Struggling to Make the Grade: A Review of the Causes and Consequences of the Weak Outcomes of South Africa’s Education System

By Montfort Mlachila, Tlhalefang Moeletsi

March 1, 2019

Preview Citation

Format: Chicago

Montfort Mlachila, and Tlhalefang Moeletsi. Struggling to Make the Grade: A Review of the Causes and Consequences of the Weak Outcomes of South Africa’s Education System, (USA: International Monetary Fund, 2019) accessed December 3, 2024

Disclaimer: IMF Working Papers describe research in progress by the author(s) and are published to elicit comments and to encourage debate. The views expressed in IMF Working Papers are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily represent the views of the IMF, its Executive Board, or IMF management.

Summary

While South Africa has made significant improvements in basic and tertiary education enrollment, the country still suffers from significant challenges in the quality of educational achievement by almost any international metric. The paper finds that money is clearly not the main issue since the South Africa’s education budget is comparable to OECD countries as a percent of GDP and exceeds that of most peer sub-Saharan African countries in per capita terms. The main explanatory factors are complex and multifaceted, and are associated with insufficient subject knowledge of some teachers, history, race, language, geographic location, and socio-economic status. Low educational achievement contributes to low productivity growth, and high levels of poverty, unemployment, and inequality. Drawing on the literature, the paper sketches some policy considerations to guide the debate on what works and what does not.

Subject: Education, Education spending, Expenditure, Income inequality, National accounts, Population and demographics

Keywords: Africa, Basic education, East Asia, Education reforms, Education spending, Education system, Educational attainment, Government spending, Income inequality, Learner outcome, Learner performance, Performance pay, Primary education, Pupil-teacher ratio, Quality of education, South Africa, Teacher absenteeism, Teacher pay system, Teacher training, Teacher union, WP

Publication Details

Pages:

61
Volume:

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DOI:

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Issue:

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Series:

Working Paper No. 2019/047
Stock No:

WPIEA2019047
ISBN:

9781498301374
ISSN:

1018-5941

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