An Overview of South Africa’s Schooling System
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An Overview of South Africa’s Schooling System
NicSpaull.comIPSU – Economic and Development Problems in Africa| 25 February 2014
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2
Outline
Recurring themes I want you to notice• Access/quantity vs quality• Is it an accountability or a capacity
constraint/solution?• Status quos are usually equilibria – i.e. we have
what we have (and it stays what it is) for a reason
Main issues to be covered:1. SA performs extremely poorly on local and
international assessments of educational achievement
2. In large parts of the schooling system there is little learning taking place
3. In SA we have TWO public schooling systems, not one.
4. Selected issues – teacher content knowledge, textbook availability (SMS)
5. Accountability & Capacity6. Binding constraints
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Social Policy & Education
Firstly, what is social policy?“Social policy primarily refers to the guidelines, principles, legislation and activities that affect the living conditions conducive to human welfare”
“Public policy and practice in the areas of health care, human services, criminal justice, inequality, education, and labour”
“Social Policy is defined as actions that affect the well-being of members of a society through shaping the distribution of and access to goods and resources in that society”
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Social Policy & Education
• Secondly, how does education fit into it?
– Most areas of social policy influence education (in some way), and are influenced by education (in some way)
– Bidirectional causality
– Multiple benefits of education…
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Benefits of education
Improvements in productivityEconomic growthReduction of inter-generational cycles of povertyReductions in inequality
Lower fertilityImproved child healthPreventative health careDemographic transition
Improved human rightsEmpowerment of womenReduced societal violencePromotion of a national (as opposed to regional or ethnic) identityIncreased social cohesion
$Society Health Economy
Specific references: lower fertility (Glewwe, 2002), improved child health (Currie, 2009), reduced societal violence (Salmi, 2006), promotion of a national - as opposed to a regional or ethnic - identity (Glewwe, 2002), improved human rights (Salmi, 2006), increased social cohesion (Heyneman, 2003), Economic growth – see any decent Macro textbook, specifically for cognitive skills see (Hanushek & Woessman 2008)
Ed
HS
Ec
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Social Policy & Education
• Secondly, how does education fit into it?
– Education itself affects society & the individual in real and meaningful ways:
• Transforms individual capabilities, values, aspirations and desires (see Sen)• Allows individuals to think, feel and act in different ways• Enables new ways of organizing and supporting social action that depend on
numeracy and literacy, technologies of communication and abstract thinking skills (Lewin, 2007). Democratic participation, knowledge creation etc.
• Education increases peoples ability to add value (productivity)• “Modernising societies use educational access and attainment as a primary
mechanism to sort and select subsequent generations into different social and economic roles” (Lewin, 2007: 3) Distribution of income
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Theory: Human Capital
Education increases peoples ability to add value (productivity) HCM
+ =
“The failure to treat human resources explicitly as a form of capital, as a produced means of production, as the product of investment, has fostered the retention of the classical notion of labour as a capacity to do manual work requiring little knowledge and skill, a capacity with which, according to this notion, labourers are endowed about equally. This notion of labour was wrong in the classical period and it is patently wrong now. Counting individuals who can and want to work and treating such a count as a measure of the quantity of an economic factor is no more meaningful than it would be to count the number of all manner of machines to determine their economic importance” (Schultz, 1961, p. 3).
Man Incr MP of L Incr profits Incr wageSkills & health
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Theory: Sorting & signalling
• Education does not improve productivity or produce HC, instead acts as a signal of innate productivity/IQ/motivation.– Those with higher productivity/IQ/motivation will find it easier to get
higher levels of education than those with lower P/IQ/M
• Do we care if it is HCM or Signalling?– Yes! Implications for public investment.
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Elusive equity
• Given the strong links between education and income, educational inequality is a fundamental determinant of income inequality.
• Clear need to understand SA educational inequality if we are to understand SA income inequality.
• High inequality + unemployment 2 of the most severe problems facing SA– Educational quality is intimately intertwined with both of these.
• “Education shall be free, compulsory, universal and equal for all children” (Freedom Charter)
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Elusive equity
Type of education
Quality of education
Duration of
education
SA is one of the top 3 most
unequal countries in the world
Between 78% and 85% of
total inequality is explained by
wage inequality
Wages
• IQ• Motivation• Social
networks• Discrimination
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Theory – education in SA
SES at birth
Cognitive ability in
early childhood
Educational performance
in early school years
Educational achievement
in matric
Ultimate educational attainment and quality
Labour market
performance
•Cost of tertiary education (explicit & implicit costs)•Parental & personal aspirations and perceptions•Society/culture
•Parental IQ (assortative mating)•Maternal health•Nutrition•Early cognitive stimulation: preschool (quantity & quality), home environment
•Average school SES•Language of learning & teaching (LOLT)•Teacher quality•Peer effects•Subject choice
•Type of tertiary education (quality) - institution and field of study•Demand and supply•Individual motivation
South Africa
(See Taylor, 2010)
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For UK
Blacks Coloureds Indians Whites Total 0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
Pass Matric
Maths passes
Endorsements
HG Maths passes
A-aggregates
SES at birth
Cognitive ability in
early childhood
Educational performance
in early school years
Educational achievement
in matric
Ultimate educational attainment and quality
Labour market
performance
South Africa
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Attai
nmen
tQ
ualit
yTy
pe
13
High SES background
+ECDHigh quality primary school
High quality
secondaryschool
Low SES background
Low quality primary school
Low quality secondary
school
Unequal society
17%
Semi-Skilled (31%)
Unskilled(19%)
Unemployed
(Broad - 33%)
Labour Market
High productivity jobs and incomes (17%)
• Mainly professional, managerial & skilled jobs
• Requires graduates, good quality matric or good vocational skills
• Historically mainly white
Low productivity jobs & incomes
• Often manual or low skill jobs
• Limited or low quality education
• Minimum wage can exceed productivity
University/FET
• Type of institution (FET or University)
• Quality of institution • Type of qualification
(diploma, degree etc.)• Field of study
(Engineering, Arts etc.)
• Vocational training• Affirmative action
Majority (80%)
Some motivated, lucky or talented students make the transition
Minority (20%)
- Big demand for good schools despite fees
- Some scholarships/bursaries
cf. Servaas van der Berg – QLFS 2011
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Qualifications by age (birth cohort), 2011 (Van der Berg, 2013)
20 (1
991)
22 (1
989)
24 (1
987)
26 (1
985)
28 (1
983)
30 (1
981)
32 (1
979)
34 (1
977)
36 (1
975)
38 (1
973)
40 (1
971)
42 (1
969)
44 (1
967)
46 (1
965)
48 (1
963)
50 (1
961)
52 (1
959)
54 (1
957)
56 (1
955)
58 (1
953)
60 (1
951)
62 (1
949)
64 (1
947)
66 (1
945)
68 (1
943)
70 (1
941)
72 (1
939)
74 (1
937)
76 (1
935)
78 (1
933)
80 (1
931)
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
No schooling
Some primary
Primary completed
Some secondary schooling
Matric
Some tertiaryDegree
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Expenditure on education2010/11
Total government expenditure (31% GDP in 2010/11 – R733.5bn)
80.50%
Other Government spendingEducation: Other currentEducation: CapitalEducation: Personnel78%
Government exp on education(19.5% of Gov exp: R143.1bn)
17%
5%
15
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1) South Africa performs extremely poorly on local
and international assessments of
educational achievement
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State of SA education since transition
• “Although 99.7% of South African children are in school…the outcomes in education are abysmal” (Manuel, 2011)
• “Without ambiguity or the possibility of misinterpretation, the pieces together reveal the predicament of South African primary education” (Fleisch, 2008: 2)
• “Our researchers found that what students know and can do is dismal” (Taylor & Vinjevold, 1999)
• “It is not an overstatement to say that South African education is in crisis.” (Van der Berg & Spaull, 2011)
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Student performance 2003-2011
TIMSS (2003) PIRLS (2006) SACMEQ (2007) ANA (2011)
TIMSS 2003 (Gr8 Maths & Science)
• Out of 50 participating countries (including 6 African countries) SA came last
• Only 10% reached low international benchmark• No improvement from TIMSS 1999-TIMSS 2003
PIRLS 2006 (Gr 4/5 – Reading)
• Out of 45 participating countries SA came last• 87% of gr4 and 78% of Gr 5 learners deemed
to be “at serious risk of not learning to read”
SACMEQ III 2007 (Gr6 – Reading & Maths)• SA came 10/15 for reading and 8/15 for maths
behind countries such as Swaziland, Kenya and Tanzania
ANA 2011 (Gr 1-6 Reading & Maths)• Mean literacy score gr3: 35%• Mean numeracy score gr3: 28%• Mean literacy score gr6: 28%• Mean numeracy score gr6: 30%
TIMSS (2011) prePIRLS (2011)
TIMSS 2011 (Gr9 – Maths & Science)• SA has joint lowest performance of 42 countries• Improvement by 1.5 grade levels (2003-2011)• 76% of grade nine students in 2011 still had not
acquired a basic understanding about whole numbers, decimals, operations or basic graphs, and this is at the improved level of performance
Rus
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Lith
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Tur
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Mal
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oroc
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th A
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ntile
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uinti
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Qui
ntile
3Q
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Qui
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5In
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t
Middle-income countries South Africa (Gr9)
200240280320360400440480520560
TIM
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Mat
hem
atics
scor
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prePIRLS2011 (Gr 4 Reading)• 29% of SA Gr4 learners completely
illiterate (cannot decode text in any langauge)
• NSES 2007/8/9
• Systemic Evaluations 2007
• Matric exams
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Quantifying learning deficits in Gr3
• Following Muralidharan & Zieleniak (2013) we classify students as performing at the grade-appropriate level if they obtain a mean score of 50% or higher on the full set of Grade 3 level questions.
0.0
05.0
1.0
15.0
2.0
25
Kern
el d
ensi
ty o
f Gra
de 3
-leve
l sco
res
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90
Systemic 2007 Grade 3 mean score (%) on Grade 3 level items
Quintile 5 Quintile 1-4
Figure 1: Kernel density of mean Grade 3 performance on Grade 3 level items by quintiles of student socioeconomic status (Systemic Evaluation 2007)
(Grade-3-appropriate level)
51%
11%
16% Only the top 16% of grade 3 students are
performing at a Grade 3 level
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NSES question 42NSES followed about 15000 students (266 schools) and tested them in Grade 3 (2007), Grade 4 (2008) and
Grade 5 (2009).
Grade 3 maths curriculum: “Can perform calculations using appropriate symbols to solve problems involving: division of at least 2-digit by 1-digit numbers”
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5Question 42
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
16% 19% 17% 17%
39%13% 10% 12% 12%
14%
13% 14% 14% 15%
13%
59% 57% 57% 55%
35%
Still wrong in Gr5Correct in Gr5Correct in Gr4Correct in Gr3
Even at the end of Grade 5 most (55%+) quintile 1-4 students cannot answer this simple Grade-3-level problem.
“The powerful notions of ratio, rate and proportion are built upon the simpler concepts of whole number, multiplication and division, fraction and rational number, and are themselves the precursors to the development of yet more complex concepts such as triangle similarity, trigonometry, gradient and calculus” (Taylor & Reddi, 2013: 194)
(Spaull & Viljoen, forthcoming)
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By Gr 3 all children should be able to read, Gr 4 children should be transitioning from “learning to read” to “reading to learn”
South Africa
Afrikaans
English
isiNdebele
isiXhosa
isiZulu
Sepedi
Sesotho
Setswana
siSwati
Tshivenda
Xitsonga
29
12
10
31
38
29
57
36
34
24
53
47
71
88
90
69
62
71
43
64
66
76
47
53
6
15
19
0.2
0.4
0.8
0
0.1
0.1
0.25
0
0
Did not reach Low International benchmark Intemediate International BenchmarkHigh International Benchmark Advanced International benchmark
Red sections here show the proportion of children that are completely illiterate in Grade 4, i.e. they cannot read in any language
http://web.up.ac.za/sitefiles/File/publications/2013/PIRLS_2011_Report_12_Dec.PDF
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SACMEQ 2007 – Grade 6
2%
25%
46%
26%
South Africa
By this definition of functional illiteracy, if students are functionally illiterate they cannot read a short and simple text and extract meaning i.e. they cannot read for meaning
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Grade 6 Literacy
SA Gr 6 Literacy Kenya Gr 6 Literacy25% 7%5%2%
46%49%
39%
27%
Public current expenditure
per pupil: $1225Public current expenditure
per pupil: $258Additional resources is not the answer
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2) In large parts of the schooling system there is
little learning taking place
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Rationale• Learning is a cumulative process that builds on itself i.e. it follows a
hierarchical structure (see Gagne, 1962; Aubrey, Dahl, & Godfrey, 2006; Aubrey & Godfrey, 2003; Aunio & Niemivirta, 2010).
• Mathematics, in particular, follows a coherent, explicit and systematically principled structure (vertically integrated subject – Bernstein, 1999)
• With respect to South Africa, Taylor et al. (2003, p. 129):“At the end of the Foundation Phase, learners have only a rudimentary grasp of the principles of reading and writing... it is very hard for learners to make up this cumulative deficit in later years...particularly in those subjects that...[have] vertical demarcation requirements (especially mathematics and science), the sequence, pacing, progression and coverage requirements of the high school curriculum make it virtually impossible for learners who have been disadvantaged by their early schooling to ‘catch-up’ later sufficiently to do themselves justice at the high school exit level.” (see also Schollar, 2008)
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Insurmountable learning deficits: 0.3 SD
Gr3 Gr4 Gr5 Gr6 Gr7 Gr8 Gr9 Gr10 Gr11 Gr12(NSES 2007/8/9) (SACMEQ
2007)Projections (TIMSS
2011)Projections
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
South African Learning Trajectories by National Socioeconomic QuintilesBased on NSES (2007/8/9) for grades 3, 4 and 5, SACMEQ (2007) for grade 6 and
TIMSS (2011) for grade 9)
Quintile 1Quintile 2Quintile 3Quintile 4Quintile 5Q1-4 TrajectoryQ5 Trajectory
Actual grade (and data source)
Effec
tive
grad
e
(Spaull & Viljoen, Forthcoming)
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What are the implications for matric and then the labour market?
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• 550,000 students drop out before matric• 99% do not get a non-matric qualification (Gustafsson, 2011: p11)
• What happens to them? 50% youth unemployment.
49%
11%
24%
16%
Of 100 students that started school in 2002
Do not reach matricFail matric 2013Pass matric 2013Pass with university endorsement 2013
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Dropout between Gr8 and Gr12
• Of 100 Gr8 quintile 1 students in 2009, 36 passed matric and 10 qualified for university• Of 100 Gr8 quintile 5 students in 2009, 68 passed matric and 39 qualified for university• “Contrary to what some would like the nation and the public to believe that our results hide inequalities, the facts
and evidence show that the two top provinces (Free State and North West) are rural and poor.” (Motshekga, 2014)
Quintile 1 Quintile 2 Quintile 3 Quintile 4 Quintile 50%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
70% 73% 75%82%
92%
36%49%
37%42%
68%
10% 15% 12% 17%
39%
2013 Matric passes by quintileMatric pass rate by quintile Matric passes as % of Grade 8 (2009) Bachelor passes as % of Grade 8 (2009)
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30No early cognitive stimulation
Weak culture of T&LLow curric
coverage
Low quality teachers
Low time-on-task
MATRIC
Pre-MATRIC
Matric pass rateNo. endorsements Subject choice
Throughput
Low accountability
50% dropout
HUGE learning deficits…
Quality?
What are the root causes of low and
unequal achievement?
Vested interests
Media sees only this
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South African teacher content
knowledge
CAPACITY
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Importance of basic content knowledge
• Mathematics teachers need “a thorough mastery of the mathematics in several grades beyond that which they expect to teach, as well as of the mathematics in earlier grades” (Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences, 2001, ch.2).
• Carnoy & Chisholm’s (2008: p. 22) conceptual model distinguishes between basic content knowledge and higher level content knowledge.
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Which content areas do South African teachers struggle
with?
Maths teacher CK critically low
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Maths teacher CK critically low
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What do South African teachers know relative
to other teachers in Africa?
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600
650
700
750
800
850
900
950
Series1
Mean Lower bound confidence interval (95%) Upper bound confidence interval (95%)
Mat
hs-t
each
er m
athe
mati
cs sc
ore
SACMEQ III (2007) Mathematics-teacher mathematics test-scores for SACMEQ countries and South African quintiles of school wealth (95% confidence interval incl.)
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Rate of change example (Q17)SACMEQ III (2007) 401/498 Gr6 Mathematics teachers
SACMEQ Maths teacher test Q17
QuintileAvg
1 2 3 4 5Correct 23% 22% 38% 40% 74% 38%
Correct answer (7km):
38% of Gr 6 Maths teachers
7
2 education systems
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Percentage of Grade 6 mathematics teachers with correct answer on Q17 of the SACMEQ III (2007) mathematics teacher test
ZAN MOZ ZAM LES MAL SOU NAM SWA BOT UGA TAN SEY ZIM KEN0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
17%24%
31% 31%35%
38%
38%
49% 49% 51%55%
62%71%
80%
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Conclusions
Ball et al (2008, p. 409): “Teachers who do not themselves know the subject well are not likely to have the knowledge they need to help students learn this content. At the same time just knowing a subject may well not be sufficient for teaching.”
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3) In South Africa we have TWO public
schooling systems not one
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BimodalityNSES Grade 4 (2008)
0.00
5.01
.015
.02.02
5D
ensit
y
0 20 40 60 80 100Numeracy score 2008
Ex-DET/ Homelands schools Historically white schools
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Bimodality – indisputable fact0
.005
.01
.015
.02
Den
sity
0 20 40 60 80 100Literacy score (%)
Black WhiteIndian Asian
U-ANA 2011
Kernel Density of Literacy Score by Race (KZN)
0.0
02.0
04.0
06.0
08
Den
sity
0 200 400 600 800 1000Learner Reading Score
Poorest 25% Second poorest 25%Second wealthiest 25% Wealthiest 25%
0.0
01.0
02.0
03.0
04.0
05kd
ensi
ty re
adin
g te
st s
core
0 200 400 600 800reading test score
African language schools English/Afrikaans schools
0.00
5.01
.015
.02.02
5D
ensit
y
0 20 40 60 80 100Numeracy score 2008
Ex-DET/Homelands schools Historically white schools
0.0
1.0
2.0
3.0
4D
ensi
ty
0 20 40 60 80 100Average school literacy score
Quintile 1 Quintile 2Quintile 3 Quintile 4Quintile 5
U-ANA 2011
Kernel Density of School Literacy by Quintile
PIRLS / TIMSS / SACMEQ / NSES / ANA / Matric… by Wealth / Language / Location / Dept…
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In most government reports outcomes and inputs are not usually reported by quintile, only national averages
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45Implications for reporting and modeling??
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Dysfunctional Schools (75% of schools) Functional Schools (25% of schools)
Weak accountability Strong accountability
Incompetent school management Good school management
Lack of culture of learning, discipline and order Culture of learning, discipline and order
Inadequate LTSM Adequate LTSM
Weak teacher content knowledge Adequate teacher content knowledge
High teacher absenteeism (1 month/yr) Low teacher absenteeism (2 week/yr)
Slow curriculum coverage, little homework or testing Covers the curriculum, weekly homework, frequent testing
High repetition & dropout (Gr10-12) Low repetition & dropout (Gr10-12)
Extremely weak learning: most students fail standardised tests Adequate learner performance (primary and matric)
2 education systems
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SOLUTION?
Accountability AND Capacity
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Important distinctions
Improved student
outcomes
Increased resources “on-the-ground”
Often these 3 are spoken about interchangeably
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Important distinctions
Improved student
outcomes
Increased resources “on-the-ground”
Inefficiency / corruption
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Important distinctions
Improved student
outcomes
Increased resources “on-the-ground”
Inefficiency / corruption
Lack of capacity
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Important distinctions
Improved student
outcomes
Increased resources “on-the-ground”
Inefficiency / corruption
Lack of capacity
Lack of accountability
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Accountability & Capacity
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Accountability without capacity• “Accountability systems and incentive structures, no matter how well designed,
are only as effective as the capacity of the organization to respond. The purpose of an accountability system is to focus the resources and capacities of an organization towards a particular end. Accountability systems can’t mobilize resources that schools don’t have...the capacity to improve precedes and shapes schools’ responses to the external demands of accountability systems (Elmore, 2004b, p. 117).
• “If policy-makers rely on incentives for improving either a school or a student, then the question arises, incentives to do what? What exactly should educators in failing schools do tomorrow - that they do not do today - to produce more learning? What should a failing student do tomorrow that he or she is not doing today?” (Loveless, 2005, pp. 16, 26).
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Capacity without accountability• “In the absence of accountability sub-systems, support measures are very much a
hit and miss affair. Accountability measures provide motivation for and direction to support measures, by identifying capacity shortcomings, establishing outcome targets, and setting in place incentives and sanctions which motivate and constrain teachers and managers throughout the system to apply the lessons learned on training courses in their daily work practices. Without these, support measures are like trying to push a piece of string: with the best will in the world, it has nowhere to go. Conversely, the performance gains achieved by accountability measures, however efficiently implemented, will reach a ceiling when the lack of leadership and technical skills on the part of managers, and curricular knowledge on the part of teachers, places a limit on improved performance. Thus, the third step in improving the quality of schooling is to provide targeted training programs to managers and teachers. To achieve optimal effects, these will need to connect up with and be steered by accountability measures” (Taylor, 2002, p. 17).
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“Only when schools have both the incentive to respond to an accountability system as well as the capacity to do so will there be an improvement in student outcomes.” (p22)
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Binding constraints approach
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The binding constraints approach
• It is “based on the idea that not all constraints bind equally, and that a sensible and practical strategy consists of identifying the most serious constraint(s) at work” (Rodrik, 2009: 6)
• Hypothetical example…
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“The left hand barrel has horizontal wooden slabs, while the right hand side barrel has vertical slabs. The volume in the first barrel depends on the sum of the width of all slabs. Increasing the width of any slab will increase the volume of the barrel. So a strategy on improving anything you can, when you can, while you can, would be effective. The volume in the second barrel is determined by the length of the shortest slab. Two implications of the second barrel are that the impact of a change in a slab on the volume of the barrel depends on whether it is the binding constraint or not. If not, the impact is zero. If it is the binding constraint, the impact will depend on the distance between the shortest slab and the next shortest slab” (Hausmann, Klinger, & Wagner, 2008, p. 17).
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3 biggest challenges - SA
1.Failure to get the basics right• Children who cannot read, write and compute properly (Functionally
illiterate/innumerate) after 6 years of formal full-time schooling• Often teachers lack even the most basic knowledge
2.Equity in education• 2 education systems – dysfunctional system operates at bottom of African
countries, functional system operates at bottom of developed countries.• More resources is NOT the silver bullet – we are not using existing resources
3.Lack of accountability • Little accountability to parents in majority of school system• Little accountability between teachers and Department • Teacher unions abusing power and acting unprofessionally
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Way forward?
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). Need the political will and public support for widespread reform.
2. Focus on the basics• Every child MUST master the basics of foundational numeracy and literacy these are the
building blocks of further education – weak foundations = recipe for disaster• Teachers need to be in school teaching (re-introduce inspectorate?)• Every teacher needs a minimum competency (basic) in the subjects they teach• Every child (teacher) needs access to adequate learning (teaching) materials• Use every school day and every school period – maximise instructional time
3. Increase information, accountability & transparency• At ALL levels – DBE, district, school, classroom, learner• Strengthen ANA• Set realistic goals for improvement and hold people accountable
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When faced with an exceedingly low and unequal quality of education do we….
A) Increase accountability {US model}• Create a fool-proof highly specified, sequenced curriculum (CAPS/workbooks)• Measure learning better and more frequently (ANA)• Increase choice/information in a variety of ways
B) Improve the quality of teachers {Finnish model}• Attract better candidates into teaching degrees draw candidates from the top
(rather than the bottom) of the matric distribution• Increase the competence of existing teachers (Capacitation)• Long term endeavor which requires sustained, committed, strategic, thoughtful
leadership (something we don’t have)
C) All of the above {Utopian model}
• Perhaps A while we set out on the costly and difficult journey of B??
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4 “Take-Home” pointsMany things we have not discussed – Grade-R/ECD, teacher unions, LOLT, teacher training (in- and pre-), RCTs etc.
1. South Africa performs extremely poorly on local and international assessments of educational achievement.
2. In large parts of the schooling system there is very little learning taking place.
3. In SA we have two public schooling systems not one.
4. Strategies for improvement need to focus on 1) accountability, 2) capacity, 3) alignment.
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References and further reading• Spaull, N. 2014. Accountability in South African Education. Ch4 in “Transformation Audit 2013: Confronting Exclusion” Institute for Justice and Reconciliation. Cape
Town.• Spaull, N. 2013. South Africa’s Education Crisis: The Quality of Education in South Africa 1995-2011. Centre for Development and Enterprise.• Spaull, N. 2012. SACMEQ at a Glance for 10 African countries. 2 page research note per country.• Spaull, N. 2013. Poverty & Privilege: Primary School Inequality in South Africa. International Journal of Educational Development. 33 (2013) pp. 436-447 (WP here)• Carnoy, M., Chisholm, L., & Chilisa, B. (2012). The Low Achievement Trap: Comparing Schooling in Botswana and South Africa. Cape Town: HSRC Press.• Donalson, A. (1992). Content, Quality and Flexibility: The Economics of Education System Change. Spotlight 5/92. Johannesburg: South African Institute of Race
Relations.• Elmore, R. (2004a). Agency, Reciprocity, and Accountability in Democratic Education. Cambridge, MA: Consortium for Policy Research in Education.• Elmore, R. (2008). Leadership as the practice of improvement. In OECD, Improving School Leadership. Volume 2: Case Studies on System Leadership (pp. 37-67). Paris:
OECD Publishing.• Fiske, E., & Ladd, H. (2004). Elusive Equity: Education Reform in Post-apartheid South Africa. Washington: Brookings Institution Press / HSRC Press.• Fleisch, B. (2008). Primary Education in Crisis: Why South African schoolchildren underachieve in reading and mathematics. Cape Town. : Juta & Co.• Hoadley, U. (2010). What doe we know about teaching and learning in primary schools in South Africa? A review of the classroom-based research literature. Report for
the Grade 3 Improvement project of the University of Stellenbosch. Western Cape Education Department.• Taylor, N., Muller, J., & Vinjevold, P. (2003). Getting Schools Working. Cape Town: Pearson Education.• Van der Berg, S. (2007). Apartheid’s Enduring Legacy: Inequalities in Education. Journal of African Economies, 16(5), 849-880.• Van der Berg, S. (2008). How effective are poor schools? Poverty and educational outcomes in South Africa. Centre for European, Governance and Economic
Development Research (CEGE) Discussion Papers 69.• Van der Berg, S., Burger, C., Burger, R., de Vos, M., du Rand, G., Gustafsson, M., Shepherd, D., Spaull, N., Taylor, S., van Broekhuizen, H., and von Fintel, D. (2011).
Low quality education as a poverty trap. Stellenbosch: University of Stellenbosch, Department of Economics. Research report for the PSPPD project for Presidency.• Shalem, Y. (2003). Do we have a theory of change? Calling change models to account. Perspectives in Education, 21(1), 29-49.• Background to SACMEQ:• Hungi, N., Makuwa, D., Ross, K., Saito, M., Dolata, S., van Capelle, F., et al. (2011).
SACMEQ III Project Results: Levels and Trends in School Resources among SACMEQ School Systems. Paris: Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality.
• Ross, K., Saito, M., Dolata, S., Ikeda, M., Zuze, L., Murimba, S., et al. (2005). The Conduct of the SACMEQ III Project. In E. Onsomu, J. Nzomo, & C. Obiero, The SACMEQ II Project in Kenya: A Study of the Conditions of Schooling and the Quality of Education. Harare: SACMEQ.
• Murimba, S. (2005) SACMEQ Mission, Approach and Projects. Prospects, vol. XXXV, no. 1, March 2005
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Thank youComments & Questions?
This presentation & others are available online at:www.nicspaull.com/research
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Insurmountable learning deficits: 0.3 SD
Gr3 Gr4 Gr5 Gr6 Gr7 Gr8 Gr9 Gr10 Gr11 Gr12(NSES 2007/8/9) (SACMEQ
2007)Projections (TIMSS
2011)Projections
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
South African Learning Trajectories by National Socioeconomic QuintilesBased on NSES (2007/8/9) for grades 3, 4 and 5, SACMEQ (2007) for grade 6 and
TIMSS (2011) for grade 9)
Quintile 1Quintile 2Quintile 3Quintile 4Quintile 5Q1-4 TrajectoryQ5 Trajectory
Actual grade (and data source)
Effec
tive
grad
e
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Decreasing proportion of matrics taking mathematics
Matric 2008 (Gr 10 2006)
Matric 2009 (Gr 10 2007)
Matric 2010 (Gr 10 2008)
Matric 2011 (Gr 10 2009)
0
200000
400000
600000
800000
1000000
1200000
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%Grade 10 (2 years earlier) Grade 12 Those who pass matric
Pass matric with maths Proportion of matrics taking mathematics
Num
ber o
f stu
dent
s
Prop
ortio
n of
mat
rics (
%)
Numbers wrote maths
Numbers passed maths Maths pass rate Proportion taking
mathsProportion passing maths
2008 298 821 136 503 45,7% 56,1% 25,6%2009 290 407 133 505 46,0% 52,6% 24,2%2010 263 034 124 749 47,4% 48,8% 23,2%2011 224 635 104 033 46,3% 45,3% 21,0%
Table 4: Mathematics outputs since 2008 (Source: Taylor, 2012, p. 4)
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Teacher Content Knowledge• Conference Board of the Mathematical Sciences (2001, ch.2) recommends that
mathematics teachers need: – “A thorough mastery of the mathematics in several grades beyond that which
they expect to teach, as well as of the mathematics in earlier grades” (2001 report ‘The Mathematical Education of Teachers’)
• Ball et al (2008, p. 409) – “Teachers who do not themselves know the subject well are not likely to have
the knowledge they need to help students learn this content. At the same time just knowing a subject may well not be sufficient for teaching.”
• Shulman (1986, p. 9)– “We expect that the subject matter content understanding of the teacher be at
least equal to that of his or her lay colleague, the mere subject matter major”
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South Africa specifically…
• Taylor & Vinjevold’s (1999, p. 230) conclusion in their book “Getting Learning Right” is particularly explicit:
• “The most definite point of convergence across the [President’s Education Initiative] studies is the conclusion that teachers’ poor conceptual knowledge of the subjects they are teaching is a fundamental constraint on the quality of teaching and learning activities, and consequently on the quality of learning outcomes.”
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Carnoy & Chisholm (2008: p. 22) conceptual framework
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Teacher knowledge
Student understands & can calculate
fractions
PCK – how to teach
fractions“For every increment of performance I demand from you, I have an equal responsibility to provide you with the capacity to meet that expectation. Likewise, for every investment you make in my skill and knowledge, I have a reciprocal responsibility to demonstrate some new increment in performance”
(Elmore, 2004b, p. 93).
Teachers cannot teach what they do not know.
Demonizing teachers is popular, but unhelpful
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Distribution of mathematics teacher CK by geographical location
South Africa is the only country (amongst SACMEQ countries) where rural mathematics teachers know statistically significantly less than urban teachers.
600
650
700
750
800
850
900
950
1000
Series1
Rural lower bound confidence interval (95%) Rural upper bound confidence interval (95%)Urban lower bound confidence interval (95%) Urban upper bound confidence interval (95%)
Mat
hs-t
each
er m
athe
mati
cs sc
ore
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Distribution of mathematics teacher CK by school SES quintile
600
650
700
750
800
850
900
950
Series1
Mean Lower bound confidence interval (95%)Upper bound confidence interval (95%)
Mat
hs-t
each
er m
athe
mati
cs sc
ore
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NSES question 37NSES followed about 15000 students (266 schools) and tested them in Grade 3 (2007), Grade 4 (2008) and
Grade 5 (2009).
Grade 3 maths curriculum: “Can perform calculations using approp symbols to solve problems involving: MULTIPLICATION of at least 2-digit by 1-digit numbers”
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5Question 37
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
23% 29% 25% 29%
54%22%
18% 20%19%
17%
17% 17% 18%18%
11%38% 37% 37% 33%
18%
Still wrong in Gr5Correct in Gr5Correct in Gr4Correct in Gr3
At the end of Grade 5 more than a third of quintile 1-4 students cannot answer this simple Grade-3-level problem.
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Solutions?
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Possible solution…• The DBE cannot afford to be idealistic in its implementation of
teacher training and testing– Aspirational planning approach: All primary school mathematics teachers
should be able to pass the matric mathematics exam (benchmark = desirable teacher CK)
– Realistic approach: (e.g.) minimum proficiency benchmark where teachers have to achieve at least 90% in the ANA of the grades in which they teach, and 70% in Grade 9 ANA
(benchmark = basic teacher CK)
• First we need to figure out what works!• Pilot the system with one district. Imperative to evaluate which teacher
training option (of hundreds) works best in urban/rural for example. Rigorous impact evaluations are needed before selecting a program and then rolling it out
• Tests are primarily for diagnostic purposes not punitive purposes
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Accountability stages...
• SA is a few decades behind many OECD countries. Predictable outcomes as we move from stage to stage. Loveless (2005: 7) explains the historical sequence of accountability movements for students – similar movements for teachers?
– Stage 1 – Setting standards (defining what students should learn),
– CAPS– Stage 2 - Measuring achievement
(testing to see what students have learned),– ANA
– Stage 3 - Holding educators & students accountable (making results count).
– Western Cape performance agreements?
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3) Holding accountabl
e
2) Measurin
g achievem
ent
1) Setting
standards
Stages in accountability movements:
TRAINING
“For every increment of performance I demand from you, I have an equal responsibility to provide you with the capacity to meet that expectation. Likewise, for every investment you make in my skill and knowledge, I have a reciprocal responsibility to demonstrate some new increment in performance” (Elmore, 2004b, p. 93).
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When faced with an exceedingly low and unequal quality of education do we….
A) Increase accountability {US model}• Create a fool-proof highly specified, sequenced curriculum (CAPS/workbooks)• Measure learning better and more frequently (ANA)• Increase choice/information in a variety of ways
B) Improve the quality of teachers {Finnish model}• Attract better candidates into teaching degrees draw candidates from the top
(rather than the bottom) of the matric distribution• Increase the competence of existing teachers (Capacitation)• Long term endeavor which requires sustained, committed, strategic, thoughtful
leadership (something we don’t have)
C) All of the above {Utopian model}
• Perhaps A while we set out on the costly and difficult journey of B??
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Way forward?
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). Need the political will and public support for widespread reform.
2. Focus on the basics• Every child MUST master the basics of foundational numeracy and literacy these are the
building blocks of further education – weak foundations = recipe for disaster• Teachers need to be in school teaching (re-introduce inspectorate?)• Every teacher needs a minimum competency (basic) in the subjects they teach• Every child (teacher) needs access to adequate learning (teaching) materials• Use every school day and every school period – maximise instructional time
3. Increase information, accountability & transparency• At ALL levels – DBE, district, school, classroom, learner• Strengthen ANA• Set realistic goals for improvement and hold people accountable
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3 biggest challenges - SA
1.Failure to get the basics right• Children who cannot read, write and compute properly (Functionally
illiterate/innumerate) after 6 years of formal full-time schooling• Often teachers lack even the most basic knowledge
2.Equity in education• 2 education systems – dysfunctional system operates at bottom of African
countries, functional system operates at bottom of developed countries.• More resources is NOT the silver bullet – we are not using existing resources
3.Lack of accountability • Little accountability to parents in majority of school system• Little accountability between teachers and Department • Teacher unions abusing power and acting unprofessionally
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Conclusion1. Ensuring that public funding is actually
pro-poor and also that it actually reaches the poor.
2. Understanding whether the motivation is for human dignity reasons or improving learning outcomes.
3. Ensuring that additional resources are allocated based on evidence rather than anecdote.
4. The need for BOTH accountability AND capacity.
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Binding constraints approach
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“The left hand barrel has horizontal wooden slabs, while the right hand side barrel has vertical slabs. The volume in the first barrel depends on the sum of the width of all slabs. Increasing the width of any slab will increase the volume of the barrel. So a strategy on improving anything you can, when you can, while you can, would be effective. The volume in the second barrel is determined by the length of the shortest slab. Two implications of the second barrel are that the impact of a change in a slab on the volume of the barrel depends on whether it is the binding constraint or not. If not, the impact is zero. If it is the binding constraint, the impact will depend on the distance between the shortest slab and the next shortest slab” (Hausmann, Klinger, & Wagner, 2008, p. 17).
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NSES question 37NSES followed about 15000 students (266 schools) and tested them in Grade 3 (2007), Grade 4 (2008) and
Grade 5 (2009).
Grade 3 maths curriculum: “Can perform calculations using approp symbols to solve problems involving: MULTIPLICATION of at least 2-digit by 1-digit numbers”
Even at the end of Grade 5 more than a third of quintile 1-4 students cannot answer this simple Grade-3-level problem.
“The powerful notions of ratio, rate and proportion are built upon the simpler concepts of whole number, multiplication and division, fraction and rational number, and are themselves the precursors to the development of yet more complex concepts such as triangle similarity, trigonometry, gradient and calculus” (Taylor & Reddi, 2013: 194)
Q1 Q2 Q3 Q4 Q5Question 37
0%
10%
20%
30%
40%
50%
60%
70%
80%
90%
100%
23% 29% 25% 29%
54%22%
18% 20%19%
17%
17% 17% 18%18%
11%38% 37% 37% 33%
18%
Still wrong in Gr5Correct in Gr5Correct in Gr4Correct in Gr3
(Spaull & Viljoen, forthcoming)