Statistical analysis of the school attendance rate among under 20 South African learners.
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Date
2020
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Abstract
School attendance is very crucial for the growth and development of the mindset
of a child. The development of the mindset and provision of training to learners is an investment
of a better future for the country. The government even made school attendance compulsory because
of the fruits it bears in the future. But in the past, many studies have reflected a problem with
school attendance and mostly the financial constrains appearing as the hindrance towards school
attendance. Which is why the government has taken the initiative to make school attendance free
for those who doesn’t afford to pay for it. This has reduced a greater number of individuals who
had a wish to attend school but with no funds to pay for it and allowed an opportunity for those
who need it. But still the country is experiencing individuals who are in school going age but not
attending school. Some of these individuals are enrolled for school but choose not to attend. This
brings many questions now about the factors affecting school attendance of learners. Which brings
us to the aim of this study which is to identify factors affecting school attendance of learners at
the basic education level.
In identification of these factors, the study made use of different statistical mod-
els which accommodate the binary response. The models used in the study include Correspondence
Analysis(CA), Survey Logistic Regression(SLR), Generalized Lin- ear Mixed Model(GLMM) and
Generalized Additive Mixed Model(GAMM). The results suggest that the likelihood of school
non-attendance is associated with Northern Cape and Western Cape which are mostly dominated by
Coloured/Indian/Asian race groups sharing ”Other” relationship to household head and have no parents presence. Moreover,
the female learners with mothers not alive and coming from families with salaries and pension/grant
as source of income are less likely to attend school. While learners coming from all other
provinces except the two specified above, African/Black by race, sharing child/grandchild
relationship to household head, have both parents alive, deviating from household with high
wealth index z-score and have total income above R25000 are more likely to attend school. This is
a clear indication that the initiatives which were applied by the government and results of the
past studies have assisted in improving school attendance, but still more initiatives are needed
to cover the areas which are still reflecting poor school attendance in order to meet the aims of
the Millennium Development Goals.
Description
Masters Degree. University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban.