Understanding primary school performance in Southern Africa (SACMEQ) Nicholas Spaull nicspaull.com/research

SACMEQ  Southern and Eastern African Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality  14 participating countries  SACMEQ II (2000), SACMEQ III (2007)  Background survey  Testing : o Gr 6 Numeracy o Gr 6 Literacy o HIV/AIDS Health knowledge SACMEQ: South Africa  9071 Grade 6 students  1163 Grade 6 teachers  392 primary schools Background: Data

Distribution of student performance

WCA LIM SA in regional context

Looking specifically at South Africa

South Africa: Socioeconomic breakdown

Language PIRLS Gr 5 (Shepherd, 2011) Ex-Department NSES Gr 4 (Taylor, 2011) Socioeconomic status SACMEQ Gr 6 (Spaull, 2011) SA Bimodality – fact, no longer theory Two education systems not one

Regional comparisons

Country Total population (mil) Adult literacy rate Net Enrolment Rate (2008) GNP/cap PPP US$ (2008) Public Current expenditure on primary education per pupil (unit cost) 2007 – [PPP constant 2006 US$] Survival rate to Grade 5: school year ending 2007 Botswana %87% % 3 Mozambique %80% % Namibia %89% % 3 South Africa %87% % Source (UNESCO, 2011) (UIS, 2009)(UNESCO, 2011) SACMEQ III (2007) Self-reported teacher absenteeism Proportion of Grade 6 students functionally illiterate Proportion of Grade 6 students functionally innumerate Proportion of students with own reading textbook Proportion of students with own mathematics textbook Botswana10.6 days10.62%22.48%63%62% Mozambique6.4 days21.51%32.73%53%52% Namibia9.4 days13.63%47.69%32% South Africa19.4 days27.26%40.17%45%36% SA in regional context

Textbooks

Resources the issue? More maths textbooks More reading textbooks 

Questions, conclusions & recommendations

1.How is it possible that more Mozambican students have access to their own textbooks than SA students, and this when SA spends 15 times as much per child than Mozambique? (workbook delivery?) 2.How is possible that Limpopo performs worse than all 40 other provinces in SA/Namibia/Botswana/Mozambique? 3.Why is it acceptable in South Africa for teachers to be absent (unjustifiably) for an entire month? 4.Do we really know what is wrong with our system? If so, why has it taken so long to fix it? LOLT? Unions? Teacher training? Questions

Speaking of a single education system in SA is a misnomer – the average South African student does not exist in any meaningful sense.  Bimodality is a fact. South Africa is not able to convert material advantage into cognitive skills  Highly inefficient While the survey was conducted in 2007, and things may have changed, the outcomes certainly haven’t (see ANA’s, 2011; and (?) PIRLS/TIMSS 2012)  More of the same? Conclusions Hereditary poverty Low social mobility Low quality education Serious blight on the national conscience Persistent patterns of poverty and privilege

1.Acknowledge the extent of the problem Low quality education is one of the three largest crises facing our country (along with HIV/AIDS and unemployment) 2.Experiment to figure out what works More of the same hasn’t worked  Need to try new things and rigorously evaluate them to see what works. – Workbooks & ANA’s are a positive sign – Failed programmes provide useful information when acknowledged & disseminated. 3.Increase accountability, information & transparency Where is the money going? Deal ruthlessly with corruption – this is a social crime. For at least one grade (Gr6?) get ANA externally validated by an independent body like Umalusi and get this information to parents  need to empower parents with information in an accessible format Recommendations

Thank you