school in South Africa. The…
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The evolving returns to education in post-apartheid South Africa
In this policy brief, Timothy Köhler, summarises key findings on the returns to education in South Africa over the period 2001 to 2023 from his paper…
May 26, 2025 PDF
Assessing the Relationship Between School-Based Assessment and Matric Performance in Mathematics: A Quantitative Analysis of Poor Schools in Limpopo
This study investigates whether the quality of school-based assessment (SBA) influences matriculation performance in Mathematics within quintile 1 to 3 schools in Limpopo, South Africa.…
April 24, 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.
In this policy brief, Gabrielle Wills, identifies six insights into the realities facing young matriculants after school in South Africa. The available opportunities for youth after…
May 26, 2025 PDF
The evolving returns to education in post-apartheid South Africa
In this policy brief, Timothy Köhler, summarises key findings on the returns to education in South Africa over the period 2001 to 2023 from his paper…
May 26, 2025 PDF
Assessing the Relationship Between School-Based Assessment and Matric Performance in Mathematics: A Quantitative Analysis of Poor Schools in Limpopo
This study investigates whether the quality of school-based assessment (SBA) influences matriculation performance in Mathematics within quintile 1 to 3 schools in Limpopo, South Africa.…
April 24, 2025 PDF
Incomplete resourcing of inclusive education in South Africa: Implications for the reading crisis
In 2021, teachers instructing the average Grade 4 student in South Africa faced reading abilities spanning almost four grade levels in one classroom (Böhmer &…
April 24, 2025 PDF
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 and their drivers in post-apartheid…
February 27, 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).
