In this report, we review what we know about learning losses and other schooling impacts in South Africa after two years of the COVID-19 pandemic (2020 and 2021). Four overall trends emerge from existing evidence. First, there have been extensive learning losses in the General Education and...

An almost unnoticed problem in the South African education system is the high rate of grade repetition. In this report, a combination of household and administrative datasets is used to identify patterns in learner repetition and dropout in South African schooling and the costs associated with...

The central focus of this research project was the investigation of causes of weak South African student performance in literacy and numeracy in the Foundation Phase (Grades 1–3). Many South African children complete these grades without being able to read properly in their home-language, with...

In response to the COVID-19 crisis, and the anticipated socio-economic impacts of a hard lockdown, the South African government has leveraged three channels of social protection to protect livelihoods: social insurance, a social assistance programme of grants and localised social relief efforts....