MTBPS – Education allocation must address school dropout.

Today’s Medium Term Budget Policy Statement (MTBPS) will play a crucial role in the future of our education sector. Since Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s Budget Speech in February this year, there have been numerous reports released with worrying insights to the state of our education system, particularly the levels of literacy in South Africa. In […]

PIRLS 2021 – Accelerated learning programmes urgently needed to cure COVID-19 learning losses

PIRLS 2021 & COVID-19 Today’s release of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) has sounded alarms regarding the state of learning in South Africa. The study is the first since the COVID-19 pandemic and found that 81% of Grade 4 learners in South Africa cannot read for meaning in any language. In 2016, […]

The matric pass rate lacks context. Here’s why

At the start of each year, South Africans are told how many learners passed their matric exams, a figure that tends to act as a barometer for the health of our schooling system. Yet, it tells us very little, or nothing at all, about how and why some learners succeed, and others do not. In […]

Early Warning Systems are the first line of defense in the campaign to prevent school dropout

Imagine a class of 100 Grade 1s on their first day of school, bright-eyed and eager to learn. Of those 100 learners, at least 40 will drop out of school before finishing matric. School dropout has become normalised in many communities, deepening inter-generational poverty, joblessness and inequality. Before the Covid-19 pandemic, researchers estimated that between […]

What factors make a learner more likely to drop out?

The Covid-19 pandemic has seen a rise in learners not attending school and who may permanently drop out. In November last year, the Basic Education Department (DBE) revealed that around 200 000 learners did not return to school during a six-month period. Even before the pandemic, around 40% of learners who started school in Grade 1 would drop out before completing matric. So, what makes a learner more likely to drop out?

The inaugural Zero Dropout Action Summit to showcase the findings of a four-year pilot on dropout prevention

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, school dropout was a ‘hidden crisis’ barely featuring on the national agenda even though it is commonplace in many communities. The pandemic has brought South Africa’s dropout crisis to the fore, necessitating schools to take immediate action to get learners back into the classroom. But it’s not going to be easy […]

As schools reopen, we need to rapidly track and trace absent learners

Schools are scheduled to open today at a time when school attendance is the lowest in two decades. Fewer learners have returned to school this year compared to pre-pandemic attendance figures, and the dropout rate has tripled. “The longer it takes to get our learners back to class, the less likely they are to return,” says Merle Mansfield, Programme Director of the Zero Dropout Campaign.

Is the matric pass rate an accurate measure of the health of our schooling system?

The matric pass rate is traditionally considered a measure of the health of our schooling system and a key performance indicator by which the Minister of Basic Education is held to account. But, what does this statistic actually tell us about learners’ pathways through school, particularly during a pandemic? “Before the pandemic, around 2 out […]

We can build back better after Covid-19 with a coordinated dropout strategy

Tracking absenteeism at schools is integral to dropout prevention, even more so with many learners not returning to class because of the Covid-19 pandemic. Despite the importance of accurate data and information in uncertain times, we don’t have systematic and complete learner-level data from the government, according to new research commissioned by the Zero Dropout […]

Building a resilient education system starts with fixing our broken schools

Dropout is rarely about a single event. It follows a long process of disengagement caused by disruptions to learning, which is why anything that hampers teaching and learning, such as the lack of access to resources and infrastructure problems, can elevate the risk of school dropout. “The fact that infrastructure remains a barrier in spaces where learners are already contending with socio-economic challenges outside of the school space […]

It’s high time we factor dropout into policy and planning frameworks and set reduction targets

On Tuesday, 6 October, the Zero Dropout Campaign addressed Members of the Portfolio Committee on Basic Education about the country’s dropout crisis, exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. “School closures, together with the economic impact of the lockdown, have placed learners already at risk of dropout into deeper financial, psychosocial and academic distress. Now more than […]

Bright new ideas to promote literacy in the time of Covid-19

The Covid-19 pandemic has unsettled learning in different ways. It has disrupted schooling and slammed the breaks on many after-school literacy programmes. Considering that 78% of Grade 4 learners cannot read for meaning in any language, after-school programmes play an important role in helping children with gaps in their foundational literacy.

The gendered impact of the Covid-19 school closures places girls at higher risk of dropout

In South Africa and other developing countries, school closures carry a high risk for marginalised girls because of exposure to sexual exploitation and teenage pregnancy while outside the classroom.
“Protracted school closures exacerbate gender inequalities, which is why girls are particularly vulnerable to dropout,” says […]

We need to ramp up our response to deal with dropout during the Covid-19 pandemic

The Zero Dropout Campaign is concerned that the latest decision to close public schools will negatively impact vulnerable learners from households hard hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. “The fact of the matter is that school closures carry high social and economic costs, particularly in disadvantaged communities, and increases the risk of learners dropping out,” says […]

Channelling the energy and vibrancy of youth activism into dropout prevention strategies

The June 1976 protests have been credited with changing the socio-political landscape of the country and giving new impetus to the fight against Apartheid. This movement set a precedent for youth activism, which not only had the potential to change individual schools and the education system but society at large. Since then, various youth-led movements […]

No school must be left behind in the 2020 recovery plan

The Zero Dropout Campaign calls on education officials to ensure that school recovery plans are implemented safely and consistently, particularly in lower quintile schools that do not have access to running water and sanitation. “We support the decision to complete the 2020 academic year, provided all reasonable measures are taken to protect learners, support staff, […]

Learners in need of psychosocial support services amid reports of a spike in domestic violence complaints

Protracted school closures can lead to an increase in learner dropout, which is why we are urging non-profit organisations (NPOs) to revise their dropout preventative strategies to respond to the long-term effects of the lockdown. We also urge education officials to put measures in place to address learner disengagement, considering many are falling behind with […]

We call on parents and communities to do their part to mitigate the impact of the Covid-19 fallout

The national state of disaster declared by President Cyril Ramaphosa is an opportunity for parents and communities to do their part to mitigate the impact of school closures by ensuring that children are safe, emotionally supported, and do not fall behind academically. “School closures, even for short periods, carry economic and social costs, especially in […]

Government’s spending priorities on Basic Education should address school dropout

In his Budget speech, Finance Minister Tito Mboweni announced that R396 billion will be allocated to learning and culture. Education usually gets the lion’s share of the Budget, but how are our public funds supporting school dropout prevention strategies? “We are concerned that the government is not strategically addressing the high dropout rate with targeted […]

Tackling the crisis of youth unemployment starts with reducing the school dropout rate

President Cyril Ramaphosa unveiled his government’s new six-pronged plan to tackle the high rate of youth unemployment during his State of the Nation Address, but this approach lacks the targeted policies needed to dramatically address the hidden crisis of learners dropping out of school. “The fact of the matter is that 44% of unemployed young […]