18 CHAPTER 2


To study gaps in educational quality across population groups, I focus on the ratio of learners to educators (teachers and other staff)—the learner- educator ratio (LER)—from two school censuses, SRN 1996 and 2000. In 1995 the government reached an agreement that ratios of 40:1 and 35:1 were to be achieved for primary and secondary schools, respectively, in the next five years. Therefore, LER can provide a good indicator not only of the distribu- tion of education quality but also of the government’s policy interventions to achieve educational equity.


Recent empirical work shows significant effects of LER and class size on learner achievement, although the literature as a whole contains some ambiguity (Hanushek 1998). The difficulty in identifying causality arises from potential endogeneity in the number of learners and unobserved fixed com- ponents specific to school and community, which is likely to be correlated with school inputs.1 For example, Lazear (2001) argues that the effect of LER on learner achievement could be empirically ambiguous because of (often unobserved) heterogeneity in learner quality, that is, discipline. In his model, the optimal size of a class (LER) increases if learner discipline improves, since the probability of disruption in a classroom decreases. To avoid such a correlation between LER and unobservables, recent studies use exogenous variations (changes) in LER and class size to identify the effect on learner achievement (for example, Angrist and Lavy 1999; Case and Deaton 1999; Krueger 1999; Hoxby 2000). In these studies with exogenous variations in LER, the effect is found to be significant. In the context of South Africa, Case and Deaton (1999) show that among Africans under apartheid who were not free to choose schools, LER has a significant effect on learner achievement, par- ticularly in numeracy, while its effect is not significant among whites. Table 2.1 compares means of LERs by population groups in both 1996 and 2000. A striking fact evident from the table is that the gap between formerly African and white schools did not narrow during the period. Formerly white schools maintained their superior situation in the post-apartheid period. Though more detailed statistical analysis is provided in the section on empiri- cal findings, the difference between formerly African and white schools seems persistent and stable.


The LER gaps can have long-term implications. For instance, school qual- ity matters in subsequent labor market outcomes (Card and Krueger 1996; Case and Yogo 1999; Dustman, Rajah, and Soest 2003). Based on Case and


1 High LERs are partly attributed to high grade repetition rates in South Africa. However, those who have repeated grades are more likely to transition to labor markets (Yamauchi 2003, using data from the KwaZulu-Natal Income Dynamics Study).


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68  |  Page 69  |  Page 70  |  Page 71  |  Page 72  |  Page 73  |  Page 74  |  Page 75  |  Page 76  |  Page 77  |  Page 78  |  Page 79  |  Page 80  |  Page 81  |  Page 82  |  Page 83  |  Page 84  |  Page 85  |  Page 86  |  Page 87  |  Page 88  |  Page 89  |  Page 90  |  Page 91  |  Page 92  |  Page 93  |  Page 94  |  Page 95  |  Page 96  |  Page 97  |  Page 98  |  Page 99  |  Page 100  |  Page 101  |  Page 102  |  Page 103  |  Page 104  |  Page 105  |  Page 106  |  Page 107  |  Page 108  |  Page 109  |  Page 110  |  Page 111  |  Page 112  |  Page 113  |  Page 114  |  Page 115  |  Page 116  |  Page 117  |  Page 118  |  Page 119  |  Page 120  |  Page 121  |  Page 122  |  Page 123  |  Page 124  |  Page 125  |  Page 126  |  Page 127  |  Page 128  |  Page 129  |  Page 130  |  Page 131  |  Page 132  |  Page 133  |  Page 134  |  Page 135  |  Page 136  |  Page 137  |  Page 138  |  Page 139  |  Page 140  |  Page 141  |  Page 142  |  Page 143  |  Page 144  |  Page 145  |  Page 146  |  Page 147  |  Page 148  |  Page 149  |  Page 150