By Nicholas Spaull
Report Commissioned by Centre for Development and Enterprise
October 2013
The aim of this report is to provide an empirical overview of the quality of education in South Africa since the transition to democracy and, in doing so, comment on the state of the country’s education
system. It will become increasingly clear that the weight of evidence supports the conclusion that
there is an on-going crisis in South African education, and that the current system is failing the
majority of South Africa’s youth. By using a variety of independently conducted assessments of pupil
achievement the report shows that – with the exception of a wealthy minority – most South African
pupils cannot read, write and compute at grade-appropriate levels, with large proportions being
functionally illiterate and innumerate.
As far as educational outcomes, South Africa has the worst education system of all middle-income
countries that participate in cross-national assessments of educational achievement. What is more, we
perform worse than many low-income African countries. The annually-reported statistics from the
National Senior Certificate (NSC) exam in Grade 12 are particularly misleading since they do not take into account those pupils who never make it to Grade 12. Of 100 pupils that start school, only 50 will make it to Grade 12, 40 will pass, and only 12 will qualify for university. Those 18-24-year-olds who do not acquire some form of post-secondary education are at a distinct economic disadvantage and not only struggle to find full-time employment, but also have one of the highest probabilities of being unemployed for sustained periods of time, if not permanently...
Read the full report here...
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