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Teachers’ unions and industrial action in South African primary schools: Exploring their impacts on learning

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  • Gabrielle Wills

Abstract

This paper investigates a disruption hypothesis that student learning is lost as a direct consequence of teacher strike action in South Africa. At face value estimates from a within-student across-subject analysis suggest that teacher strike participation negatively affects learning for students in the poorest three quarters of schools. Strike action also limits access to nutrition as school closures prevent student participation in daily school feeding programmes. However, despite controlling for student and school level factors that may drive teacher selection into strike participation, unobserved teacher characteristics continue to bias estimates. Assuming that selection on observable characteristics can tell us something about selection on unobservable characteristics, there is an implied negative selection of teachers into strike participation.

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  • Gabrielle Wills, 2020. "Teachers’ unions and industrial action in South African primary schools: Exploring their impacts on learning," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 37(2), pages 328-347, March.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:deveza:v:37:y:2020:i:2:p:328-347
    DOI: 10.1080/0376835X.2019.1682969
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    Cited by:

    1. Martin Gustafsson & Carol Nuga Deliwe, 2020. "How is the COVID-19 pandemic affecting educational quality in South Africa? Evidence to date and future risks," Working Papers 23/2020, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    2. Ardington, Cally & Wills, Gabrielle & Kotze, Janeli, 2021. "COVID-19 learning losses: Early grade reading in South Africa," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 86(C).
    3. Martin Gustafsson & Stephen Taylor, 2022. "What lies behind South Africa's improvements in PIRLS? An Oaxaca-Blinder analysis of the 2011 and 2016 data," Working Papers 02/2022, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.

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