Reform of basic education in SA is long overdue

SA faces a learning crisis alongside tight budgets in education, which are likely to have adverse consequences for the country’s people and its economic development. However, there is hope. SA’s government can take a set of decisive actions to improve learning outcomes, starting at an early age by strengthening teaching practices in classrooms.

Policymakers can also find innovative solutions to fiscal constraints, first by partnering with the private sector to expand quality education services to disadvantaged communities, and second by improving the efficiency of current spending by getting better value for money from key inputs.

The statistics on reading levels are alarming in SA. Eighty-one percent of pupils in grade 4 do not fully understand what they are reading. That so many children in SA are not reaching their full potential is a tragedy with wide-ranging consequences. Poor learning outcomes at an early age — at this scale — limit the country’s ability to develop a cohort of skilled individuals, which stifles economic growth and perpetuates inequality.

In its latest edition of the SA Economic Update, The World Bank Group focuses on the basic education sector and advocates for more focus on improving foundational learning. Learning is cumulative, so deficits must be addressed before grade 4 to prevent long-term damage. Improving foundational learning is an overdue area of reform in SA. Moreover, since from the evidence from other countries and from some small-to-medium-scale pilots implemented in SA it is clear what works, there is also clarity about which actions are likely to improve learning at early grades.

The report encourages the government to take bold steps towards scaling up reading programmes and set clear targets for improvement of pupils’ reading levels in early grades. Improving teaching quality in early grades requires adopting structured daily lesson plans, high-quality books, and one-on-one instructional coaching for teachers. Access to quality early childhood development (ECD) services is also essential, especially for disadvantaged children, to ensure they are ready for primary school. All these efforts and their impact on young children’s learning outcomes need to be measured against benchmarks that can be easily understood by all stakeholders (including parents) by administering regular reading assessments in local languages.

The report also highlights fiscal constraints that have resulted in a real decline in the education budget in recent years, while the number of additional pupils entering the education system continues to increase. Between 2022 and 2030 about 1.2-million additional pupils will enter the basic education system. We are already seeing some of the dire consequences of this situation, with some provinces cutting teaching posts and others reducing the agreed minimum funding allocation per learner. How can the government expand the education system within this tight fiscal environment?

The government could leverage the private sector to enhance coverage and quality of education services, particularly for pupils from poor households. SA’s private school enrolment is just 5.5%, notably lower than the 19% for primary and 27% for secondary levels worldwide. Some provinces have recently piloted partnerships with the private sector that have delivered encouraging results. Building on this record of accomplishment, the government could scale up these initiatives with the private sector, including NGOs, to expand the network of schools and improve learning performance in an affordable manner.

It could also test other models of partnerships with the private sector that have shown success in other countries. The authorities would need to closely monitor these partnerships by designing indicators that cannot be manipulated while providing a platform for payments to be tied to the achievement of results and regular auditing.

SA could spend its education budget better and target resources to those in greatest need. First, SA could get better value from its teachers. The resistance to developing teacher professional standards has resulted in a lack of professional accountability by teachers. Therefore, there is potential to improve teaching practices through the acquisition of specialised knowledge, certification examinations and upholding professional standards of practice. Prioritising professional standards, particularly for initial teacher education (pre-service training) is essential, especially with a wave of imminent teacher retirements and many new teachers entering the system. 

The Norms and Standards for School Funding  (NSSF) mechanism has failed to achieve its pro-poor objective as total public spending per pupil is the same, whether from a wealthy or poor household. In other words, spending per pupil is equal rather than equitable. The report recommends reviewing the NSSF and considering options for better deployment of well-trained teachers to schools that serve pupils from poor households with low learning performance. It recommends integrating all effective inputs identified through experimental results and applying them intensively in these schools. This requires revitalising a national assessment system to regularly collect learning performance data to identify these schools.

Tackling these issues in basic education is urgent. Policymakers can achieve rapid progress by being bold and evidence-driven in addressing areas of overdue reform and emerging priority. Over time, these efforts will contribute to systemic changes that strengthen the entire basic education system.

• Kahkonen is SA country director, Ninan Dulvy programme leader of human development and Evangelista De Carvalho Filho senior economist at the World Bank. 

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