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…
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 success. However, research has shown that development of linguistic skills is more effective in the mother tongue, and that these skills can be transferred to a second language (especially when high levels of proficiency are reached in the first language).
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 a period of three years. This R1.2 billion initiative targeted improvements in mathematics and language through interventions for learners and teachers in grades 4, 7, and 8. Using Systemic Tests and School-Based Assessments (SBAs), this evaluation assesses the programme’s impact on grade 4 and grade 7 learners.
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 show there has been a dramatic decline in the number of learners with disabilities enrolled in schools in Gauteng from 2017 to 2023.
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 Servaas van der Berg, Chris van Wyk, and Martin Gustafsson, with a multidisciplinary team, the study examines critical trends in learner progression, absenteeism, subject choice, and the long-term impacts of COVID-19 on education.
Youth born just after the turn of democracy in 1994 have the highest years of completed education of any cohort in South African history. This is a trend worth celebrating. Yet South Africa’s educational progress is occurring alongside various constraints: slow economic growth; high and rising unemployment especially among youth; public finance constraints in expanding post-school education and training (PSET) opportunities; and growing concerns about mismatches between youth’s skills and the skills demanded in a changing world of work.
In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Western Cape Education Department’s (WCED) 2023 Back-on-Track (BoT) initiative is proving to be a groundbreaking step towards educational recovery. This R1.2 billion programme has targeted critical learning gaps in mathematics and language, focusing on Grades 4, 7, and 8. The results, independently evaluated by RESEP, reveal remarkable gains in learning outcomes.
From 21-22 August 2024, Resep hosted its 8th annual Quantitative Education Research (QER) conference at STIAS, Stellenbosch. Among the more than 100 attendees were academics, students, government officials, NGOs representatives and other stakeholders. Speakers, chairs and participants collectively provided an overview of key trends in South African education and profiled new research. In this synopsis of the 2-day programme, some key insights across all presentations are considered under eight emerging conference themes.
RESEP has recently hosted a week-long introductory course on Quantitative Data Analysis in the Economics of Education. This course aimed to equip researchers in the…
This document, “Public Expenditure on Education in South Africa, 1987/8 to 1991/2: An Analysis of the Data,” provides a comprehensive review of government spending on education over a crucial five-year period. It meticulously examines the allocation and utilisation of funds within the South African education sector, offering insights into the financial priorities and policy decisions during this time.
This Report focuses on education and training systems and the structure of schooling. Aspects of education planning, finance, and management are discussed in both this and the separate report on Governance, and there are various aspects of the organisation of education discussed below which are specific concerns of other research group reports.
In this research note, Emma Whitelaw and Nicola Branson from the University of Cape Town (UCT), examine the association between National Senior Certificate (NSC) performance and National Benchmark Test (NBT) scores among applicants to UCT. They find that during COVID-19 disrupted years, applicants’ admission point scores, derived from NSC grades, rose relative to NBT scores which remained similar since the onset of COVID-19.
In the quest to understand and address educational challenges, particularly in the realm of mathematics performance, the exploration of underlying microdata becomes paramount. Martin Gustafsson’s…
Dive into the evolving landscape of basic education in South Africa with Martin Gustafsson’s illuminating presentation from March 2024. Titled “Recent South African Trends and…
In this research report, Gabrielle Wills and Jess Qvist collate existing and new evidence on grade repetition and school dropout in South Africa before, during and two years after the COVID-19 pandemic.
In this Covid-Generation working paper, Bianca Böhmer and Gabrielle Wills contribute new evidence on pandemic effects on reading scores and inequalities in reading in South Africa through an in-depth analysis of data from the 2016 and 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) – a Grade 4 reading comprehension assessment.
This report leverages data mainly derived from the South African School Administration Management System (SA-SAMS), including a unique longitudinal version of the Data Driven Districts (DDD) data for three provinces as well as the Learner Unit Record Information Tracking System (Lurits) data and National Senior Certificate (matric) examination data to analyse the dynamics of the South African education system in the aftermath of the Covid-19 pandemic. It provides a detailed analysis of learner flows, assessment strategies, and teacher dynamics, offering valuable insights for policymakers and educational stakeholders and illustrating how such data can be used in education policy and planning.
As part of the Covid-Generation project, Gabrielle Wills examines early grade repetition patterns in South Africa and the effects of early grade repetition on the development of foundational reading skills.
This paper is the first to estimate the impact of minimum wages on worker flows and employment growth rates in a developing country with scarce job opportunities.
RESEP held its 7th annual conference on Quantitative Education Research (QER) from 5-6 September 2023 at STIAS, Stellenbosch University.
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