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ERIC Number: ED513312
Record Type: Non-Journal
Publication Date: 2010-Oct
Pages: 36
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: ISBN-0-9018-8154-6
ISSN: N/A
EISSN: N/A
Seeds of Their Struggle: The Features of Under- and Overage Enrolment among Grade 4 Learners in South Africa. CREATE Pathways to Access. Research Monograph No. 47
Taylor, Nick; Mabogoane, Thabo; Shindler, Jennifer; Akoobhai, Bina
Online Submission
Using data drawn from the National School Effectiveness Study, this paper reveals that by Grade 4 35% of South African learners are overage. The study confirms what every other testing programme tells us about the poor state of learning which characterizes the system: the seeds of low pass rates at Grade 12 level, and of low participation and throughput rates in further and higher education, are sown in the first three years of schooling. What the present study adds to this picture is that overage children perform less well than their appropriately aged peers, gain less learning from one year to the next, generally come from poorer homes than their appropriately aged peers, and are predominantly male. This is a major problem in the system, and giving explicit attention to it must constitute a significant component of any strategy to address the very poor learning outcomes of the school system, the slow progress of learners through the grades, and the high rate of dropouts in the last three years of the secondary school. (Contains 7 tables, 9 footnotes, and 6 figures.)
Publication Type: Reports - Research
Education Level: Elementary Education; Elementary Secondary Education; Grade 12; Grade 4
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: Consortium for Research on Educational Access, Transitions and Equity (CREATE)
Identifiers - Location: South Africa
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A