Economics of Education Review 24 (2005) 213–233 Race, equity, and public schools in post-Apartheid South Africa: Equal opportunity for all kids (original) (raw)
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This paper analyzes the large racial differences in progress through secondary school in South Africa. Using recently collected longitudinal data we find that grade advancement is strongly associated with scores on a baseline literacy and numeracy test. In grades 8-11 the effect of these scores on grade progression is much stronger for white and coloured students than for African students, while there is no racial difference in the impact of the scores on passing the nationally standardized grade 12 matriculation exam. We develop a stochastic model of grade repetition that generates predictions consistent with these results. The model predicts that a larger stochastic component in the link between learning and measured performance will generate higher enrollment, higher failure rates, and a weaker link between ability and grade progression. The results suggest that grade progression in African schools is poorly linked to actual ability and learning. The results point to the importance of considering the stochastic component of grade repetition in analyzing school systems with high failure rates.
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In South African Schooling: The Enigma of Inequality, Spaull and Jansen, two internationally renowned experts in education, assemble an impressive group of leading scholars, educationalists, and economists to analyze the historical and contemporary dynamics of the education sector in South Africa. Central to this analysis is the state of equity and access in the present-day South African schools. The golden thread argument throughout the book is that the country's schooling system presently perpetuates the predictable fault lines, inequalities, and legacies of the apartheid regime. These ensue despite small-and large-scale interventions to bring about change in pursuit of equality (the sameness of treatment) and equity (the differentiated treatment through, for example, redistribution of resources from the privileged to the needy schools). Collectively, the different chapters in this book make a strong case that factors, such as who you are (race and language), where you come from (urban or rural), what your parents earn (wealth and class), and which school you attend (privileged or disadvantaged), strongly determine the educational outcomes of learners and, arguably, their thrive in career paths beyond schooling. In so many ways, the volume presents the data that show that education policy reform since 1994 has not adequately dealt with this enigma of unequal outcomes of learner performance, disparities in the quality of education, and unequal distribution of resources across schools. The framing chapter of the book paints a more pessimistic picture of rife inequalities in the education sector in South Africa. It challenges the reader to think more broadly about the implications of these current inequalities. The thrust of this volume is best captured by the overarching question: How, in practical terms, does one get to a more equitable distribution of teachers, resources, and learning outcomes? Moreover, what are the political, social, and financial price-tags attached to doing so? (p. 2). The subsequent 18 chapters, in one way or the other, respond to these
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South Africa provides a unique case with regards to the issue of school fees. Not only is the country a new democracy that created policies virtually from scratch, but it is also a middle- income country less dependent on foreign aid. Today, the vast majority of learners in post-apartheid South Africa attend public schools, all of which are encouraged to supplement government funding with private funds, namely through fees charged to learners’ parents. While school fees are hotly debated in South Africa, there is little information about the effects of this policy on schools. This study examines the school principals’ implementation of South Africa’s school fees policy and analyzes its effectiveness in tackling the issues of equity and redress in the post-apartheid environment.
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