Van der Berg, S & Spaull, N. (2020). Counting the Cost: COVID-19 school closures in South Africa & its impacts on children. Research on Socioeconomic Policy (RESEP). Stellenbosch University. Stellenbosch.
June 16, 2020 PDF
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
A report by RESEP’s Servaas van der Berg, Martin Gustafsson, and Kholekile Malindi titled Education and Skills for the Economy and Links to Labour Markets in South Africa, has been released for public comment by the National Planning Commission.
June 9, 2020 PDF
This policy brief compares educational progress among South African girls across the socioeconomic spectrum to shed some light on which girls are actually succeeding academically and which ones are being left behind.
June 7, 2020 PDF
Wills, G. and van der Berg, S., 2020. Measuring school leadership and management and linkages with literacy: Evidence from rural and township primary schools in South Africa. Educational Management Administration & Leadership, p.1741143220915923.
May 26, 2020 PDF
It is critical that the debates leading up to the re-opening of South Africa’s schools, and the actual process of re-opening, which will almost certainly occur in stages, be informed by the emerging medical evidence and reports on best school practices. Re-opening the pre-school sector, covering around 2.4 million children, and the earliest school grades, seems least risky in terms of infections. Moreover, there are strong educational and nutritional arguments which favour prioritising these levels.
May 12, 2020 PDF
Who should go back to school first in South Africa? Children under 10 are least susceptible to COVID-19, they should go back first. Spaull,…
May 10, 2020 PDF
International Tests: What are they and why should South Africa participate? South Africa takes part in three major international assessments: TIMSS, PIRLS and SEACMEQ. This…
May 6, 2020 PDF
Language-in-education policy has a powerful influence on social and economic relations, with complex dimensions in multilingual and unequal societies such as South Africa.
May 6, 2020 PDF
Perseverance, Passion, and Poverty: Examining the association between grit and reading achievement in high-poverty schools
Stellenbosch Working Paper Series No. WP06/2020This paper examines whether school characteristics moderate the association between grit and reading achievement in a sample of Grade 6 learners in high-poverty contexts.
April 20, 2020 PDF
President Ramaphosa announced on 15 March that schools would close within days for just over three weeks, as opposed to the originally planned one week of school holidays. This is in line with steps taken across the world to reduce the spread of the new coronavirus. This is a sudden change of plan, and closures may be extended. What should South Africans look out for? What can they do to limit the adverse effects of this disruption on education?
March 25, 2020 PDF
The coronavirus pandemic working its way through South African society will have many knock-on effects, one of them will be hunger and malnutrition as 9-million children no longer receive free school meals while their schools are shut.
March 23, 2020 PDF
On the 20th and 21st of February 2020, RESEP convened a workshop on education research with participation from academics from the University of Bristol (UK), the University of Bath (UK), the Tata Institute of Social Sciences (India), and Tribhuvan University (Nepal), as well as key policymakers and researchers from the DBE.
March 19, 2020 PDF
A recent paper by Martin Gustafsson shows that there have been significant improvements in reading in South Africa in recent years.
March 4, 2020 PDF
A revised PIRLS 2011 to 2016 trend for South Africa and the importance of analysing the underlying microdata
Stellenbosch Working Paper Series No. WP02/2020Given South Africa’s weak performance in international testing programmes, there is a strong interest in gauging improvements within these programmes.
February 21, 2020 PDF
Correspondence between mathematics and mathematical literacy scores: an analysis from 2010 to 2018
Stellenbosch Working Paper Series No. WP03/2020This paper estimates correspondence curves between mathematics and mathematical literacy scores for South African Matric Students from 2010 to 2018.
February 20, 2020 PDF
Two recent papers by RESEP’s Martin Gustafsson look into, firstly, the historical trends between nations in children’s reading and mathematics performance and, secondly, their future projections. These are based on three international evaluations: PIRLS, PISA and LLECE.
February 4, 2020 PDF
Socioeconomic Status and Class Size in South African Secondary Schools
Stellenbosch Working Paper Series No. WP01/2020The reduction of class size is frequently argued to be a relatively simple, cost-effective way to improve learner outcomes in a wide array of contexts. However, methodological concerns regarding the appropriate use of observational data and endogeneity have led to a lack of consensus on this relationship in the literature.
January 21, 2020 PDF
The period effect: the effect of menstruation on absenteeism of school girls in Limpopo
Stellenbosch Working Paper Series No. WP20/2019This paper will aim to answer three questions: (1) Are girls absent from school during their periods? (2) If so, how large is the effect of menstruation on absenteeism? (3) Do the effects differ by socio-economic status (SES)?
December 21, 2019 PDF
Performance Beyond Expectations: Academic Resilience in South Africa
Stellenbosch Working Paper Series No. WP19/2019Socio-economic status and educational outcomes are strongly linked across countries and education systems. However, a growing body of research documents the existence of students from disadvantaged socio-economic backgrounds who manage to achieve exceptional academic results.
December 20, 2019 PDF
The promise of SA-SAMS & DDD data for tracking progression, repetition and drop-out
Stellenbosch Working Paper Series No. WP17/2019This 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 PDF
