Editor's Note
In May, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga announced an overall 2018/19 budget allocation for the Department of Basic Education of just under R23 billion, somewhat lower than the previous financial year.
This is while spending on tertiary education received a significant boost, mainly to fund fee-free university education for poor and working class students.
In the ensuing debates, opposition parties, education experts and the media once again raised concerns around resource constraints in public schools and the poor literacy and numeracy skills of primary school learners, arguing that basic education should also be prioritised.
Released last December, the 2016 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study report showed that more than three quarters of South Africa’s grade 4 learners who participated in an international study, could not read with comprehension. In the meantime, another child drowned in a pit latrine, a reflection of the struggles of poorly resourced schools.
When faced with highly emotive arguments, as well as demands for other social services such as health and social development, it is crucial that government bases its policy and budget decisions on evidence-based research and analyses. Therefore, a few days after the budget announcement, the HSRC was invited to share its analyses of education spending and outcomes, as well as several other related factors to Parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa).
In her presentation, the HSRC’s Dr Vijay Reddy said that the analyses by her team of researchers showed improvements in education, but that the pace is still too slow. We need to look for leverage points in the system where better investment may have most impact.
She said that literature points to investment in early education. Achievement at the age of 5-6 years predicts later educational achievement, as well as labour market and social outcomes.
The question is: How does the state intervene to boost early childhood education, which includes stimulating activities such as playing word games and reading books, typically seen in middle-class households? The HSRC’s education experts believe making grade R and RR compulsory will help, especially for children in no-fee schools.
Reddy said there is already a curriculum in place for grade R, but this should be followed by norms like limiting class to no more than 20 children.
The National Development Plan already proposes two years’ pre-grade 1 schooling, but currently, grade R is not compulsory and resources and conditions for grade R teachers are not consistent with other teachers in the school system, she said. Reddy believes we should raise the status of the grade R sector and, together with grade RR, it should be made compulsory with the concomitant budgets and accountabilities.
For this edition of the HSRC Review, Reddy and her team produced several articles that analyse South Africa’s results from the 2015 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), one of the most established studies of educational quality worldwide. The TIMSS provides information on learners, their school and home environments, and how these relate to mathematics and science achievement. In the case of South Africa, the findings emphasise the importance of early childhood stimulation and education.
Helping to identify the leverage points that Reddy referred to in her Scopa presentation, the TIMSS articles focus on several factors, including the effect of being taught in a home language, early stimulation at home, school resources, textbook provision, bullying and school climate, as well as school and individual characteristics that contribute to individual learner resilience and confidence in these subjects. In other words, how does it happen that some children perform despite their impoverished environments?
Please see the contact details of the HSRC researchers below each article. We hope that our existing and future collaborations with government, other institutions and the private sector will help to translate these findings into practical policy, community and classroom interventions. – Antoinette