You are here:

Correlates of children’s travel to school in Johannesburg-Soweto—Evidence from the Birth to Twenty Plus (Bt20+) study, South Africa
ARTICLE

, Gauteng City-Region Observatory, South Africa ; , Human and Social Development Programme, South Africa ; , MRC/WITS Developmental Pathways for Health Research Unit, South Africa ; , Geography and Built Environment, United Kingdom

International Journal of Educational Development Volume 68, Number 1, ISSN 0738-0593 Publisher: Elsevier Ltd

Abstract

Prior work on data obtained from the urban Johannesburg-Soweto based "Birth to Twenty Plus" (Bt20+) cohort has documented extensive levels of travel to school in the early post-apartheid era (1997–2003), with fewer than 20% of children attending the age-appropriate school closest to their home (). These extremely high levels of schooling mobility impose costs on children and families, as well as the educational system more broadly, and have contributed to the evolution of contemporary enrolment patterns. This paper analyses the relationship between travel to school and potentially related variables at the individual, family and community level. Our analysis indicates that Black children, children attending higher quality schools, and those living in relatively poor areas were most likely to travel to school. However, while travel to school has a strong and positive univariate relationship with both maternal education and family socio-economic status (SES), this fades out in a multivariate analysis. Our findings highlight the significant costs incurred in the pursuit of high quality education by many Black children and families, as well as those living in poorer areas, in the early post-apartheid era. This is despite post-apartheid educational policy with an explicit aim of redress. The paper contributes to understanding the challenges of apartheid’s inequitable geographical legacy in ensuring equitable access to high quality education for all in South Africa, as well as to the growing literatures on the geography of education and school choice in low and middle income countries.

Citation

de Kadt, J., van Heerden, A., Richter, L. & Alvanides, S. (2019). Correlates of children’s travel to school in Johannesburg-Soweto—Evidence from the Birth to Twenty Plus (Bt20+) study, South Africa. International Journal of Educational Development, 68(1), 56-67. Elsevier Ltd. Retrieved June 15, 2021 from .

This record was imported from International Journal of Educational Development on June 3, 2019. International Journal of Educational Development is a publication of Elsevier.

Full text is availabe on Science Direct: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ijedudev.2019.04.007

Keywords

References

View References & Citations Map
  1. BBC (2016). Why Are South African Students Protesting?. Available online: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-34615004.
  2. Bell, J., & McKay, T.M. (2011). The rise of ‘class apartheid’ in accessing secondary schools in sandton, Gauteng. Southern Afr. Rev. Educ., 17, pp. 17-48.
  3. Brophy, T., Branson, N., Daniels, R.C., Leibbrandt, M., Mlatsheni, C., & Woolard, I. (2018). National Income Dynamics Study Panel User Manual. Available online: https://www.datafirst.uct.ac.za/dataportal/index.php/catalog/712/download/9561.
  4. Burde, D., & Linden, L.L. (2013). Bringing education to Afghan girls: a randomized controlled trial of village-based schools. Appl. Econ., 5(3), pp. 27-40.
  5. Coetzee, M. (2014). School Quality and the Performance of Disadvantaged Learners in South Africa Stellenbosch Economic Working Papers 22/14. Available online: https://www.ekon.sun.ac.za/wpapers/2014/wp222014/wp-22-2014.pdf.
  6. Collins, D., & Coleman, T. (2008). Social geographies of education: looking within, and beyond, school boundaries. Geogr. Compass, 2(1), pp. 281-299.
  7. Cosser, M., & du Toit, J. (2002). From School to Higher Education? Factors Affecting the Choices of Grade 12 Learners Cape.
  8. de Kadt, J. (2011). Learner Mobility in Johannesburg-Soweto, South Africa: Dimensions and Determinants PhD Thesis.
  9. de Kadt, J., Norris, S.A., Fleisch, B., Richter, L., & Alvanides, S. (2014). Children’s daily travel to school in Johannesburg-Soweto South Africa: geography and school choice in the birth to twenty cohort study. Children’s Geogr., 12(2), pp. 170-188.
  10. de Kadt, J., Hamann, C., & Parker, A. (2018). The Long and Short of School Commutes. Available online: http://www.gcro.ac.za/outputs/map-of-the-month/detail/the-long-and-short-of-school-commutes/.
  11. Fiske, E., & Ladd, H. (2004). Elusive Equity: Education Reform in Post-Apartheid South Africa. Washington DC: Brookings Institute.
  12. Fiske, E., & Ladd, H. (2005). Racial Equality in Education: How Far Has South Africa Come? Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy Working Paper Series Duke University.
  13. Fleisch, B., & Schindler, J. (2009). Patterns and prevalence of school access transitions and equity in South Africa: secondary analyses of BT20 large-scale data sources CREATE pathways to access.
  14. Hall, K. (2018). Children’s access to education. South African Child Gauge 2018 Cape Town: Children’s Institute, University of Cape Town.
  15. Hamann C., 2016.The quality of education in Gauteng, GCRO Map of the Month (accessed online 08/01/19: http://gcro.ac.za/outputs/map-of-the-month/detail/the-quality-of-education-in-gauteng/).
  16. Hill, L.D. (2016). Race, school choice and transfers to opportunity: implications for educational stratification in South Africa. Br. J. Sociol. Educ., 37(4), pp. 520-547.
  17. Hoadly, U. (1999). For better or worse: school choice in a South African working class context. Critical Perspectives in South African Education: Reconstituting the Educational Realm, pp. 28-44. Cape Town: Juta.
  18. Holloway, S.L., & Jöns, H. (2012). Geographies of education and learning. Trans. Br. Inst. Geogr., 37(4), pp. 482-488.
  19. Holloway, S.L., Hubbard, P., Jöns, H., & Pimlott-Wilson, H. (2010). Geographies of education and the significance of children, youth and families. Progress Hum. Geogr., 34(5), pp. 583-600.
  20. Hunter, M. (2010). Racial desegregation and schooling in South Africa: contested geographies of class formation. Environ. Plann., 42(11), pp. 2640-2657.
  21. Hunter, M. (2016). The race for education: class, white tone, and desegregated schooling in South Africa. J. Hist. Sociol., 29(3), pp. 319-358.
  22. Hunter, M. (2016). Market Forces Propel Schools’ Racism. Available online: http://www.theconmag.co.za/2016/09/06/market-forces-propel-schools-racism/.
  23. Hunter, M. (2017). Parental choice without parents: families, education and class in a South African township compare. J. Compar. Int. Educ., 47(1), pp. 2-16.
  24. Jarvis, H., & Alvanides, S. (2008). School choice from a household Resource perspective: preliminary findings from a North of England case study community. Work Family, 11(4), pp. 385-403.
  25. J-PAL (2017). Roll call: getting children into school J-PAL. Policy Bull. Available online: https://www.povertyactionlab.org/sites/default/files/publications/roll-call-getting-children-into-school.pdf.
  26. Lam, D., & Ardington, C. (2008). Schooling as a lottery: racial differences in school advancement in urban South Africa.
  27. Machard, D., & McKay, T.M. (2015). School choice, school costs: the case of inner city Johannesburg private schools. Acta Acad., 47(2), pp. 139-162.
  28. Maile, S. (2004). School choice in South Africa. Educ. Urban Soc., 371, pp. 94-116.
  29. McKay, T.M. (2015). Schooling, the underclass and intergenerational mobility: a dual education system dilemma. J. Transdiscip. Res. Southern Africa, 11(1), pp. 98-112.
  30. Moseneke, D.C.J. (2016). Federation of governing bodies for South African schools v member of the executive council for education, Gauteng and another. ZACC 14 Available online: https://www.politicsweb.co.za/opinion/fedsas-vs-panyaza-lesufi-concourt-judgement.
  31. Moses, E., van der Berg, S., & Rich, K. (2017). A society divided: how unequal education quality limits social mobility in South Africa. Available online: http://resep.sun.ac.za/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/2372-Resep_PSPPD_A-society-divided_WEB.pdf.
  32. Msila, V. (2005). The education exodus: the flight from township schools. Afr. Educ. Rev., 22, pp. 173-188.
  33. Msila, V. (2009). School choice and intra-township migration: black parents scrambling for quality education in South Africa. J. Educ., 46, pp. 81-98.
  34. Ndimande, B.S. (2016). School choice and inequalities in post-apartheid South Africa. Global Educ. Rev., 3(2), pp. 33-49.
  35. Nelson Mandela Children’s Fund (2005). Emerging Voices: A Report on Education in South African Rural Communities. Cape Town: HSRC Press.
  36. Ngubane, M. (2018). No Money to Improve Schools Says KZN Education Department. Available online: https://www.groundup.org.za/article/police-free-education-officials-locked-angry-learners/.
  37. Ntombela (2013). Investigating Factors Which Influence Parental School Choice in Post-Apartheid South Africa: A Case Study of Umlazi Township Masters Thesis.
  38. Pampallis, J. (2003). Education reform and school choice in South Africa choosing choice: school choice. International Perspective New York NY: Teachers College Press Columbia University.
  39. Passmark (2018). Gauteng’S Most Sought-after Schools. Available online: http://passmark.org.za/sought-after-schools/.
  40. Pather, R. (2016). Pretoria Girls High School Pupil: I Was Instructed to Fix Myself as If I Was Broken. Available online: https://mg.co.za/article/2016-08-29-pretoria-girls-high-school-pupil-i-was-instructed-to-fix-myself-as-if-i-was-broken.
  41. Pini, B., Gulson, K.N., Kraftl, P., & Dufty-Jones, R. (2017). Critical geographies of education: an introduction. Geogr. Res., 55(1), pp. 13-17.
  42. Porter, G., Hampshire, K., Abane, A., Munthali, A., Robson, A., & Mashiri, M. (2017). Young People’s Daily Mobilities in Sub-Saharan Africa: Moving Young Lives. New York: Palgrave.
  43. Postman, Z. (2018). Soweto Learners Protest State’S Failure to Fix School. Available online: https://www.news24.com/SouthAfrica/News/soweto-learners-protest-states-failure-to-fix-school-20180120.
  44. Richter, L.S., & Norris, S.N. (2004). Transition from birth to Ten to birth to twenty: the South African cohort reaches 13 years of age. Paediatr. Perinatal Epidemiol., 18, pp. 290-301.
  45. Richter, L.S., & Norris, S.N. (2007). Cohort profile: mandela’s children: the 1990 birth to twenty study in South Africa. Int. J. Epidemiol., 36(3), pp. 504-511.
  46. Richter, L., De Kadt, J., Ginsburg, C., Makusha, T., & Norris, S.A. (2013). The South African birth cohort project. Oxford Bibliogr. Online: Childhood Stud.
  47. Sekete, P.M., & Shilubane, V. (2001). Deracialisation & Migration of Learners in South African Schools: Challenges and Implications. Pretoria: HSRC Press.
  48. Southall, R. (2016). The New Black Middle Class in South Africa. Johannesburg South Africa: Jacana Media.
  49. Spaull, N. (2019). Universities Headed for a Perfect Storm (#Matric2018). Available online: https://nicspaull.com/2019/01/07/universities-headed-for-a-perfect-storm-matric2018/.
  50. StatsSA. 2018. General Household Survey 2018 Pretoria Statistics South Africa (Accessed online 08/01/19http://www.statssa.gov.za/publications/P0318/P03182017.pdf).
  51. Timeslive (2018). Tensions Flare at Hoerskool Overvaal. Available online: https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2018-01-18-tensions-flare-at-horskool-overvaal/.
  52. Vandeyar, S., & Jansen, J.D. (2008). Diversity High: Class, Colour, Culture, and Character in a South African High School. Lanham, MD: University Press of America.
  53. Woolman, S., & Fleisch, B. (2006). South Africa’s unintended experiment in school choice: how the national education policy act the South Africa schools act and the employment of educators act create the enabling conditions for quasi-markets in schools. Educ. Law, 18, pp. 31-75.
  54. Yach, D.N., & Cameron, C. (1991). Birth to ten: child health in South Africa in the nineties: rationale and methods of a birth cohort study. Paediatr. Perinatal Epidemiol., 5, pp. 211-233.
  55. Zoch, A. (2017). The effect of neighbourhoods and school quality on education and labour market outcomes in South Africa.
  56. Zuilkowski, S.S., Piper, B., Ong’ele, S., & Kiminza, O. (2018). Parents, quality, and school choice: why parents in Nairobi choose low-cost private schools over public schools in Kenya’s free primary education era. Oxf. Rev. Educ., 44(2), pp. 258-274.

These references have been extracted automatically and may have some errors. Signed in users can suggest corrections to these mistakes.

Suggest Corrections to References