The aim of this report is to provide an empirical overview of the quality of education in South Africa
since the transition to democracy and, in doing so, comment on the state of the country’s education
system. It will become increasingly clear that the weight of evidence supports the conclusion that
there is an on-going crisis in South African education, and that the current system is failing the
majority of South Africa’s youth. By using a variety of independently conducted assessments of pupil
achievement the report shows that – with the exception of a wealthy minority – most South African
pupils cannot read, write and compute at grade-appropriate levels, with large proportions being
functionally illiterate and innumerate.
As far as educational outcomes, South Africa has the worst education system of all middle-income
countries that participate in cross-national assessments of educational achievement. What is more, we
perform worse than many low-income African countries. The annually-reported statistics from the
National Senior Certificate (NSC) exam in Grade 12 are particularly misleading since they do not take
into account those pupils who never make it to Grade 12. Of 100 pupils that start school, only 50 will
make it to Grade 12, 40 will pass, and only 12 will qualify for university. Those 18-24-year-olds who
do not acquire some form of post-secondary education are at a distinct economic disadvantage and not
only struggle to find full-time employment, but also have one of the highest probabilities of being
unemployed for sustained periods of time, if not permanently.
While there have been some recent improvements in pupil outcomes, as well as some important
policy innovations, the picture that emerges time and again is both dire and consistent: however one
chooses to measure learner performance, and at whichever grade one chooses to test, the vast majority
of South African pupils are significantly below where they should be in terms of the curriculum, and
more generally, have not reached a host of normal numeracy and literacy milestones. As it stands, the
South African education system is grossly inefficient, severely underperforming and egregiously
unfair.