Home background and schooling outcomes in South Africa: Insights from the National Income Dynamics Study

Patterns of poverty and inequality in South Africa are largely sustained by differential educational outcomes of children across different strata of society. Most of these differences in educational outcomes are attributed to large differences in the quality of education received by children. It is the intention of this paper to add to our understanding of the determinants of educational outcomes in South Africa by investigating the role of the family in determining these heterogeneous educational outcomes. This is done by estimating the relationship between home background and schooling outcomes for a sample of South African youths. The analysis in this paper suggests a strong correlation between home background and the educational outcomes of the sample at hand. Broadly, the co-residence of biological parents in the household and the education attained by parents are found to be positively associated with educational outcomes of children.

I24, J12, J13

home background, family structure, educational outcomes