This report sets out the key trends in the macro-indicators for the education sector in South Africa. The report aims to give policy-makers, researchers and implementers a sense of the trajectory of the system over the past decade or more, with the intention of providing both a summary of the past and a guide for the future.

The report mostly uses indicators that are widely used internationally. The indicators are “macro”-indicators in the sense that generally, they do not delve deeper into classroom process issues or school-level service delivery issues.

The General Household Survey (GHS) is a sample survey conducted by Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) in approximately 30 000 Households. This survey is conducted annually in July. The GHS provides a platform for the Department of Basic Education (DBE) to assess progress made with regards to access, quality, efficiency, equity and expenditure goals in schooling. It furthermore provides an opportunity to verify data collected through other mechanisms.

This report reflects on patterns in access to schooling in South Africa while applying a framework of internal efficiency. The report does not comprehensively cover all sources of inefficiency in the system; neither does it contain cost-effectiveness analysis of specific educational interventions or policies. Rather, the report focuses on the ways in which learners enter and then progress through the system. This includes internal system inefficiencies caused by sub-optimal school entry patterns, grade repetition practices and drop-out patterns.

This report is South Africa’s combined second, third and fourth report on measures taken between 1998 and 2013 in furtherance of its obligations under the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) and the Optional Protocols on the Sale of Children, Child Prostitution and Pornography, and on the Involvement of Children in Armed Conflict.

Research was conducted in 2010 on the language policy for schools which is guided by principles derived from the Constitution and the South African Schools Act (SASA). The purpose was to provide a trend analysis of language data for the period 1997/98 to 2007 in order to determine patterns and shifts in the status of the language in schools over time, and to provide a useful basis for assessing the effectiveness of policy implementation.