Department of Economics  Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences Economic and Development Problems in South Africa and Africa Session 10 – Education in SA

Give background to SA education system What are major fault-lines in our education system? What is extent of underperformance of SA school system? What factors drive underperformance of SA school system? 2 Aims for today Lucky you!!

3 1) Overview of SA education system

SA’s dualistic school system and labour market High productivity jobs & incomes ±10% of labour force – mainly professional, managerial & skilled jobs Requires graduates, good quality matric, or good vocational skills Historically mainly whites Low productivity jobs & incomes Often manual or low skill jobs Limited or low quality education Minimum wage can exceed their productivity High quality schools ±10% of schools, mainly ex-white, but racial composition changed Produce strong cognitive skills Teachers well qualified, schools function well, good assessment, parents involved Low quality schools Produce very weak cognitive skills Teachers less qualified, de-motiva- ted, many schools dysfunctional, weak assessment, little parental involvement, strong union presence Mainly former black (DET) schools Big demand for good schools, despite fees A few schools cross the divide Vocational training Affirmative action Some talented, motivated or lucky students manage the transition

Education affects labour market outcomes 5 Employment probability, 2005 (conditional) Good education provides access to top end of labour market – (better) jobs, higher wages Skills shortage at top end causes a wage premium Oversupply of unskilled workers depresses wages at bottom end Race between demand and supply of skills will determine skills premium This premium and the distribution of educational attainment are currently central to SA income inequality

Education also determines individual prospects – with a potential vicious circle of weak education and poverty 2. Cognitive ability in early childhood 3. Educational performance in early school years 4. Educational achievement at matric 5. Ultimate educational attainment and quality 6. Labour market performance 1.SES at birth

7 2) South Africa’s performance in INTERNATIONAL context

Mean Maths score in TIMMS 2003 (Grade 8)

Literacy score in PIRLS 2006

% below low international benchmark (400) in PIRLS 2006 (Gr.4; in SA Gr.5) 10

% of SA students exceeding performance at 75th percentile of developed countries (“who would ‘make it’ economically in developed countries")

12 Objections to international comparison: It’s wrong to compare SA to OECD countries SA is still recovering from apartheid SA is underperforming due to poverty

13 3) South Africa’s performance in REGIONAL context (SACMEQ)

Placing SA in regional context 14 Reading 10 th /15 Maths 8 th /15

Placing SA in regional context 15 4 th /15

Placing SA in regional context th /15 !!! Caveat… GER? 4 th /15

17 Placing SA in regional context

18 Placing SA in regional context

19 Rural 13 th /15

Placing SA in regional context 20 Urban 9 th /15

21 3) Not only does SA’s school system perform poorly, it is also highly unequal

Primary school: Gr.6 reading test scores by SES quintile 22

Primary school: PIRLS (Gr 5) reading scores by school type 23 NB correlation between race and wealth

24 Red = rich Proxy IQ

Secondary school: Matriculants’ performance by race, 2007

Secondary school 26 Apply critical thinking!! What is misleading about this picture?

Two school systems? Yes, BUT Mathematics score of the 95th performance percentile. The problem of the low overall mean, but misperception exists that the top end fares well in an international comparison.

4) Just how bad are the students/teachers?? 28

WCED study: % of Gr. 3 learners who could verbally answer questions below (in home language) But ¾ of Gr.3 teachers said they covered times tables 3+ days per week Yet barely half of teachers were confident that most of their learners could correctly answer “2 times 4” (Plus, this is WC!!)

What about teachers? In SACMEQ III, Maths teachers participated in a Maths tests & English teachers in a reading test Example of one answer on a Maths test: Most Grade 6 Maths teachers (57%) thought the answer was 15 percent (presumably they just calculated 75 minus 60 =15 !!!) Only 24% of Maths teachers got this right, i.e. answered 25% 30

Research at SUN Economics Department Recent research  1) How does one research education using the tools of economics? 2) What did we find? 31

1)Methodology: Education production function 32 Inputs: student household community classroom teacher school Inputs: student household community classroom teacher school PRODUCTION PROCESS Output: reading score Output: reading score ? Regression analysis → coefficients provide an indication of the direction, size and significance of the impacts of inputs on output.

Education production functions 33

2) Our studies show 1) 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% versus bottom 80% 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. Moral issue! 34

Our studies show Why are these schools not functioning? 2) Lacking crucial complementary resources such as textbooks 3) Minor role for teacher knowledge, but may be due to constraints or teacher knowledge not capturing relevant dimensions of teacher quality 4) Classroom practices such as curriculum coverage and homework exercises 35

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 36

Overall? 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? 37

38 Questions ???

Miscellaneous Group Assignment (next week) Read up on the state of education in Africa Common problems? Solutions? Think critically! Essays Finalise your topics by Friday I have some suggestions (though more difficult) 39