Equity & efficiency in South African primary schools : a preliminary analysis of SACMEQ III South Africa

[摘要] ENGLISH ABSTRACT: The many and varied links between student socioeconomic status and educational outcomes havebeen well documented in the South African economics of education literature. The strong legacy ofapartheid and the consequent correlation between education and wealth have meant that, generallyspeaking, poorer learners perform worse academically. The links between affluence and educationalquality in South Africa can partially explain this outcome since the poor receive a far inferior qualityof education when compared to their wealthier counterparts. This disadvantages them in the labourmarketand entrenches their poverty. This thesis uses the recent Southern and Eastern AfricanConsortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ III) dataset for South Africa toanswer three important questions: (1) Is South African primary education efficient? (2) Is SouthAfrican primary education equitable? and (3) What are the main factors that have a significanteffect on student mathematics and reading performance in Grade 6. The thesis shows that ahigh proportion of the country's learners are functionally illiterate and functionally innumerate. Theresearch confirms previous findings that socio-economic status, and particularly schoolsocioeconomic status, is important when understanding student success or failure. Other factorswhich significantly affect student performance are homework frequency, grade repetition, andthe availability of reading textbooks. In contrast, teacher-subject knowledge was found to haveonly a modest impact on Grade 6 performance. Policy interventions associated with the findings arealso highlighted. The study concludes that South Africa is still a tale of two school sub-systems: onewhich is wealthy, functional and able to educate students, while the other is poor, dysfunctional,and unable to equip students with the necessary numeracy and literacy skills they should beacquiring in primary school. Finally, the thesis suggests that there are some options availableto policy-makers which are expected to have a positive effect on learner performance.

[发布机构] Stellenbosch University