1. Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy Development A partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union Making Sense of What we Found Social Policy Research Group Department of Economics, Stellenbosch University 28 March 2011

2. Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy Development A partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union Our studies show South African education system as a whole is not performing well In the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) of 2002, South African Grade 8 students achieved the lowest average scores in both Mathematics and Science out of 46 countries, including six African countries. At the primary school level, South Africa came last out of 40 countries in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS 2006). SA performance at SACMEQ slightly below the average of the other participating African countries in Grade 6 Mathematics and Reading, despite benefiting from better access to resources, more qualified teachers and lower pupil-to-teacher ratios. 2

3. Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy Development A partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union Our studies show The education system tends to reinforce patterns of privilege and poverty Not only is the cognitive performance of South African children disturbingly low, it is also highly unequal. SACMEQ 2007 average Reading test score for the richest 20% of learners in Grade 6 was 605 Cf. 436 for the poorest 20% of learners South Africa’s rural children did far worse than rural children in most other countries in this African sample South Africa’s poorest 25% did much worse than poorest quarters of other countries in SACMEQ sample. 3

4. Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy Development A partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union Our studies show Divide in the performance of rich and poor children is already noticeable from early in primary school By Grade 3 already large gaps in the performance of school children in the top 20% of the population (top quintile) versus those in the bottom 80% (bottom four quintiles) Given the importance of Foundation Phase and the magnitude of observed gap by Grade 3, one may argue that that by eight many children from poor communities may have already been deprived of some career choices 4

5. Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy Development A partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union Our studies show Why are these schools not functioning? Lacking crucial complementary resources such as textbooks Minor role for teacher knowledge, but may be due to constraints or teacher knowledge not capturing relevant dimensions of teacher quality Classroom practices such as curriculum coverage and homework exercises 5

6. Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy Development A partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union Our studies show Why are these schools not functioning? Discipline and management e.g. curriculum planning, a functional timetable, teaching support materials (LTSM), good quality inventories for learning and low teacher absenteeism Assessment and feedback Lack of feedback to learners and parents also appears to hinder the progress of learners in poor schools Community and social factors, including ECD 6

7. Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy Development A partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union Our studies show Enduring legacy of apartheid era education departments, specifically ex-HOA and ex-DET Large differences in performance May still function as different “sub-systems” – analysis shows that often the same factors do not matter in both “sub-systems” e.g. class sizes and participation by parents 7

8. Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy Development A partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union Picture that emerges is of low education as a poverty trap Child from a poor community is very likely to receive an inferior education And the low quality of education is likely to lower chances of employment and reduce expected wages Thus also decreasing the likelihood of this child escaping poverty In contrast, affluent children more likely to pass Matric with an exemption, complete tertiary education and thus have favourable labour market prospects Where does this leave us? 8

9. Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy Development A partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union For understanding this mechanism better it is important to examine returns to education and how quality of education feeds into this Appears that quality of education may be responsible for some of the steep increases we see at top end of the distribution, but remainder is due to traditional explanation, i.e. high demand for skilled workers Also, in terms of racial wage gap: large part of this gap explained by education system quality, which further strengthens the case for interventions and reform 9