Low quality education as a poverty trap
– Introduction and welcoming
Servaas van der Berg
Department of Economics, Stellenbosch University
PSPPD Project – 28 March 2011
Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy Development
A partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union
Welcome and word of thanks to PSPPD
This research project was undertaken with financial assistance of the Programme
to Support Pro-Poor Policy Development (PSPPD), a partnership programme
between the European Union and The Presidency, South Africa. The findings
do not reflect the position of The Presidency or the EU.
This funding has made possible research that otherwise could not have been
done on this scale or in this timeframe
Almost 20 people were involved in one way or another. The project analysed
about 20 major datasets and produced the following outputs:
•
•
•
•
Ten Working Papers, quite a few of which will become journal articles
Five Policy Briefs, which are distributed to hundreds of policy makers
A summary report that is also widely distributed
A series of policy recommendations, flowing from individual papers, that will in time be
digested and carried further in our ongoing discussions with policy makers
All of this would have been impossible without the financial support of EU and
Presidency through the PSPPD. It would also have been much more difficult
without the enthusiastic assistance of Mastoera Sadan, Nathalie Vereen and
Zsa Zsa Milongo. I wish to thank them all on behalf of the whole Stellenbosch
team.
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Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy Development
A partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union
SA’s dualistic school system and labour market
High productivity jobs &
incomes
•
•
•
±10% of labour force – mainly
professional, managerial & skilled jobs
Requires graduates, good quality
matric, or good vocational skills
Historically mainly whites
•Vocational
training
•Affirmative
action
Low productivity jobs & incomes
• Often manual or low skill jobs
• Limited or low quality education
• Minimum wage can exceed their
productivity
High quality schools
• ±10% of schools, mainly ex-white,
but racial composition changed
• Produce strong cognitive skills
• Teachers well qualified, schools
function well, good assessment,
parents involved
•Some talented,
•Big demand for
motivated or
good schools,
lucky students
despite fees
manage the
•A few schools
transition
cross the divide
Low quality schools
• Produce very weak cognitive skills
• Teachers less qualified, de-motivated, many schools dysfunctional,
weak assessment, little parental
involvement, strong union presence
• Mainly former black (DET) schools
Employment probability
(conditional)
Education affects labour market outcomes
1.0
0.9
0.8
0.7
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0.0
Employment probability, 2005
(conditional)
0
1
2
3
4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Education (years)
4.0
Log of wage, 2005
(conditional)
Log of wage per hour
(conditional)
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.5
• Good education provides access to
top end of labour market – (better)
jobs, higher wages
• Skills shortage at top end causes a
wage premium
• Oversupply of unskilled workers
depresses wages at bottom end
• Race between demand and supply
of skills will determine skills premium
• This premium and the distribution of
educational attainment are currently
central to SA income inequality
0.0
0
4
1
2
3
4
5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Education (years)
Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy Development
A partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union
Education also determines individual prospects – with a
potential vicious circle of weak education and poverty
1.SES
at birth
6. Labour
market
performance
5. Ultimate
educational
attainment and
quality
2. Cognitive
ability in early
childhood
3. Educational
performance in
early school years
4. Educational
achievement at
matric
Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy Development
A partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union
Issues
SA school performance in perspective:
•
•
•
•
Schools and the labour market
Weak performance, even in African context
Poverty cannot explain this – SA’s poor fare worse than Africa’s poor
The school system has two parts, one functioning fairly well, the other extremely
weakly
• Resources bring little improvement in weak schools, due to functionality issues
Features of poorly functioning schools:
• Slow macro pacing, poor use of instructional time, low curriculum coverage
• Low cognitive demand, weak assessment, little feedback
• Lack of textbooks/workbooks/reading material (some teachers think
textbooks and workbooks are ‘not applicable’ in FP; libraries seldom function)
• Problems with second language teaching and learning
Policy directions
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Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy Development
A partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union
Working Papers
Gustafsson, M. 2010. “Policy note on pre-primary schooling: An empirical contribution to the 2009
Medium Term Strategic Framework”. WP05/2010
Du Rand, G., van Broekhuizen, H., & von Fintel, D. 2010. “Who Responds to Voluntary Cognitive
Tests in Household Surveys? The role of labour market status, respondent confidence, motivation
and a culture of learning in South Africa”. WP27/2010
Shepherd, D. 2011. “Constraints to school effectiveness: What prevents poor schools from delivering
results?” WP05/2011
De Vos, M. 2011. “Quantitative and qualitative aspects of education in South Africa: An analysis using
the National Income Dynamic Study”. WP06/2011
Moses, E. 2011. “Quality of education and the labour market: A conceptual and literature overview.”
WP07/2011
Burger, C., & Van der Berg, S. 2011. “Modelling cognitive skills, ability and school quality to explain
labour market earnings differentials". WP08/2011
Gustafsson, M. 2011. “The when and how of leaving school: The policy implications of new evidence
on secondary schooling in South Africa”. WP09/2011
Taylor, S. 2011. “Uncovering indicators of effective school management in South Africa using the
National School Effectiveness Study”. WP 10/2011
Spaull, N. 2011. “A preliminary analysis of SACMEQ III”. WP11/2011
Du Rand, G., van Broekhuizen, H., & von Fintel, D. 2011. “Numeric competence, confidence and
school quality in the South African wage function”. WP12/2011
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Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy Development
A partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union
Policy briefs - 2011
Martin Gustafsson, New evidence in the case for improving the quality of secondary
school learning outcomes
Stellenbosch Policy Brief No. 01/2011
Stephen Taylor, The vital role of good school management in improving primary
school outcomes
Stellenbosch Policy Brief No. 02/2011
Nic Spaull, Identifying policy priorities to improve outcomes for poor primary school
learners
Stellenbosch Policy Brief No. 03/2011
Gideon du Rand, Hendrik van Broekhuizen & Dieter von Fintel, The role of
educational attainment and quality schooling in reducing racial earnings inequality
Stellenbosch Policy Brief No. 04/2011
Debra Shepherd, For richer, for poorer? Can lessons learnt from wealthy schools be
applied to help poor schools deliver better results?
Stellenbosch Policy Brief No. 05/2011
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Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy Development
A partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union
Data sets used
• All General Household Surveys (GHS) from 2002 to 2009
• A number of Labour Force Surveys (LFS), in particular the
last two containing wage data, 2007a and 2007b
• Income and Expenditure Survey (IES) of 2005/6
• National Income Dynamics Study (NIDS) of 2008
• The South African data for SACMEQ III for 1997
• PIRLS 2006
• All three waves of the National School Effectiveness Study
(NSES), entailing Grade 3 for 2008, Grade 4 for 2009 and
Grade 5 for 2010
• Matriculation (National Senior Certificate) data for 2009
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Programme to Support Pro-Poor Policy Development
A partnership between the Presidency, Republic of South Africa and the European Union