Skip to main content

Education

RESEP education research has a strong emphasis on empirical research in a broad range of policy-related issues including teacher knowledge and training, early-childhood outcomes, accountability, socioeconomic status and school effectiveness. Policy application is one of the central aims of the research.

Education 2019

The promise of SA-SAMS & DDD data for tracking progression, repetition and drop-out

Stellenbosch Working Paper Series No. WP17/2019

This paper analyses the SA-SAMS school administration data that the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation in partnership with the Department of Basic Education collects quarterly from schools in order to assess its usefulness for better understanding the school system.

December 19, 2019 By: Servaas van der Berg, Chris van Wyk, Rebecca Selkirk, Kate Rich, and Nicola Deghaye PDF

Reading research recognised by The Impact Initiative

Over the period 2016 to 2018, RESEP were engaged in a study titled “Leadership for Literacy” funded by the ESRC/DFID. The project resulted in the collection of new data on reading in three African languages. In this research impact brief published by the REAL Centre, University of Cambridge, and The Impact Initiative, the impact of this work to establish tentative benchmarks in African languages is highlighted.

November 29, 2019 By: Gabrielle Wills PDF

RESEP runs an introductory training course on quantitative data analysis

RESEP led an introductory training course on quantitative data analysis for researchers in education in Stellenbosch from 11 to 15 November. The course was attended by 29 participants working in education, and included graduate students, researchers, NGO memebers and policymakers from across South Africa. Funding was provided by the Allan Gray Orbis Foundation Endowment as part of RESEP’s Early Learning Programme.

Equity: A Price Too High to Pay?

Spaull, N. (2019). Equity: A Price Too High to Pay? In Spaull, N., & Jansen, J. (Eds), South African Schooling: The Enigma of Inequality. Springer Nature. Cham, Switzerland.

November 11, 2019 By: Nic Spaull PDF

Quantitative Education Research Conference again a huge success

On 12 and 13 September, RESEP held its fifth Quantitative Education Research Conference at the Stias Conference Centre in Stellenbosch. As in past years, it was attended by about 100 researchers, senior policymakers and stakeholders from all over South Africa. Funding was provided by the Zenex Foundation, the Michael and Susan Dell Foundation and RESEP itself. The conference was preceded by a smaller workshop on 11 September for emerging researchers in education.

Highlights from RESEP’s Early Learning Workshop (4 to 5 July 2019)

RESEP hosted a two-day workshop at STIAS from 4 to 5 July 2019, with participation from key academics and policymakers engaged in early learning research or implementation of improvement programmes. The topics covered include early childhood development and related programmes to improve the quality of grade R and ECD service delivery, assessment of children before they reach school-going age, reading trajectories in early grades and programmes to improve reading outcomes in school.

July 9, 2019 By: Gabrielle Wills PDF