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Stellenbosch Working Papers

Working Papers

What lies behind South Africa’s improvements in PIRLS? An Oaxaca-Blinder analysis of the 2011 and 2016 data

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.

July 15, 2022 By: Martin Gustafsson& Stephen Taylor  PDF

School drop out and farm input subsidies: gender and kinship heterogeneity in Malawi

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.

July 15, 2022 By: Martin Mwale, Dieter von Fintel, & Anja Smith PDF

School catch-up programmes are urgently needed

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.

May 25, 2022 By: RESEP Team PDF

Longitudinal changes in COVID-19 vaccination intent among South African adults: evidence from the NIDS-CRAM panel survey, February to May 2021

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.

April 22, 2022 By: Ronelle Burger, Timothy Köhler, Aleksandra Golos, Alison Buttenheim, René English, Michele Tameris & Brendan Maughan-Brown PDF

The health impact of free access to antiretroviral therapy in South Africa

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.

April 22, 2022 By: Cobus Burger, Ronelle Burger, & Eddy van Doorslaer PDF

Looming crisis of teacher shortages

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…

March 13, 2022 By: RESEP Team PDF

School Teacher Supply and Demand in South Africa in 2019 and Beyond

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.

March 13, 2022 By: Servaas van der Berg, Martin Gustafsson, and Cobus Burger PDF

New foundations: Strengthening ECCE provisioning in South Africa after COVID-19

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.

March 2, 2022 By: Gabrielle Wills and Jesal Kika-Mistry PDF