SA learners perform poorly relative to local and regional standards

Stellenbosch Policy Brief No. 01/2012
Publication date: 2012
Author(s):
Summary:

The paper tries to determine what factors may lie behind the relatively weak South African performance (compared to that of neighbours Namibia, Mozambique and Botswana). Four startling findings: Firstly, 27% of South African Grade 6 learners (12 years old) cannot read a short and simple text and extract meaning, i.e. they are functionally illiterate, while 40% of Grade 6 SA learners cannot translate graphical information into fractions or interpret everyday units of measurement, i.e. they are functionally innumerate. Secondly, South Africa has a higher proportion of functionally illiterate Grade 6 students than Mozambique, Namibia or Botswana, and a higher proportion of functionally innumerate learners than Botswana or Mozambique. Thirdly, fewer South African Grade 6 learners have access to their own textbook than Mozambican children, in spite of the fact that South Africa spends fifteen times as much per child ($1225) than Mozambique does ($79). Lastly, the average South African primary school teacher is absent 19.6 days per year, which is equal to 10% of total school days, and 67% of schools reported that they regularly have to deal with unjustified teacher absenteeism.

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