Education expert disputes survey numbers on missing pupils
Situation not as serious as made out to be
The number of pupils who have not been attending school as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic is not as large as the more than 500,000 suggested by the National Income Dynamics Study–Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (NIDSCRAM).
This is according to Prof Martin Gustafsson, an adviser to the department of basic education, who was giving an update on the basic education sector’s response to the impact of Covid-19 on schooling at a media briefing yesterday .
He said that research on enrolment data, which will be released soon, indicated that the number of young children who should be attending school for the first time in grades R or 1 is lower by 25,000.
“This is a problem but obviously not of the magnitude of the 500,000 mentioned by NIDS-CRAM.”
He said their estimates showed that about 10,000 children aged 7 to 14, who were in the compulsory schooling age group, had been lost to the system.
“These are 10,000 young children we obviously need to worry about. We need to follow up. We need to make sure these children don’t lose out on schooling.”
Gustafsson said the situation concerning enrolments above age 15 “seems to be less serious”.
“In grade 12, the data tells us schools have been particularly accommodating in allowing grade 12s to repeat given the difficulties grade 12s had last year. The sobering reality is that we have now reached a point where it’s virtually impossible to recover all of the lost learning,” said Gustafsson.
According to the Wave 5 NIDS-CRAM released last month, the number of sevento 17-year-olds who have not attended school once this year is between 650,342 and 753,371.
“Whether this is a temporary or permanent dropout is, as yet, unknown, though previous research shows that the longer children remain out of school the higher the likelihood of permanent dropout,” the study found.