South Africa’s education crisis – over 80% of Grade 4 learners cannot read 

South Africa’s education system is in crisis, with its effects beginning to be felt in the broader economy and in a widening mismatch between graduate skills and the labour market. 

While much attention is paid to rising graduate unemployment in South Africa, the problem begins much earlier, with basic education outcomes in freefall. 

More than 80% of Grade 4 learners in South Africa cannot read for meaning, while in nearly half of all secondary schools, no child reaches the intermediate maths benchmark. 

This is despite a soaring basic education budget, with the department set to spend R346.5 billion in the current financial year. 

Basic education expenditure is the largest spending item for South Africa’s government in the current fiscal year – more than spending on healthcare, social protection, and community development. 

Only debt-servicing costs, which are the result of 15 years of financial mismanagement, will consume more of the state’s budget. 

In a recent analysis of South Africa’s unemployment crisis, Coronation’s economics unit outlined some of the root causes of rising joblessness in the country. 

After analysing the impact of lacklustre economic growth and private-sector investment, the asset manager turned its attention to South Africa’s inability to develop human capital. 

This failure to develop human capital has resulted in the country’s workforce becoming steadily less productive over time, limiting growth and thus the economy’s ability to absorb new workers. 

It has also translated into rising graduate unemployment in South Africa, with university students unable to find jobs as their skills do not meet the labour market’s demands. 

This is despite the fact that education absorbs roughly 6% of South Africa’s annual GDP and 20% of all government spending. This places South Africa among the world’s highest spenders on education relative to income. 

South Africa, for all its spending on education, has among the worst outcomes among its upper-to-middle-income country peers, Coronation said. 

Recent international assessments show that more than 80% of Grade 4 learners cannot read for meaning and in 47% of secondary schools, no child reached the intermediate maths benchmark. 

Adjusted for quality, a South African child effectively receives the equivalent of about five years of learning after nine years of schooling. 

Problems start early

Coronation explained that research shows learning gaps emerge in the earliest grades and tend to be lifelong, impacting outcomes along the way. 

While some of these challenges were deepened by the Covid-19 pandemic, many of them are long-standing and have not been addressed despite increased spending. 

There are spots of excellence in South Africa’s education system, but they are few and far between, with the system unable to produce the amount of skills required to build a flourishing modern economy. 

Research by Peter Courtney for the National Treasury’s Operation Vulindlela shows that learning gaps emerge early on. 

Typically, they start in foundational literacy learning and basic numeracy skills learnt in the earliest years of education. 

These learning gaps determine almost all later education outcomes. Children who cannot read or count by Grade 4 very seldom catch up, regardless of later interventions. 

Despite the decline in outcomes, government spending on education has risen, with a large chunk of the increased expenditure going to teachers. 

Coronation said teacher remuneration has risen by around 66% in real terms since 2007. This means that teacher salaries have increased by 66% above inflation over the period. 

In South Africa, the average teacher now earns five times the GDP per capita level of the country. This is the highest ratio in the entire Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. 

While this increase in expenditure is extreme, what is more concerning is the rise in non-teacher-related expenditure items. 

In 2001, the government spent R6.8 billion on non-teacher-related items. In 2024, this amount increased to R82.5 billion.

This means that the money spent on teachers in South Africa increased by 347% between 2001 and 2024. In comparison, the money spent on other things, outside of teacher compensation, increased by 1,113%.

In 2001, around 88% of the total basic education budget was allocated to the compensation of public school teachers. In 2024, only 75% of expenditure went to teachers.