Unisa online - 'South African education: unequal, inefficient and underperformi

Prof Veronica McKay said thank you to Nic Spaull for his excellent, in depth presentation on the current state of South African Education. After the microwave session he had an opportunity to admire the new workbooks of the Department of Basic Education which were developed by Prof McKay and her team of academics, artists, and Unisa translators.

The South African (SA) government spends the equivalent of $1225 per child on primary education, yet accomplishes less than the government of Kenya which spends only the equivalent of $258 per child.  Nicholas Spaull – a researcher in the Department of Economics at the University of Stellenbosch – presented his research on the current situation of the nation’s education to staff in the College of Education as part of the microwave seminar series on 12 July 2012.

Nicholas Spaull presented his findings based on his statistical analysis and comparisons on the national data sets from the Annual National Assessments (ANA), the international TIMMS and PIRLS and the continental SACMEQ competency tests. These statistics provide an interesting perspective on where the SA schooling system currently is in comparison to other African countries and clearly signals where improvements are needed.

Mr Spaull’s presentation showed that South Africa still faces the reality of two different education systems, a dysfunctional schooling system (75%) and a functional schooling system (25%), which are miles apart in their respective performance. Despite the high spending and many interventions which have been made by the government over the past twenty years, the system remains virtually unchanged. Our government spends 20% of total government expenditure on education, of which 78% goes to teacher salaries. Yet, the education system continues to propagate, rather than mitigate, inequality. If you are born into a family which is poor, your prospects for social mobility are very slim. Education is the main driver of social mobility, but the system continues to reproduce inequality because there are so few good schools, which are also geographically and financially inaccessible to the poor. Click here to view statistics on the two different education systems in South Africa.

The statistical evidence once again shows that South Africa’s education system is in crisis. However, it is not all doom and gloom. Since 2010 two significant interventions have been made by the Department of Basic Education. Firstly, the DBE introduced the ANA which tests learner competences in the primary grades and provides a comparable measure of student performance at the primary school level. This allows the department and parents to hold teachers and schools accountable. It also provides benchmarks for grade-appropriate achievements making it possible to provide targeted support to specific schools, teachers and learners. Secondly, he points out that the Workbook initiative which provides every child in primary school with high quality workbooks in languages and mathematics can bring about significant improvements. These books provide well-sequenced daily worksheets intended to assist with curriculum coverage. Click here to view some of the statistics which illustrate how much South Africa spends on education and time on task compared with other African countries.

The conclusions, which Mr Spaull draws out of the statistical analysis of the various national assessments, are that we currently cannot speak of a single education system in SA. He says “this is a misnomer – the average South African student does not exist in any meaningful sense. Any average of score in South Africa masks the reality that the majority (75%) are scoring well below that average, while a minority (25%) are scoring much higher than the average. We need to acknowledge this bimodality in student performance if we are to make any inroads in fixing the problem. The facts also make it clear that South Africa is not yet able to convert its material advantage (relative to other poorer African countries) into cognitive skills and learning achievements. Our education system is highly unequal and inefficient. This has been shown time and again from TIMSS (2003), to PIRLS (2006) to SACMEQ (2007) and most recently the ANAs (2011).”

In Spaull’s opinion, “the three biggest challenges facing education are firstly that we fail to get the basics right; far too many children in South Africa cannot read, write and compute at even the most basic levels (i.e. they are functionally illiterate/innumerate),and this after 6 years of formal full-time schooling. Secondly, the high levels of inequality in the schooling system mean that we effectively have two schooling systems, a dysfunctional system which operates at the bottom end of African countries and a functional system which operates at the bottom end of developed countries. It is also apparent that spending more resources is not the silver bullet to resolve these problems since our existing resources are not yet being utilised effectively. Resources are mediated by provinces and schools – both of which vary widely in their ability to manage financial and human resources. There is a need to ensure better accountability between the department, the schools and parents.”

According to Mr Spaull there are four core issues which need to be addressed before we can improve:

1. Acknowledge the extent of the problem.  Low quality education is one of the three largest crises facing our country (along with poverty and unemployment).  Without the political will and public support for widespread reform, no change will take place.
2. We need to get the basics right. He emphasised that every child must master the basics of foundational numeracy and literacy as these are the building blocks of further education and finally, every school needs to be brought up to a minimum level of student learning. Weak foundations are a recipe for disaster. Improving this will require that every teacher has the minimum basic competency in the subjects they teach and every learner needs to access adequate learning materials.
3. Time on task is essential. Every school day, as well as every school period, needs to be used in order to maximise instructional time. Currently, teacher absenteeism amounts to approximately 1 month per annum and learning is compromised. Teachers need to be in class on task.
4. Lastly, there is a need for increased information, accountability & transparency across the system. This includes the levels of the district, the school, the classroom and even learners.

“Yet”, he points out, “there is still reason for some optimism: the workbooks and the ANAs are two major positive interventions introduced in the last three years and the dividends of these policies are likely to be large and the benefits disproportionately in favour of the poor. ”