South Africa’s continued dismal performance in international education assessments is, unfortunately, no surprise to anyone familiar with the country’s education system. Once again, South Africa has ranked near the bottom in the 2023 Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS), a major global comparison of maths and science achievement. Of the 58 countries that participated, South Africa came fifth-last in the senior maths exam and last in the junior one. This is despite the fact that South African pupils in these tests are a year older than those in most other countries, making the results even more concerning.
The question is: why does South Africa consistently perform so poorly? The answer, often cited by politicians and the education department, is that apartheid’s legacy continues to affect the country’s education system. While there is some truth to this – decades of underinvestment and inequality in education left a lasting impact – it cannot fully explain South Africa’s ongoing poor performance. If apartheid were the primary cause, one might expect to see gradual improvements over time as the country moves further from its past. Yet, the results show the opposite: younger students, tested at a later grade, perform worse than older students.
Another commonly offered explanation for South Africa’s poor performance is that the country spends less on education compared to other nations. While it is true that South Africa allocates a significant portion of its national budget to education (6.18% of GDP, more than the US), spending per pupil in real terms is much lower than in wealthier countries. The OECD average spending per pupil was around $14,000 in 2021, compared to South Africa’s $3,000 per pupil. The argument goes that inadequate funding leads to poor results, but this explanation also misses the full picture.
A third theory, which I believe holds significant weight, is what former US President George W. Bush referred to as the “soft bigotry of low expectations.” This concept is evident in the South African education department’s response to its poor performance. In reaction to the latest TIMSS results, the department touted an improvement of just eight points, from 389 to 397, in the senior maths test. In a 1,000-point test, this marginal increase was described as a “remarkable upward trend,” a statement that is both laughable and deeply troubling. It reveals the department’s tendency to set the bar so low that even the smallest improvement is hailed as a major victory.
This attitude reflects a broader issue in South Africa’s education system: the lack of accountability and the resistance to upholding meaningful standards. Teachers’ unions, which have significant political influence, often prioritize job protection over student performance, and there is a disturbing reluctance to confront underperformance within the system. The government’s approach seems less about improving education and more about safeguarding a failing system. For instance, the ongoing dismantling of Afrikaans schools, often seen as more successful educational institutions, can be viewed as an attempt to eliminate standards that might highlight the broader system’s failures.
Despite these challenges, there is a silver lining. For example, when I asked ChatGPT to list some sample questions from the senior TIMSS test, it gave a typical question: “Solve for x in the equation 3x + 5 = 20,” and confidently provided the correct answer of 7. At least South African pupils, it seems, are performing no worse than artificial intelligence when it comes to basic math.
However, unless South Africa tackles its systemic issues – from underfunding and low expectations to political interference and teacher resistance – the education crisis is likely to persist. And while there is no quick fix, acknowledging these fundamental problems would be the first step toward real change.