IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/sza/wpaper/wpapers379.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Place, race and language: Secondary school 'choice' in South Africa's Gauteng province

Author

Listed:
  • Eldridge Moses

    (Department of Economics and ReSEP, Stellenbosch University)

Abstract

This paper uses 2021 and 2022 school-level administration data to examine the relationship between primary and high school locations to determine whether high-quality secondary schools still mostly draw learners selectively from nearby 'feeder' primary schools, and as a result affect racial diversity in enrolments. We find that race is still a powerful predictor of access to high-quality secondary schools in South Africa. Gauteng's poorest-performing schools are home to mostly Black and Coloured learners, while its best-performing schools have an over-representation of White and Asian/Indian learners (relative to their overall population proportions in Gauteng). The findings in this paper suggest that the uneven distributions of high-quality schools, feeder zone rules and affordability constraints prevent many South African learners from enrolling in high-quality schools.

Suggested Citation

  • Eldridge Moses, 2023. "Place, race and language: Secondary school 'choice' in South Africa's Gauteng province," Working Papers 03/2023, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    • Handle: RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers379
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://www.ekon.sun.ac.za/wpapers/2023/wp032023/wp032023-1.pdf
    File Function: First version, 2023
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Moll, Peter G, 1998. "Primary Schooling, Cognitive Skills and Wages in South Africa," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 65(258), pages 263-284, May.
    2. Pauline Musset, 2012. "School Choice and Equity: Current Policies in OECD Countries and a Literature Review," OECD Education Working Papers 66, OECD Publishing.
    3. Katherine Eriksson, 2014. "Does the language of instruction in primary school affect later labour market outcomes? Evidence from South Africa," Economic History of Developing Regions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 29(2), pages 311-335, December.
    4. Peter G. Moll, 1998. "Primary Schooling, Cognitive Skills and Wages in South Africa," Economica, London School of Economics and Political Science, vol. 65(258), pages 263-284, May.
    5. Anthony Lemon, 2004. "Redressing School Inequalities in the Eastern Cape, South Africa," Journal of Southern African Studies, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 30(2), pages 269-290.
    6. Servaas van der Berg, 2015. "What the Annual National Assessments can tell us about learning deficits over the education system and the school career year," Working Papers 18/2015, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Dickerson, Andy & McIntosh, Steven & Valente, Christine, 2015. "Do the maths: An analysis of the gender gap in mathematics in Africa," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 1-22.
    2. Nicola Branson & Julia Garlick & David Lam & Murray Leibbrandt, 2012. "Education and Inequality: The South African Case," SALDRU Working Papers 75, Southern Africa Labour and Development Research Unit, University of Cape Town.
    3. Manon Garrouste & Miren Lafourcade, 2022. "Place-Based Policies: Opportunity for Deprived Schools or Zone-and-Shame Effect?," Post-Print hal-04329793, HAL.
    4. Eric A. Hanushek & Victor Lavy & Kohtaro Hitomi, 2008. "Do Students Care about School Quality? Determinants of Dropout Behavior in Developing Countries," Journal of Human Capital, University of Chicago Press, vol. 2(1), pages 69-105.
    5. Ralph Hippe & Luisa De Sousa Lobo Borges de Araujo & Patricia Dinis Mota da Costa, 2016. "Equity in Education in Europe," JRC Research Reports JRC104595, Joint Research Centre.
    6. Masakazu Hojo, 2012. "Shared literacy and employment in the nonfarm sector," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(10), pages 1209-1217, April.
    7. Paul Glewwe, 2002. "Schools and Skills in Developing Countries: Education Policies and Socioeconomic Outcomes," Journal of Economic Literature, American Economic Association, vol. 40(2), pages 436-482, June.
    8. Berthold, Norbert & Gründler, Klaus, 2014. "On the empirics of social mobility: A macroeconomic approach," Discussion Paper Series 128, Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg, Chair of Economic Order and Social Policy.
    9. Drusilla K. Brown & Alan V. Deardorff & Robert M. Stern, 2009. "The Effects of Multinational Production on Wages and Working Conditions in Developing Countries," World Scientific Book Chapters, in: Globalization And International Trade Policies, chapter 17, pages 623-687, World Scientific Publishing Co. Pte. Ltd..
    10. Caterina Calsamiglia & Francisco Martínez-Mora & Antonio Miralles, 2021. "School Choice Design, Risk Aversion and Cardinal Segregation," The Economic Journal, Royal Economic Society, vol. 131(635), pages 1081-1104.
    11. Berthold, Norbert & Gründler, Klaus, 2013. "Dezentrale Wirtschaftspolitik in Europa: Basis einer stabilen Währungsunion," Discussion Paper Series 121, Julius Maximilian University of Würzburg, Chair of Economic Order and Social Policy.
    12. David E. Bloom & David Canning & Erica S. Shenoy, 2012. "The effect of vaccination on children's physical and cognitive development in the Philippines," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 44(21), pages 2777-2783, July.
    13. Ramachandran, Rajesh, 2017. "Language use in education and human capital formation: Evidence from the Ethiopian educational reform," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 98(C), pages 195-213.
    14. Taylor, Stephen & von Fintel, Marisa, 2016. "Estimating the impact of language of instruction in South African primary schools: A fixed effects approach," Economics of Education Review, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 75-89.
    15. Aveek Bhattacharya, 2020. "When and why might choice in public services have intrinsic (dis)value?," CASE Papers /220, Centre for Analysis of Social Exclusion, LSE.
    16. Servaas van der Berg & Chris van Wyk & Ronelle Burger & Janeli Kotzé & Marlies Piek & Kate Rich, 2017. "The performance of low fee independent schools in South Africa - What can available data tell?," Working Papers 01/2017, Stellenbosch University, Department of Economics.
    17. J. Fourie, 2018. "Cliometrics in South Africa," Studies in Economics and Econometrics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 42(2), pages 1-14, August.
    18. Güell, Maia & Calsamiglia, Caterina, 2014. "The Illusion of School Choice: Empirical Evidence from Barcelona," CEPR Discussion Papers 10011, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    19. Béatrice Boutchenik & Pauline Givord & Olivier Monso, 2020. "How do restrictive zoning and parental choices impact social diversity in schools?," Working Papers hal-03455914, HAL.
    20. Azam, Jean-Paul & Rospabe, Sandrine, 2007. "Trade unions vs. statistical discrimination: Theory and application to post-apartheid South Africa," Journal of Development Economics, Elsevier, vol. 84(1), pages 417-444, September.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    School choice; education quality; South Africa; inequality;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • I24 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Inequality
    • I25 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Education and Economic Development
    • I28 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - Government Policy

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sza:wpaper:wpapers379. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Melt van Schoor (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/desunza.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.