Newsletter 76-Education and the poverty challenge- 18 June 2010
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Government policies such as no-fee schools have provided households with some relief in the cost of obtaining an education. However, research shows that household poverty still plays a role in inhibiting access to education.
The joint Social Surveys-Centre for Applied Legal Studies (CALS) published a study in December 2009 called Barriers to Education. The study revealed that although South Africa has been successful in ensuring that most children can get access to education, poverty inhibits their ability to stay in school.
South Africa has gone a long way in achieving the Millennium Development Goal of access to basic education, as most children of compulsory schoolgoing age (7 to 15 years) are attending school.
Although access to education is high, it has not translated into successful completion of matric. To illustrate, by the time the grade 10 class of 2007 reached matric in 2009, only 51% of them wrote. Worse, only 31% passed.
Evidently the most pressing issue is thus not getting pupils intothe school system, but getting more of them to remain there and to pass matric.
The study also found that the main reasons for children of compulsory schoolgoing age to be out of school are likely to be very localised, household, or child-specific experiences, primarily in the context of household poverty. This is shown by the fact that a child’s chance of being out of school increases as the socio-economic status of the household decreases.
Although no-fee schools may assist in increasing access to education, household poverty presented a challenge in retaining pupils in school.
- Nachi Majoe
