Correlates of children's travel to school in Johannesburg-Soweto: evidence from the birth to twenty plus (Bt20+) study, South Africa
OUTPUT TYPE: Journal Article
PUBLICATION YEAR: 2019
TITLE AUTHOR(S): J.De Kadt, A.Van Heerden, L.Richter, S.Alvanides
KEYWORDS: BIRTH TO TEN NOW BIRTH TO TWENTY (BT20), CHILDREN, EDUCATION, JOHANNESBURG, PUBLIC TRANSPORT, SCHOOLS, SOWETO
Print: HSRC Library: shelf number 10972
HANDLE: 20.500.11910/14741
URI: http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11910/14741
If you would like to obtain a copy of this Research Output, please contact Hanlie Baudin at researchoutputs@hsrc.ac.za.
Abstract
Prior work on data obtained from the urban Johannesburg-Soweto based Birth to Twenty Plus (Bt20+) cohort has documented extensive levels of travel to school in the early post-apartheid era (1997-2003), with fewer than 20% of children attending the age-appropriate school closest to their home (de Kadt et al., 2014). These extremely high levels of schooling mobility impose costs on children and families, as well as the educational system more broadly, and have contributed to the evolution of contemporary enrolment patterns. This paper analyses the relationship between travel to school and potentially related variables at the individual, family and community level. Our analysis indicates that Black children, children attending higher quality schools, and those living in relatively poor areas were most likely to travel to school. However, while travel to school has a strong and positive univariate relationship with both maternal education and family socio-economic status (SES), this fades out in a multivariate analysis. Our findings highlight the significant costs incurred in the pursuit of high quality education by many Black children and families, as well as those living in poorer areas, in the early post-apartheid era. This is despite post-apartheid educational policy with an explicit aim of redress. The paper contributes to understanding the challenges of apartheids inequitable geographical legacy in ensuring equitable access to high quality education for all in South Africa, as well as to the growing literatures on the geography of education and school choice in low and middle income countries.-
Related Research Outputs:
- "Patterns of residential mobility amongst children in greater Johannesburg: observations from the Birth to Twenty cohort"
- Factors influencing enrolment: a case study from Birth to Twenty, the 1990 birth cohort in Soweto-Johannesburg
- Low birthweight and subsequent emotional and behavioural outcomes in 12-year-old children in Soweto, South Africa: findings from Birth to Twenty
- Patterns of residential mobility amongst children in greater Johannesburg-Soweto, South Africa: observations from the Birth to Twenty Cohort
- Educating street and homeless children in South Africa: the challenge of policy implementation
- Improving school children's mental health in an era of HIV/AIDS
- Doing something: the initiation of sexual abuse services in Soweto
- Children learn lessons of suffering
- Educational choices in Ethiopia: what determines whether poor children go to school?
- Field report: panel studies in developing countries: case analysis of sample attrition over the past 16 years within the Birth to Twenty cohort in Johannesburg, South Africa
- Maternal and child undernutrition: consequences for adult health and human capital
- Adolescents in the city: material and social living conditions in Johannesburg-Soweto, South Africa
- Weight gain in the first two years of life is an important predictor of schooling outcomes in pooled analyses from five birth cohorts from low- and middle-income countries
- Exploring equity and quality education in South Africa using multilevel models
- Old enough to know: consulting children about sex and AIDS education in Africa
- Let's talk about sex: giving children knowledge is giving them power; the power to make better decicions about sex
- Size at birth, weight gain in infancy and childhood, and adult diabetes risk in five low- or middle-income country birth cohorts
- Learning about HIV/AIDS education for children through consultation and dialogue with school stakeholders
- Predictors of loss to follow-up among children in the first and second years of antiretroviral treatment in Johannesburg, South Africa
- The association between stunting and psychosocial development among preschool children: a study using the South African Birth to Twenty cohort data