Electronic Theses and Dissertations (Masters)

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Browsing Electronic Theses and Dissertations (Masters) by SDG "SDG-4: Quality education"

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    Fields of study and graduates’ labour market outcomes in South Africa
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Osunde, Sharon Wanbianoseh; Roberts, Gareth
    This study investigates job-education mismatch in South Africa based on graduates’ fields of study. Using data from the Quarterly Labour Force Survey for the period 2015 to 2019, we explore graduate endpoints in the labour market by determining how well-matched they are to their occupation and the association between being horizontally or vertically mismatched on earnings as well as job tenure. The results of the study found that Education and Health graduates are better matched to their occupations than Commerce and STEM graduates. Using a multinomial logistic regression to evaluate the likelihood of working in a match occupation, the study found that Commerce graduates are the most likely to transition into an occupation that they are overeducated for, while STEM graduates are more likely to transition into a horizontally mismatched occupation when compared to the other fields of study observed. Furthermore, using Mincerian OLS regressions, the study found a significant negative association between earnings and being overeducated among STEM and Commerce graduates. Lastly, this study also found a significant negative association between being horizontally mismatched and tenure among STEM and Commerce youth graduates
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    Graduate employment : does field of study matter?
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Seilane, Mpumelelo
    Skills shortage with graduate unemployment at face value appear as a contradiction in terms. However, this is emblematic of the South African economy. Albeit that the South African government invests a tremendous amount of resources towards the massification of higher education a significant proportion of graduates cannot find success in the labour market. Chief amongst the reasons why the South African government has taken this human capital investment path is to address the economic outcomes engendered by the historical policies of racial exclusion. Preferential access towards higher education institutions for previously disadvantaged individuals has been used as the weapon to combat poverty and inequality. However, having unemployed graduates in an economy severely lacking skills to grow is counter to the objective of reducing social inequality. The literature is at odds with regards to the relevance the field of study a graduate comes from in determining the prospects of success of a graduate in the labour market. So, with the use of the Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) dataset spanning from the first quarter of 2015 to the last quarter of 2019, this article employs a multinomial logistic regression model to investigate the correlates of employment amongst graduates in South Africa. The results indicate that graduate unemployment is fundamentally structural and therefore the field of study that a graduate comes from matters.
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    HIV/AIDS and Educational Attainment Among South African Children and Adolescents
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023-06) Havley, Simon; Booysen, Frikkie
    This study examines the effects of HIV-infection, antiretroviral treatment exposure and viral load suppression on indicators of educational attainment among children and adolescents of school-going age in South Africa using data from a nationally representative survey and linked biomedical information. This study employs propensity score matching-based approaches to examine the effects of HIV-related indicators on educational attainment overall and within each gender. This study also uses decomposition analyses to examine the contribution of HIV- related indicators to gender gaps in educational attainment, and to identify factors contributing to differences in the impacts of HIV-related factors on educational attainment of females specifically. It is found that HIV-positive status has a significant impact on the likelihood of school attendance, absenteeism, and being old for one’s grade. This is the case for all children and adolescents of school-going age. These effects are statistically significant for girls but not for boys. The study also finds that HIV-related factors contribute to gender gaps in school attendance, and that these gaps are observed in all tiers of the HIV treatment cascade. These results indicate that HIV-related factors impact disproportionately and negatively on educational attainment for girls. Further research on the gendered nature of the impact of HIV on education in South Africa is encouraged, as is the design of health and education policies that specifically target improved education outcomes among HIV-positive girls.
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    Perceived returns to mathematics and student achievement: the South African case
    (University of the Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, 2023) Gamieldien, Mohamed Faarez; Casale, Daniela
    This study investigates the relationship between students’ perceived returns to mathematics – the future benefits a student believes they will obtain from studying mathematics – and mathematics achievement in South Africa. The study expands the scarce literature on the role of non-cognitive skills (and specifically extrinsic motivation) in education in South Africa. The 2019 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) South Africa dataset was used to perform Ordinary Least Squares (OLS), Instrumental Variable (IV), and Fixed Effects (FE) estimations of the model. The study finds that perceived returns to mathematics has a positive and statistically significant relationship with mathematics achievement. Further, it was found that the positive relationship that intrinsic motivation has with mathematics achievement is increased when perceived returns to mathematics is high, but that students with low intrinsic motivation for mathematics do not perform significantly differently when their perceived returns to mathematics is higher. This provides important insight into the interaction between different types of cognitive skills. Additionally, high perceived returns to mathematics had a large and significant positive relationship with mathematics achievement for students in rural schools, and the positive relationship between perceived returns to mathematics and mathematics achievement shrunk as one progressed to a more urban school location. This shows that perceived returns to mathematics matter more for students in challenging circumstances, but, importantly, the study finds that students with high perceived returns to mathematics in rural schools still perform worse than students with low perceived returns to mathematics in urban schools. This is an important finding in the South African context where gross inequalities in education persist: non-cognitive skills are important for educational achievement, but more needs to be done to improve the functionality of poor schools in South Africa