The Cost of Repetition in South Africa

Abstract

An almost unnoticed problem in the South African education system is the high rate of grade repetition. In this report, a combination of household and administrative datasets is used to identify patterns in learner repetition and dropout in South African schooling and the costs associated with these issues. According to the most conservative estimate, the number of learners in public schools repeating in grades 1 to 12 could have been 1 180 000. In monetary terms, this implies that the cost of having repeaters in the public education system was at least R20 billion (in 2018 prices), absorbing 8% of the total national budget allocated to basic education in 2018/2019. At least a half of these repetition costs is attributed to the high prevalence of repetition in the secondary school phase, with the largest number of repeaters located in grade 10 (at least 1 in every 5 grade 10 learners repeat). Despite the promulgation of repetition policy that limits the number of times learners can repeat a school phase, repetition trends in the past decade display a strong inertia, especially in higher grades. To monitor these trends better, and to track the implementation of these policies, significant improvements will need to be made to the quality of reporting on repeaters and dropout in EMIS data. While repetition is a problem, it is merely a symptom of a weakly functioning education system. The repetition debate is thus secondary to the need to address the quality of the education provided in our schools, and particularly in the foundation phase. Quality improvements will also make it easier to implement sensible policies on repetition and to provide remediation and support where these are needed. Moreover, by freeing resources currently needed to deal with repetition, improved education quality would also make remediation more feasible. Acknowledgment: This paper was produced as a study for the DG Murray Trust and funded by this trust. FOREWORD The DG Murray Trust (DGMT), a philanthropic organisation that focuses its support strongly on human development, has expressed concern about school dropout and is actively involved in interventions to prevent such dropout. Against this background, DGMT requested Resep to investigate this issue and highlight the costs of repetition, as repetition at earlier grades largely acts as a precursor to drop out from the school system. It is the combination of repetition and dropout rather than inadequate demand for education that stops many from continuing to higher levels of education. This study aims to contribute to an understanding of the cost of repetition and dropout in terms of their impact on the affected individuals and on society, and their wider impact on productivity, social mobility, and fiscal costs. Data for this study were made available by the Department of Basic Education and the Northern Cape Provincial Department of Education. The researchers wish to thank them for making the data available and hope that this study would be of benefit to them and indeed the full educatio...

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