Nic Spaull
Research Fellow
Nic Spaull is an Associate Professor in the Economics Department at Stellenbosch University and part of the Research on Socioeconomic Policy (RESEP) group in the Department. Nic’s research centres on education policy in South Africa with a focus on inequality and early grade literacy and numeracy. In 2021 he was awarded the Royal Society’s Meiring Naude Medal as well as the National Research Foundation’s (NRF) P-Rating, the highest rating possible for researchers under 35. During the COVID-19 pandemic Nic initiated the National Income Dynamics Study Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (NIDS-CRAM), a nationwide consortium of more than 30 researchers from six universities, to measure the impact of COVID-19 in South Africa which has generated over 60 academic working papers in less than a year and has been cited by the President in parliament.
Nic has held visiting fellowships at Stanford University in the US and the OECD in Paris and is currently a non-resident fellow at RISE as well as the Centre for Global Development (CGD). Nic recently (2019) co-edited “South African Schooling: The Enigma of Inequality” with Jonathan Jansen and published by Springer and is co-editing a 3-volume series on reading and mathematics to be published by Oxford University Press in 2022. Nic comments regularly in the media and advises numerous high-level policymakers and philanthropists in South Africa and abroad. His research and commentary are available on his website nicspaull.com
NIDS-CRAM Wave 1 Synthesis Report: Overview and Findings.
The overview and findings of NIDS-CRAM wave 1, consisting of work by a national consortium of 30 social science researchers from five South African universities.…
September 29, 2020 PDF
The Race Between Teacher Wages and the Budget
This report determines how the real resources available to the average child in South Africa have changed over the period 2008 to 2018.
June 19, 2020 PDF
Counting the Cost: COVID-19 School Closures in South Africa & its Impact on Children
Van der Berg, S & Spaull, N. (2020). Counting the Cost: COVID-19 school closures in South Africa & its impacts on children. Research on Socioeconomic…
June 16, 2020 PDF
Who should go Back to School First in South Africa?
Who should go back to school first in South Africa? Children under 10 are least susceptible to COVID-19, they should go back first. Spaull,…
May 10, 2020 PDF
Assessing Early Literacy Outcomes in Burkina Faso and Senegal: Using DHS and PASEC to Combine Access and Quality
Book: Improving Early Literacy Outcomes Chapter: Assessing Early Literacy Outcomes in Burkina Faso and Senegal: Using DHS and PASEC to Combine Access and Quality Authors: Nic…
November 12, 2019 PDF
Learning to Read and Write for Meaning and Pleasure
Spaull, N. (2019). Learning to Read and Write for Meaning and Pleasure. In Spaull, N. & Comings, J. (Eds), Improving Early Literacy Outcomes. Leiden, The Netherlands:…
November 11, 2019 PDF
Still Falling at the First Hurdle: Examining Early grade Reading in South Africa
Spaull, N. & Pretorius, E. (2019). Still Falling at the First Hurdle: Examining Early grade Reading in South Africa. In Spaull, N., & Jansen, J.…
November 11, 2019 PDF
Equity: A Price Too High to Pay?
Spaull, N. (2019). Equity: A Price Too High to Pay? In Spaull, N., & Jansen, J. (Eds), South African Schooling: The Enigma of Inequality. Springer…
November 11, 2019 PDF
Creating reading fluency benchmarks in African languages
Learning to read for meaning is the most important skill that children learn in primary school. If a child cannot read well, then they will…
September 4, 2018 PDF
The ‘Martha Effect’: The compounding female advantage in South African higher education
Stellenbosch Working Paper Series No. WP14/2017 Publication date: November 2017 Abstract: In this paper we use population-wide panel data to follow every South African student…
July 16, 2018 PDF
Disentangling the language effect in South African schools: Measuring the impact of ‘language of assessment’ in grade 3 literacy and numeracy
Stellenbosch Working Paper Series No. WP19/2016 Abstract: The aim of this paper is to exploit an unusual occurrence whereby a large group of South African…
July 4, 2018 PDF
Who makes it into PISA? Understanding the impact of sample eligibility using Turkey as a case study (PISA 2003- PISA 2012)
Spaull, N. (2017) Who makes it into PISA? Understanding the impact of sample eligibility using Turkey as a case study (PISA 2003- PISA 2012). OECD…
March 13, 2018 PDF
Identifying Binding Constraints in Education
Synthesis Report for the Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy Development (PSPPD) This research report provides an overview of a large research project undertaken by a…
October 16, 2017 PDF
A Preliminary Analysis of SACMEQ III South Africa
Stellenbosch Working Paper Series No. WP11/2011 Abstract: The many and varied links between student socio-economic status and educational outcomes have been well documented in the…
October 16, 2017 PDF
Poverty & Privilege: Primary School Inequality in South Africa
Stellenbosch Working Paper Series No. WP13/2012 Abstract: Although racial segregation has been abolished for 18 years now, schools which served predominantly White students under apartheid…
October 16, 2017 PDF
“Effective enrolment” – Creating a composite measure of educational access and educational quality to accurately describe education system performance in sub-Saharan Africa.
Stellenbosch Working Paper Series No. WP21/2012 Abstract: In this paper we question the existing practice of reporting enrolment statistics that ignore quality, but also quality-statistics…
October 16, 2017 PDF
The effects of rapidly expanding primary school access on effective learning: The case of Southern and Eastern Africa since 2000
Stellenbosch Working Paper Series No. WP01/2013 Abstract: Have recent expansions of access to primary schooling in African countries led to deterioration in the quality of…
October 16, 2017 PDF
What do we know about primary teachers’ mathematical content knowledge in South Africa? An analysis of SACMEQ 2007
Stellenbosch Working Paper Series No. WP13/2014 Publication date: 2014 Abstract: Primary school mathematics teachers should, at the most basic level, have mastery of the content…
October 16, 2017 PDF
Examining oral reading fluency among grade 5 rural English Second Language (ESL) learners in South Africa: An analysis of NEEDU 2013
Stellenbosch Working Paper Series No. WP09.2015 Publication date: 2015 Abstract: The ability to read for meaning and pleasure is arguably the most important skill children…
October 16, 2017 PDF
Learning to read and reading to learn
Stellenbosch Policy Brief No. 04/2016 Abstract: Reading for meaning and pleasure is arguably the most important skill children learn in primary school. Since almost all…
October 16, 2017 PDF
Excessive class sizes in the Foundation Phase
Stellenbosch Policy Brief No. 05/2016 Abstract: In previous research we have stressed the importance of learning to read by the end of Grade 3 (see…
October 16, 2017 PDF
SA learners perform poorly relative to local and regional standards
Stellenbosch Policy Brief No. 01/2012 Abstract: Despite positive trends in completion rates and Grade R enrolment, staggering numbers of South African learners continue to lack…
October 16, 2017 PDF
Identifying policy priorities to improve outcomes for poor primary school learners
Stellenbosch Policy Brief No. 03/2011 Abstract: Socio-economic status has a significant impact on primary school learner performance. Poorer learners often suffer poor educational outcomes: They…
October 16, 2017 PDF
Getting reading right: Building firm foundations
Introduction The Millennium Development Goals aimed to achieve universal access to primary education by 2015. Attendance rates in South Africa remain high, with 97% of…
March 13, 2017 PDF
Disentangling the language effect in South African schools: Measuring the impact of ‘language of assessment’ in grade 3 literacy and numeracy
Abstract The aim of this article is to exploit an unusual occurrence whereby a large group of South African grade 3 students were tested twice,…
August 13, 2016 PDF
Exploring relationships between oral reading fluency and reading comprehension amongst English second language readers in South Africa
Abstract Most analyses of oral reading fluency (ORF) are based on L1 reading, and the norms that have been developed in English are based…
February 12, 2016 PDF
Measuring access to learning over a period of increased access to schooling: The case of Southern and Eastern Africa since 2000
Abstract This paper examines the extent to which increased access to primary schooling in ten Southern and East African countries between 2000 and 2007…
December 25, 2015 PDF
Starting behind and staying behind in South Africa: The case of insurmountable learning deficits in mathematics
Abstract This study quantifies a year’s worth of mathematics learning in South Africa (0.3 standard deviations) and uses this measure to develop empirically calibrated learning…
November 25, 2015 PDF
Education Quality in South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa: An Economic Approach
Candidate: Nic Spaul Supervisor: Professor Servaas van der Berg Institution: Stellenbosch University, Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences, Department of Economics Abstract: Education has always occupied a central…
October 16, 2015 PDF
Accountability and Capacity in South African Education
Abstract The aim of the study is to discuss the notion of accountability with respect to education in South Africa. Starting with an overview…
September 12, 2015 PDF
What do we know about primary teachers’ mathematical content knowledge in South Africa? An analysis of SACMEQ 2007
Abstract There is consensus in the international mathematics teacher education literature that teachers should, at the most basic level, have mastery of the content…
July 25, 2015 PDF
Examining oral reading fluency among rural Grade 5 English Second Language (ESL) learners in South Africa: An analysis of NEEDU 2013
Abstract The ability to read for meaning and pleasure is arguably the most important skill children learn in primary school. One integral component of…
June 8, 2015 PDF
Access to What? Creating a Composite Measure of Educational Quantity and Educational Quality for 11 African Countries
Abstract The aim of the current study is to create a composite statistic of educational quantity and educational quality by combining household data (Demographic and…
March 8, 2015 PDF
The Gospel according to Banerjee and Duflo
Excerpt: In their latest book, Poor Economics, Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee present a highly readable overview of the problems facing the world’s poor…
June 21, 2014 PDF
Poverty & Privilege: Primary School Inequality in South Africa
Abstract: The strong legacy of apartheid and the consequent correlation between education and wealth have meant that, generally speaking, poorer South African students perform…
October 25, 2013 PDF
