Transcript Mean, median, mode and range

Day 1: Primary School Performance in Botswana,
Mozambique, Namibia & South Africa
MSC COURSE IN EDUCATION &
DEVELOPMENT
2013
[email protected] |
www.nicspaull.com/teaching
Introduction
 Researcher at RESEP (Stellenbosch University)
 Research focus: the quality of primary education in
South Africa and sub-Saharan Africa
 All research and presentations I’ve done can be found at
www.nicspaull.com/research
 Twitter: @NicSpaull
 Email: [email protected]
Full paper available at:
sacmeq
http://www.
.org/do
wnloads/Working%20Papers/08_C
omparison_Final_18Oct2011.pdf
Background: Data
SACMEQ

Southern and Eastern African Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality

14 participating countries

61,396 Grade 6 students

8,026 Grade 6 teachers

2,779 primary schools

SACMEQ II (2000), SACMEQ III (2007)

Background survey

Testing :

o
Gr 6 Numeracy
o
Gr 6 Literacy
o
HIV/AIDS Health knowledge
NB: See Murimba
Important background papers
 Background to SACMEQ:
 Hungi, N., Makuwa, D., Ross, K., Saito, M., Dolata, S., van Capelle, F.,
et al. (2011). SACMEQ III Project Results: Levels and Trends in School
Resources among SACMEQ School Systems. Paris: Southern and
Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality.
 Ross, K., Saito, M., Dolata, S., Ikeda, M., Zuze, L., Murimba, S., et al.
(2005). The Conduct of the SACMEQ III Project. In E. Onsomu, J.
Nzomo, & C. Obiero, The SACMEQ II Project in Kenya: A Study of the
Conditions of Schooling and the Quality of Education. Harare:
SACMEQ.
 Murimba, S. (2005) SACMEQ Mission, Approach and
Projects. Prospects, vol. XXXV, no. 1, March 2005
Focus
The focus of the paper was to provide helpful
descriptive statistics on the quality of
education in these 4 countries.
SACMEQ
 The most important parts of the SACMEQ survey are
the numeracy and literacy tests aimed at Grade 6
students.
 These range from very simple questions…
SACMEQ
 Very simple example
questions from the
SACMEQ 2007 Gr 6
literacy test
 More complex questions
 SACMEQ
competency
levels
SACMEQ Numeracy items (Eg)
 SACMEQ
competency
levels
Core grouping categories
 In this paper the core groupings are as follows:
 Province (or SACMEQ geographic distinction)
 Location (Urban/Rural) (Large City, Small Town, Rural, isolated)
 Quintile of socioeconomic status (SES) (quintile=20%)







Quintile 1 = Poorest 20% of students
Quintile 2 = 2nd poorest 20% of students
Quintile 3 = Middle 20% of students
Quintile 4 = 2nd ichest 20% of students
Quintile 5 = Richest 20% of students
One important grouping which this report doesn’t focus on is
gender.
Some background descriptive statistics on each country…
WCA
LIM
Looking specifically
at South Africa
South Africa: Socioeconomic breakdown
SA primary school: Gr6 Literacy –
SACMEQ III (2007)
Never enrolled
2%
Functionally
illiterate
25%
Basic skills
46%
Higher order skills :
27%
Grade 6 Literacy – SA & Kenya
31
2%
SA Gr 6 Literacy
25%
Kenya Gr 6 Literacy
5%
7%
49%
46%
39%
27%
Public current
expenditure per pupil:
Public current
expenditure per pupil:
$1225
$258
Grade 6 Literacy – SA & Namibia
South Africa
Namibia
2%
27%
7%
25%
21%
12%
46%
60%
Public current expenditure
Public current expenditure
per pupil: $1225
per pupil: $668
Regional
comparisons
SA in regional context
Country
Botswana
Mozambique
Namibia
South Africa
Source
Total
Adult
Net
GNP/cap
population
literacy
Enrolment
PPP US$
(mil)
rate
Rate (2008)
(2008)
1.92
83%
87%
22.38
54%
2.13
49.67
(UNESCO, 2011)
Public Current expenditure Survival rate to
on primary education per
Grade 5: school
pupil (unit cost) 2007 –
year ending
[PPP constant 2006 US$]
2007
13100
1228
89%3
80%
770
792
60%
88%
89%
6270
668
87%3
89%
87%
9780
1225
98%
(UIS, 2009)
(UNESCO, 2011)
(UNESCO,
2011)
(UNESCO, 2011)
(UNESCO,
2011)
Self-reported
teacher
absenteeism
Proportion of
Grade 6 students
functionally
illiterate
Proportion of
Grade 6 students
functionally
innumerate
Botswana
10.6 days
10.62%
22.48%
63%
62%
Mozambique
6.4 days
21.51%
32.73%
53%
52%
Namibia
9.4 days
13.63%
47.69%
32%
32%
South Africa
19.4 days
27.26%
40.17%
45%
36%
SACMEQ III
(2007)
Proportion of
Proportion of
students with own
students with own
mathematics
reading textbook
textbook
Teacher knowledge
Maths teacher content knowledge
SACMEQ III
Preschool incidence
Grade repetition
Free school meals
Resources the issue?
More reading
textbooks


More maths
textbooks
Conclusions,
questions &
recommendations
Conclusions
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
High provincial inequality in SA, NAM and MOZ
Unacceptably high levels of functional
illiteracy/innumeracy in SA, NAM, and MOZ
Unacceptably high levels of teacher absenteeism in SA
Unacceptably high levels of grade repetiton in MOZ
Unacceptably low levels of textbook access in SA + NAM
Very low levels of preschool access in Botswana (given its
education spend per pupil)
Low access to free school meals in Namibia &
Mozambique
Questions
1.
How is it possible that more Mozambican students have access to
their own textbooks than SA /NAM students, and this when SA
spends 15 times as much per child than Mozambique?
2.
Why do Namibian students do much worse on numeracy tests than
on literacy tests?
3.
Why is it acceptable in South Africa for teachers to be absent
(unjustifiably) for an entire month?
4.
Why is preschool education so uncommon in Botswana? (especially
given the international research showing cognitive benefits of ECE)
5.
For each country, what is the low-hanging fruit?
Recommendations
GET THE BASICS RIGHT
•
Get all schools in the country to minimum quality standards in both basic
infrastructure (water, electricity, desks, and so on) and in educational performance
(numeracy and literacy milestones by certain grades);
–
•
All children should have access to a quality textbook
–
•
Roll-out free school meals starting with most under-resourced communities
All pupils should attend at least one year of quality preschool education
–
•
Teacher inspectorate
Pupils who are mal-nourished should receive free school meals
–
•
Textbook campaign + survey schools to check access & use
All teachers should be in class teaching for the full school day
–
•
Set clear and succinct goals that everyone must follow. For example, “Every child will read and write by
the age of eight”; also provide parents with feedback on how their children are performing
Define curriculum and resource requirements and train Reception teachers
All teachers must have a minimum level of content knowledge in the subjects that
they teach
–
Teacher board exam?
Quiz on graph interpretation from the paper
 See handout
 Complete in groups of 2 or 3
Thank you
www.nicspaull.com/research
[email protected]
@NicSpaull