WAS SOUTH AFRICA’S EDUCATION SYSTEM COVID-19 PROOF?

Over the past year, the COVID-19 pandemic caused over 1.53 billion learners to stay at home and out of school in 184 countries. This as a result impacted over 87.6% of the world’s total enrolled learners.

The pandemic exposed holes that were hidden deep in a number of education systems around the world, however, the level of impact was not the same throughout these systems; some were less hit, due to their advancement in a number of aspects such as technology and economic development just to name a few.

The South African education system came under a lot of criticism during the initiation of national lockdowns and school closures around the world. Many people questioned its ability to facilitate education while learners would be remaining at home.

The department of basic education launched a multi-media learner support initiative that aimed at controlling the impact of the lockdown on learners across the country. This initiative distributed educational content to three SABC TV Channels and 13 Radio stations along with some online content and support.

The most pressing question revolves around the impact of closing schools; South Africa’s ministry of education has anticipated an increase in dropout rates due to extended school closures. The ministry suggests that around 38 000 Grade 7 learners and 18 000 Grade 12 learners in KwaZulu-Natal could drop out of school. However, that anticipation won’t be clear until learners go back to school and more data is collected.

In this article I want to focus on a different question, a question that seems to be obscured from a number of people; was South Africa’s education system Covid-19 proof?

I believe that this question might shed some light towards the question about the impact of school closure.

I am using the 2019 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) report to try and give some light on this situation as a whole. TIMSS is an assessment of the mathematics and science knowledge of fourth and eighth-grade learners around the world. In South Africa, the assessment is conducted among grade 5 and grade 9 learners in public and independent schools.

The grade 5 sample consisted of 297 schools, 294 mathematics educators, 295 science educators, 11 903 learners, and 11 720 parents.

What’s interesting about TIMSS is that it also collects contextual information about the home, school, and classroom to explain learner achievements, and this is where my focus is going to be.

Structural factors, such as race and gender, parental wealth, and educational attainment are the main determinants of their children’s educational success (World Bank, 2018).

In the TIMSS report, learners were asked about the availability of a number of resources at home. The learners are divided into two groups; those who attend fee-paying schools and those who attend no-fee schools.

For grade 5 learners, just around 56% of South African learners have the necessary digital hardware and 37% have an internet connection at home, while 73% in fee-paying schools and 49% in no-fee schools indicate that they had a computer at home.

According to the TIMSS report, principals report that 66% of grade 5 learners don’t have access to computers, while 14% have access to between 1 and 20 computers, and 20% have more than 20 computers. Additionally, only 8% of learners attend schools that are not affected by resource shortages as compared to 26% internationally; this simply means that 86% are affected.

The grade 9 sample had a total of 519 schools and 20 829 learners, 543 mathematics and 537 science teachers, and 519 school principals.

The grade 9 report states that between 6 and 7% of the learners attended schools with adequate resources compared to 26% international learners. It adds that learners who were not affected by a shortage of resources achieved significantly higher mathematics achievements than those affected a lot by resource shortages.

Principals in the research report that half of the grade 9 learners don’t have access to computers. One-third of the grade 9 learners have between 1 and 40 computers, and 13% have over 40 computers.

Remote learning occurs when the learner and the teacher are separated physically and cannot meet in a traditional classroom. Remote learning is made up of online learning and lower-tech remote learning such as TV, radio, or mail.

This evidence pretty much suggests that the South African education system was not and probably still isn’t Covid-19 proof; a number of learners don’t have access to the technological prerequisites for remote learning.

Research also suggests that only 11% of households in sub-Saharan Africa have computers, and only 18% are from households with an internet connection (Releasing the potential of teachers in the COVID response in low-income countries, 2020).

Two other aspects that appear to be quite important are a safe quiet place to study or parental support. They are imperative because a teacher is usually needed to facilitate an environment that is friendly for learning, and learners, especially those who may be struggling academically, may need academic support from family members.??

These results don’t necessarily answer the ‘impact’ question but may perhaps provide somewhat of an overview on the readiness of South Africa’s education system pre-Covid-19. This evidence gives an impression that the ministry of education in South Africa wasn’t ready, at least on a larger scale.?