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Understanding primary school performance in Southern Africa (SACMEQ) Nicholas Spaull

Understanding primary school performance in Southern Africa (SACMEQ) Nicholas Spaull nicspaull.com/research nicholasspaull@gmail.com. Background: Data. SACMEQ Southern and Eastern African Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality 14 participating countries

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Understanding primary school performance in Southern Africa (SACMEQ) Nicholas Spaull

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

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

  3. Distribution of student performance

  4. SA in regional context WCA LIM

  5. Looking specifically at South Africa

  6. South Africa: Socioeconomic breakdown

  7. SA Bimodality – fact, no longer theory Ex-Department NSESGr 4 (Taylor, 2011) Language PIRLSGr 5 (Shepherd, 2011) Two education systems not one Socioeconomic status SACMEQGr 6 (Spaull, 2011)

  8. Regional comparisons

  9. SA in regional context

  10. Textbooks

  11. Resources the issue? More reading textbooks   More maths textbooks

  12. Questions, conclusions & recommendations

  13. Questions • 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?) • How is possible that Limpopo performs worse than all 40 other provinces in SA/Namibia/Botswana/Mozambique? • Why is it acceptable in South Africa for teachers to be absent (unjustifiably) for an entire month? • 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?

  14. Conclusions • 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 Highlyinefficient • 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? Serious blight on the national conscience Persistent patterns of poverty and privilege

  15. Recommendations • 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) • 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. • 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

  16. Thank you www.nicspaull.com/research nicholasspaull@gmail.com @NicSpaull

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