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Education and Socio-Economic Differentials: A Study of School Performance in the Western Cape

Author

Listed:
  • Ronelle Burger
  • Servaas van der Berg

    (University of Stellenbosch)

Abstract

Not surprisingly, the education system is widely perceived to be the major tool to overcome human capital and labour market inequalities in South Africa. This paper asks how well the education system accomplishes this goal. The first part of the paper examines human capital differentials between races and provides evidence of persistent race-based educational attainment and quality differentials. It is argued that quality differentials in education may be much larger and more enduring than attainment differentials. The second part of the paper asks whether the deficiency lies in inadequate resource availability in schools of the poor or whether it rather stems from inefficiencies in parts of the school system. The paper uses national and Western Cape matriculation results and resource allocation data to examine this question and find that residuals are higher in predominantly black and coloured schools and there is no significant correlation between performance and resource allocation in this group of schools.

Suggested Citation

  • Ronelle Burger & Servaas van der Berg, 2003. "Education and Socio-Economic Differentials: A Study of School Performance in the Western Cape," Working Papers 03073, University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit.
    • Handle: RePEc:ctw:wpaper:03073
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    File URL: http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7393
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    14. Hanushek, Eric A., 2002. "Publicly provided education," Handbook of Public Economics, in: A. J. Auerbach & M. Feldstein (ed.), Handbook of Public Economics, edition 1, volume 4, chapter 30, pages 2045-2141, Elsevier.
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    Cited by:

    1. repec:got:cegedp:69 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Nic Spaull, 2011. "A Preliminary Analysis of SACMEQ III South Africa," Working Papers 11/2011, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    3. Debra Shepherd, 2013. "A question of efficiency: decomposing South African reading test scores using PIRLS 2006," Working Papers 20/2013, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    4. Martin Gustafsson, 2007. "Using The Hierarchical Linear Model To Understand School Production In South Africa," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 75(1), pages 84-98, March.
    5. Servaas van der Berg, 2006. "How effective are poor schools? Poverty and educational outcomes in South Africa," Working Papers 06/2006, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    6. Martin Gustafsson & Firoz Patel, 2009. "Managing the teacher pay system: What the local and international data are telling us," Working Papers 26/2009, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    7. Frederick C.v.N. Fourie, 2011. "The South African unemployment debate: three worlds, three discourses?," SALDRU Working Papers 63, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    8. Robert Hill, 2019. "Does IEB make the grade? Alternative testing methods and Educational outcomes: The case of the IEB in South Africa," Working Papers 201904, University of Cape Town, Development Policy Research Unit.
    9. Fabrice Murtin & Thomas Laurent & Geoff Barnard & Dean Janse van Rensburg & Vijay Reddy & George Frempong & Lolita Winnaar, 2015. "Policy Determinants of School Outcomes under Model Uncertainty: Evidence from South Africa," South African Journal of Economics, Economic Society of South Africa, vol. 83(3), pages 317-334, September.
    10. Debra L. Shepherd, 2011. "Constraints to school effectiveness: what prevents poor schools from delivering results?," Working Papers 05/2011, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    South Africa: education system; human capital; labour market inequalities;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • A1 - General Economics and Teaching - - General Economics

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