AN ASSESSMENT OF THE

Date
2011-06-08
Authors
Pillay, Sherline
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Abstract
In the last decade there has been universal concern on school effectiveness. Studies on school effectiveness indicate that various authors use different definitions and it is difficult to settle on a single definition for the concept. Furthermore the factors that contributes to good learning, a notion that is closely associated with that of school effectiveness may leave the reader wondering whether for example learners from poor backgrounds will have more difficulty learning than those from more affluent homes. This question is relevant for a country such as South Africa in which the socio-economic status of citizens is highly skewed. Central to this quest, is to find a common instrument to measure the effectiveness of schools. This is not easy when considering the various factors that influence learning and teaching. The focus of this study was therefore to identify an indicator that makes one type of school more effective than another. The comparison in study is between public and independent schools, using the indicator of the Senior Certificate Examination for 2002 to 2006 and assessing, on this basis, whether it is public or independent schools that delivers more effective schooling. To operationalise this research objective, the study used a sample of all public and independent schools that wrote the Senior Certificate Examination for 2002 to 2006. The researcher considered two types of independent schools (independent and independent subsidised) and public schools in the disaggregation of the data for this study. Independent subsidised schools are partly funded by the government while independent schools receive no funds from the government and rely on school fees. Only quantitative data analysis was used. Regression analyses were used to investigate the relationship between matriculation pass rates, school fees and learner-to-educator ratio. The effect of type of school on learner performance in the matriculation examination was also investigated using regression analysis. A simple statement deeming one type of school more effective than another is simple when using the average pass rates for the Senior Certificate Examination. When comparing the average pass rates the public sector 10 schools consistently performed better than those in the independent schooling sector. However on closer statistical investigation of the data over the five years the researcher discovered that the average pass rates of the schools were not normally distributed. There are schools in the public, independent and independent subsidised sector that performed very well and those that performed very poorly. A series of statistical tests such as the Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) Kruskal-Wallis and Pearson’s Chi-square tests were thus performed. The top 5 per cent of schools were removed from the analysis as schools producing 96 to 100 per cent pass rates were all considered in the rank of ‘acceptably good performance’. This resulted in the data being more normally distributed and allowed for further analyses of the pass rates. Other analyses include a comparison of the endorsement rates in both sectors and Mathematics and Physical Science results for the three types of schools.
Description
MM - P&DM
Keywords
Schooling, Gauteng, Public schooling, Gauteng, Independent schools, Gauteng
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