day 1: primary school performance in botswana, mozambique, namibia & south africa

M S C C O U R S E I N E D U C AT I O N & D E V E L O P M E N T

2 0 1 3

N i c h o l a s S p a u l l @ g m a i l . c o m | w w w. n i c s p a u l l . c o m / t e a c h i n g

Day 1: Primary School Performance in Botswana, Mozambique, Namibia & South Africa

Introduction

Researcher at RESEP (Stellenbosch University)

Research focus: the quality of primary education in South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa

All research and presentations I’ve done can be found at www.nicspaull.com/research

Twitter: @NicSpaull

Email: NicholasSpaull@gmail.com

Full paper available at:

http://www.sacmeq.org/downloads/Working%20Papers/08_Comparison_Final_18Oct2011.pdf

SACMEQ Southern and Eastern African Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality 14 participating countries

61,396 Grade 6 students 8,026 Grade 6 teachers 2,779 primary schools

SACMEQ II (2000), SACMEQ III (2007) Background survey Testing :

o Gr 6 Numeracyo Gr 6 Literacyo HIV/AIDS Health knowledge

NB: See Murimba

Background: Data

Important background papers

Background to SACMEQ:

Hungi, N., Makuwa, D., Ross, K., Saito, M., Dolata, S., van Capelle, F., et al. (2011). SACMEQ III Project Results: Levels and Trends in School Resources among SACMEQ School Systems. Paris: Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality.

Ross, K., Saito, M., Dolata, S., Ikeda, M., Zuze, L., Murimba, S., et al. (2005). The Conduct of the SACMEQ III Project. In E. Onsomu, J. Nzomo, & C. Obiero, The SACMEQ II Project in Kenya: A Study of the Conditions of Schooling and the Quality of Education. Harare: SACMEQ.

Murimba, S. (2005) SACMEQ Mission, Approach and Projects. Prospects, vol. XXXV, no. 1, March 2005

Focus

The focus of the paper was to provide helpful descriptive statistics on the quality of education in these 4 countries.

SACMEQ

The most important parts of the SACMEQ survey are the numeracy and literacy tests aimed at Grade 6 students.

These range from very simple questions…

SACMEQ

Very simple example questions from the SACMEQ 2007 Gr 6 literacy test

More complex questions

SACMEQ competency levels

SACMEQ Numeracy items (Eg)

SACMEQ competency levels

Core grouping categories

In this paper the core groupings are as follows: Province (or SACMEQ geographic distinction) Location (Urban/Rural) (Large City, Small Town, Rural, isolated) Quintile of socioeconomic status (SES) (quintile=20%)

Quintile 1 = Poorest 20% of students Quintile 2 = 2nd poorest 20% of students Quintile 3 = Middle 20% of students Quintile 4 = 2nd ichest 20% of students Quintile 5 = Richest 20% of students

One important grouping which this report doesn’t focus on is gender.

Some background descriptive statistics on each country…

WCA

LIM

Looking specifically at South Africa

South Africa: Socioeconomic breakdown

SA primary school: Gr6 Literacy – SACMEQ III (2007)

Never enrolled 2%

Functionally illiterate

25%

Basic skills46%

Higher order skills : 27%

Grade 6 Literacy – SA & Kenya

SA Gr 6 Literacy Kenya Gr 6 Literacy25% 7%5%2%

46%49%

39%

27%

Public current expenditure per pupil: $1225

Public current expenditure per pupil: $258

31

2%

25%

46%

26%

South Africa

7%

12%

60%

21%

Namibia

Grade 6 Literacy – SA & Namibia

Public current expenditure per pupil: $1225

Public current expenditure per pupil: $668

Regional comparisons

CountryTotal

population (mil)

Adult literacy

rate

Net Enrolment

Rate (2008)

GNP/cap PPP US$ (2008)

Public Current expenditure on primary

education per pupil (unit cost) 2007 – [PPP

constant 2006 US$]

Survival rate to Grade 5: school year ending 2007

Botswana 1.92 83% 87% 13100 1228 89%3

Mozambique 22.38 54% 80% 770 792 60%Namibia 2.13 88% 89% 6270 668 87%3

South Africa 49.67 89% 87% 9780 1225 98%Source

(UNESCO, 2011)(UNESCO,

2011)(UNESCO,

2011)(UNESCO,

2011)(UIS, 2009) (UNESCO, 2011)

SACMEQ III (2007)

Self-reported teacher

absenteeism

Proportion of Grade 6 students

functionally illiterate

Proportion of Grade 6 students

functionally innumerate

Proportion of students with own reading textbook

Proportion of students with

own mathematics textbook

Botswana 10.6 days 10.62% 22.48% 63% 62%Mozambique 6.4 days 21.51% 32.73% 53% 52%Namibia 9.4 days 13.63% 47.69% 32% 32%South Africa 19.4 days 27.26% 40.17% 45% 36%

SA in regional context

Teacher knowledge

Maths teacher content knowledgeSACMEQ III

Preschool incidence

Grade repetition

Free school meals

Resources the issue?

More maths textbooks

More reading textbooks

Conclusions, questions &

recommendations

1. High provincial inequality in SA, NAM and MOZ2. Unacceptably high levels of functional

illiteracy/innumeracy in SA, NAM, and MOZ 3. Unacceptably high levels of teacher absenteeism

in SA4. Unacceptably high levels of grade repetiton in

MOZ5. Unacceptably low levels of textbook access in SA

+ NAM6. Very low levels of preschool access in Botswana

(given its education spend per pupil)7. Low access to free school meals in Namibia &

Mozambique

Conclusions

1. How is it possible that more Mozambican students have access to their own textbooks than SA /NAM students, and this when SA spends 15 times as much per child than Mozambique?

2. Why do Namibian students do much worse on numeracy tests than on literacy tests?

3. Why is it acceptable in South Africa for teachers to be absent (unjustifiably) for an entire month?

4. Why is preschool education so uncommon in Botswana? (especially given the international research showing cognitive benefits of ECE)

5. For each country, what is the low-hanging fruit?

Questions

GET THE BASICS RIGHT• Get all schools in the country to minimum quality standards in both basic

infrastructure (water, electricity, desks, and so on) and in educational performance (numeracy and literacy milestones by certain grades); – Set clear and succinct goals that everyone must follow. For example, “Every child will read

and write by the age of eight”; also provide parents with feedback on how their children are performing

• All children should have access to a quality textbook – Textbook campaign + survey schools to check access & use

• All teachers should be in class teaching for the full school day– Teacher inspectorate

• Pupils who are mal-nourished should receive free school meals– Roll-out free school meals starting with most under-resourced communities

• All pupils should attend at least one year of quality preschool education– Define curriculum and resource requirements and train Reception teachers

• All teachers must have a minimum level of content knowledge in the subjects that they teach– Teacher board exam?

Recommendations

Quiz on graph interpretation from the paper

See handoutComplete in groups of 2 or 3

Thank youwww.nicspaull.com/researchnicholasspaull@gmail.com

@NicSpaull