2006). In addition, provisions to protect particular groups may also be included in any type of school choice policy. They might, for example, require that schools enrol a certain proportion of students from particular ethnic or economic backgrounds, or might provide free transportation for certain students to the school of their choice (Holmes 2002).
In summary, the key variations in school choice policies, shaping which people, and how many of them, can engage in school choice are the extent to which these policies:
are planned or legislated, as opposed to unplanned or unofficial;
include provisions to protect vulnerable groups from potential harm;
and include provisions to ensure that vulnerable groups have equitable access to choice.
I now explore school choice policy in South Africa, with particular attention to its properties in these regards.
2.3 School choice in South Africa
2.3.1 The context of school choice in South Africa
Although the school choice literature on South Africa is quite limited, particularly with regards to empirical work, there is some strong theoretical literature documenting the ways in which existing policies shape school choice in the country. School choice in South Africa is regulated primarily through the National Education Policy Act (NEPA), the South Africa Schools Act (SASA), and the Employment of Educators Act (EEA) (Pampallis 2003; Maile 2004;
Woolman and Fleisch 2006), although the more recent classification of a number of schools as no-fee schools also seems likely to be important (Ahmed and Sayed 2009).
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While at first glance South African policy appears to constrain learners to attend neighbourhood schools on the basis of their residence, it combines with national history to provide both motivation and means for parents to choose their children‘s schools. Huge variations in both empirical and perceived school quality mean that many parents are extremely motivated to ensure that their children attend specific schools. Policies around school financing and the provision of teaching staff mean that schools are motivated to enrol as many children as possible. As public funding is limited, fee-charging schools are particularly eager to enrol large numbers of children who are able to pay fees.
Decentralisation of managerial functions to school governing body (SGB) level means that schools do have some control over the design and enforcement of their admissions policies, and by extension over which learners they enrol, although this control is often de facto rather than de jure, and is subject to some legal constraints. In addition, school choice through residential selection continues to operate, as many advantaged schools prioritize the enrolment of local children. The growing independent schooling sector also provides parents with further choice. As a result, the opportunities for school choice in South Africa are substantial, but come at a fairly marked financial cost to parents.
There is widespread evidence that significant numbers of parents are none-the-less exercising this choice (Sekete, Shilubane et al. 2001; Maile 2004; Lemon 2005; Nelson Mandela Children's Fund 2005; Johnson 2007; Lam, Ardington et al. 2008).
Although the policies mentioned above have played a central role in shaping the way that school choice has developed in South Africa, it should be noted that, perhaps with the exception of legislation around independent (private) schooling, this role was generally not intended (Woolman and Fleisch 2006) – instead, school choice was a largely accidental outcome of policies developed for other reasons2. The system of school choice in South Africa can therefore
2 Although the fact that there have been no major efforts to reduce levels of choice in the system does suggest that the existence of choice appears to suit the political and social elite.
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be understood as one which is generally, although not entirely, unplanned and unofficial. Due to the substantial freedom of choice that seems to exist, as well as the considerable inequality in both South Africa‘s schooling system and income distribution, the question of whether there are any protections in place for vulnerable groups in the context of large-scale school choice is clearly important. As the major determinant of the ability to exercise choice seems to be the ability to pay higher fees and pay for additional transportation, it is probable that the ability to exercise choice is strongly linked to socio-economic status.
As a result, the major group at risk of an inability to engage in choice, or even at risk of harm by being left in the most poorly performing schoos, are those of lower socio-economic status (Pampallis 2003; Fiske and Ladd 2004). Potential protective policies might therefore include additional support for schools which primarily attract children from disadvantaged contexts, or the provision of incentives to advantaged schools to enrol less advantaged learners.
However, given that there are no explicit government policies on school choice, there are also none of these types of provisions to protect or support vulnerable populations. Similarly, with regards to providing vulnerable groups with access to school choice, for example by paying their school fees or providing free transportation, there are also no policies in place3. This means that South Africa‘s school choice policy could be considered as one that is unplanned, unofficial, and unregulated, with few protective measures, while simultaneously allowing quite extensive levels of choice to certain sectors of the population.
3 Although a school fee exemption policy exists, which exempts disadvantaged learners from the obligation to pay fees, this only applies once children have been granted admission to the school in question. Additionally, implementation is generally acknowledged to be poor.
Veriava, F. (2005). Free to learn: A discussion paper on the School Fee Exemption policy.
Cape Town, South Africa, Children's Institute, University of Cape Town.
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2.3.2 The practice of school choice in South Africa
Due to the limited literature on South African school choice, the description of the practice of school choice in contemporary South Africa presented in this section draws primarily on the theoretical literature, although empirical studies related to school choice are cited where they exist. Currently, school choice in South Africa appears to take four major forms: residential, private, intra-area, and inter-intra-area, where intra- and inter-area choice corresponds to learner mobility as defined in this thesis.
Residential school choice occurs when parents select homes on the basis of their proximity to particular schools. Exercising residential school choice generally requires a relatively high level of income and parental education.
Due to the geographic distribution of good schools in South Africa, with most good schools located in affluent, historically white areas with high property prices, the constraints on parental ability to exercise residential choice are likely to be particularly high. Due to the private nature of residential location decisions, this type of school choice is also extremely difficult to measure.
Private school choice occurs when parents decide to exit the public schooling system altogether, instead sending their child to an independent (private) school. In South Africa, although growing, the independent schooling sector remains relatively small, accommodating just over 3 percent of learners (du Toit 2003; Hofmeyr and Lee 2004; Centre for Development and Enterprise 2010). While increasing numbers of independent schools offer relatively low fees, and access appears to have expanded greatly in recent years, these schools still serve only relatively small numbers of children (Centre for Development and Enterprise 2010). Most high quality independent schools charge high fees, and often select learners on the basis of academic capability.
While the sector is increasingly diverse, racially and socio-economically (du Toit 2003; Hofmeyr and Lee 2004), choosing an independent school is still not an option for the large majority of less-advantaged parents, due to the small
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size of the sector. In addition, finding a space for a disadvantaged child in an independent school is likely to require fairly substantial knowledge and effort on the part of a parent, again making it less of an option for most disadvantaged families.
Intra-area choice occurs when parents are able to choose between a number of schools within their residential area, and make enrolment decisions themselves, on the basis of any particular set of factors. This type of choice is very difficult to measure, as there is no easy way to distinguish between learners who are simply attending the school most accessible to their home, and those who choosing to attend a particular school among those closest to their home for other reasons. In addition, because most residential areas in South Africa remain fairly homogenous, the extent to which this type of migration is likely to matter to socio-economic segregation may be relatively limited.
Nonetheless, there is evidence from a small number of studies that parents do distinguish between local schools, and that even within disadvantaged areas, schools with better reputations tend to charge slightly higher fees and attract slightly more advantaged learners (Fiske and Ladd 2004; Msila 2009).
Finally, inter-area choice occurs when parents choose a school outside of the area of their residence. This form of choice appears to be fairly wide-spread in South Africa, with large numbers of learners in various contexts reporting that they attend school relatively far from home (Sekete, Shilubane et al. 2001;
Cosser and du Toit 2002; Nelson Mandela Children's Fund 2005). In some cases, particularly in rural areas, this travel may be due to children not having schools close to their homes, rather than choice, but in urban areas this is typically not a concern.
In practice, the line between intra- and inter-area school choice is quite fuzzy, particularly in the South African context where, unlike in most developed countries, there are no consistently defined school catchment areas, and the
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geography of school districts rarely meshes with that of residential areas.
Nonetheless, because inter-area choice generally requires parents to access some additional information, as well as fund additional travel and potentially higher fees, it seems probable that parents accessing inter-area choice are likely to be somewhat more advantaged than those only able to access intra-area choice. On the other hand, inter-intra-area choice is also unlikely to be used by the most advantaged families, as they tend to already be living in the areas with the strongest schools.
This description of school choice practices in contemporary South Africa makes clear that the expression of school choice in the country is extremely complex and multi-layered. In some cases, multiple forms of choice may co-occur, for example with learners travelling substantial distances to attend independent schools, or parents sending a child to a local primary school, and a distant high school. As this example also illustrates, multiple forms of choice may be evident at different times during a single child‘s education. Each form of school choice is governed by different constraints, particularly with respect to the socio-economic attributes of those who are able to exercise them.