Mathematics performance of South African primary school learners: Lessons from TIMSS 2019

By examining Grade 5 mathematics performance, this paper primarily investigates how learner performance for selected sub-samples relates to and is affected by, a select set of standard covariates. In other words, it aims to identify what factors account for differences in learner achievement within the sub-samples towards the end of primary school. For reasons referred to above, the sub-samples of choice were the following: The Western Cape, Gauteng, a single group representing the rest of the provinces, no-fee schools (quintiles 1 to 3), fee-paying schools (quintiles 4 and 5 and independent schools), and the full South African sample. This categorisation isolates performance among learners in similar environments so that the coefficients can better be interpreted as applying to that particular sub-sample.2