Publications
Partners
Johannesburg - South Africa spends, as a proportion of GDP, one of the largest amounts in the world on education. Currently, more than one-fifth of the national budget goes to basic and higher education.
There is good reason for this. As economist Thomas Piketty’s work has found, it is not just foreign direct investment but investment in good education that is the route to income mobility.
In 2011, the poorest spent about 14% of their income on education, while richer households spent only 5%. But our education system continues to fail the poor, and unequal education perpetuates income inequality.
The question is: Why, in a country where the national expenditure on education has steadily increased since 1997, are we not seeing the fruits of that investment?
One reason is that tertiary education – the best ticket to employment and good earnings – is still very difficult to access. Financial returns on tertiary education have been high and growing in the post-apartheid period. The SA Labour and Development Research Unit (Saldru) at the University of Cape Town found that moving from a matric to a tertiary qualification increased earnings by up to 167%.
It is telling, then, that the proportion who benefit from access to higher education is small, and it is not ability and effort that determine progress.
For instance, fewer than 10% of 24-year-olds in poorer households have completed some form of tertiary education, compared with about 30% in richer households.
Poor young people face a host of barriers in the home environment, the foundation for academic achievement. Factors such as income, parental education, geographic location, home language and school quality are key in determining who completes matric and goes on to tertiary education.
The result is that few South Africans qualify for tertiary studies. Of all students enrolled in Grade 8 in poorer schools in 2009, only 10% passed matric in 2013 with a university pass. In contrast, almost 40% of students from richer schools made the grade. Clearly, educational inequalities originate far earlier in the education system.
Access to basic education is no longer the issue. Rather, it is the differential quality across our education system that is of greatest concern.
This is reflected in the varying quality of teaching, attendance rates, time spent in the classroom and the extent of curriculum coverage. We see it in unequally resourced schools, differential management, parental involvement and the provision of after-school services. These factors generate the unequal results that affect the quality of matric passes and university access.
It has to be recognised, though, that our broader socioeconomic inequality is itself a barrier to quality education. Every day, pupils walk into highly unequal schooling, home and community environments. This starts right at the beginning. The phase from birth to three years of age is considered most critical for determining successful educational outcomes in adult life.
Family income dictates whether parents can access the means necessary to create foundations for learning: high-quality preprimary schools and crèches, educational resources, healthcare, clean water and nutritious food. Beyond income, the level of literacy and numeracy in the household also matters.
This enables parents to assist their children with homework and also provide them with important mental stimulation in their early years. Moreover, providing children with safe community and family spaces – free from violence, social conflict and stress – matters greatly for healthy social, emotional and cognitive development. All these factors are critical at a young age for shaping ability and enabling children to reach their full potential.
South Africa’s youths face many obstacles through their early lives and into tertiary education. Over time, these are compounded into severe learning backlogs and growing educational inequalities. It is far too late to remedy these setbacks at university. In turn, these educational inequalities produce future income inequalities.
We must improve access to tertiary education. But we have seen that inequities permeate all aspects of our society, from schools to homes to communities.
The realities of daily life are nurturing and empowering for some, while at the same time undermining full and active citizenship for others. For one 16-year-old, a tertiary education looms as the natural order of things. For another, it has long receded from the realms of the possible.
* Leibbrandt is pro-vice-chancellor of the Poverty and Inequality Initiative; Metz is a policy manager; and Ranchhod is an associate professor at Saldru.
