Place, race and language: Secondary school 'choice' in South Africa's Gauteng province
Stellenbosch Working Paper Series No. WP03/2023Publication date: November 2023
Author(s):
This paper uses 2021 and 2022 school-level administration data to examine the relationship between primary and high school locations to determine whether high-quality secondary schools still mostly draw learners selectively from nearby 'feeder' primary schools, and as a result affect racial diversity in enrolments. We find that race is still a powerful predictor of access to high-quality secondary schools in South Africa. Gauteng's poorest-performing schools are home to mostly Black and Coloured learners, while its best-performing schools have an over-representation of White and Asian/Indian learners (relative to their overall population proportions in Gauteng). The findings in this paper suggest that the uneven distributions of high-quality schools, feeder zone rules and affordability constraints prevent many South African learners from enrolling in high-quality schools.
JEL Classification:I24, I25, I28
Keywords:School choice, education quality, South Africa, inequality
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Upcoming Seminars
Monday 21 July 202512:00-13:00
Izak Odendaal: Old Mutual Wealth Chief Investment Strategist
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27 Jun 2025 Another setback for the GNU, but oil markets breathe a little easierThis week was marked by heightened tensions both domestically and internationally. At home, friction intensified between the two largest parties in the Government of National Unity (GNU), the ANC and the DA, following the firing of one of the DA's deputy ministers. Internationally, the US conducted airstrikes on three Iranian nuclear facilities using...
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