Using a dataset known as the Oxford COVID-19 Government Response Tracker (OxCGRT), RESEP’s Martin Gustafsson assesses the South African response to COVID-19 relative to that of 139 other nations.
April 17, 2020 PDF
Working Papers
How does South Africa’s Covid-19 response compare globally? A preliminary analysis using the new OxCGRT dataset A 19 May 2020 update of aspects of…
April 17, 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
RESEP’s Ronelle Burger today published an article in the Daily Maverick calling for South African’s to stand together and adhere to the President’s recent announcements on precautionary measures to stem the spread of the Coronavirus.
March 19, 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
Competing against some 738 data scientists from around the globe, RESEP’s Cobus Burger recently won the Uber Movement SANRAL Cape Town Challenge. Burger’s model was most accurately able to predict when and where road accidents were going to happen on Cape Town’s busy roads.
March 11, 2020 PDF
A cost-effective intervention that is easy to implement – this is how researchers describe the standardised reference letter that was developed to assist unemployed South Africans in their search for a job. The study found that job-seekers with previous work experience who use reference letters in their job applications stand to increase their employment prospects by more than 50%.
March 9, 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
This small workshop largely involved RESEP researchers and people from the policymaking world. It was held at STIAS in July and funded from RESEP’s own resources.
February 5, 2020 PDF
This two-year project for the UK’s Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) will involve a number of researchers from outside RESEP, including Elizabeth (Lilly) Pretorius from Unisa, Cally Ardington of UCT, Nompumelelo Mohohlwane from the DBE, and Nwabisa Makaluza and Ngamso Mtsatse from Funda Wande. Some of the research links to the Early Learning Programme.
February 5, 2020 PDF
This project for the Department of Higher Education and Training involved writing this report on DHET’s behalf, analysing their own data.
February 5, 2020 PDF
In the last ten years, RESEP has expanded its health policy expertise to the point where it has built up substantial expertise and experience in the field. The group has differentiated themselves by focusing on the demand side, understanding healthcare from the perspective of the client. We have been involved in a variety of projects, but they have all been attempts to listen closely and anew to people’s stories – whether it be through primary data gathering or secondary data analysis.
February 5, 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
