RESEP researchers Heleen Hofmeyr and Nic Spaull recently launched the Roots & Shoots study, a longitudinal research study funded by the Mr Price Foundation that aims to track learners from when they first enter school until the end of the Foundation Phase.
RESEP was again privileged to host its annual QER conference at STIAS from 31 August to 1 September 2022. There is much value in bringing together academics, government, NGOs and funders involved in education improvement in South Africa. Two days of new research, engaging panels and critical questioning reminded us of how much work there is to be done, while also revealing the advancement in collaboration that has been made across research and government work.
Three international testing programmes, including PIRLS, point to educational quality improvements in South Africa during the period 2002 to 2019. The gains were substantial, relative to the steepness of improvements seen in other countries. What lay behind these trends? National education quality trends are not easy to explain, and this is seldom attempted in a systematic manner.
An emerging interdisciplinary literature explores how kinship practices affect household resource allocation through efficiency of production and consumption. This paper focuses on a key gender norm – how a resource transfer to households affects school drop out of girls relative to boys, under different kinship practices.
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
A recent RESEP report, Learning Losses from COVID-19 in the Western Cape has received significant media attention, including features in Rapport, CityPress, SABC, News24, eNCA & Newzroom Africa.
Due to the pandemic, South African school children have missed at least three-quarters of a school year in the past two calendar years. That has…
COVID-19 vaccine hesitancy has threatened the ability of many countries worldwide to contain the pandemic. Given the severe impact of the pandemic in South Africa and disruptions to the roll-out of the vaccine in early 2021, slower-than-expected uptake is a pressing public health challenge in the country. We examined longitudinal changes in COVID-19 vaccination intent among South African adults, as well as determinants of intent to receive a vaccine.
Since 2004 the South African government has rolled out free antiretroviral therapy (ART) at public health care facilities nationwide. No prior studies have estimated the impact of the ART rollout on health and survival using a longitudinal household survey with national coverage.
In the absence of a vaccine, the global spread of COVID-19 during 2020 has necessitated non-pharmaceutical interventions to curb the rise of cases.
The impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had, and will continue to have, on food security and child health is especially concerning. A rapid, Short Message Service (SMS) Maternal and Child Health survey was conducted in South Africa in June 2020 (n = 3140), with a follow-up in July 2020 (n = 2287).
What do you need to know to make the world a better place? This is the topic that Max Roser, founder and director of the…
A new study by RESEP researchers Servaas van der Berg, Martin Gustafsson and Cobus Burger for the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) on…
This research report was produced for the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET) and the Department of Basic Education (DBE). The study was undertaken to assess demand for, and supply of, teachers in the public service, in order to better inform teacher training policy.
The South African economics of education has so far been largely silent on the role of non-cognitive skills in the learning process. This contrasts noticeably with an international literature that recognises non-cognitive skills as both an important input and outcome of education.
Events surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic threatened to undo 20 years of sustained expansion in access to early childhood care and education (ECCE) in South Africa. In this paper, we explore the underlying structural weaknesses in non-grade R ECCE provisioning that were exposed through the pandemic, and the strengths that have surfaced.
Introduction As a positive relationship between schools and education districts can help to secure school improvement and learning outcomes, we have explored the accountability arrangements…
RESEP research associate, Tia Linda Zuze recently wrote an opinion article that was published on the news site News24. The piece details the essential contributions of women who have been tackling the Covid pandemic in terms of research and policy.
We use Benford’s Law to investigate inaccurate financial reports of a representative sample of Ugandan nongovernmental organizations (NGOs). We find that 25% of the sample provided information that did not conform to the Benford distribution, suggesting potential misreporting.
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