School attendance

Section 29 (1)(a) of the South African Constitution states that “everyone has the right to a basic education”, and section 29 (1)(b) says that “everyone has the right to further education” and that the state must make such education “progressively available and accessible”.[1]

Article 11 (3)(a) of the African Charter on the Rights and Welfare of the Child says “States Parties to the present Charter shall take all appropriate measures with a view to achieving the full realization of this right and shall in particular … provide free and compulsory basic education”.[2]

Article 28 of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child recognises “the right of the child to education” and also obliges the state to “make primary education compulsory and available free to all”.[3]

Education is a transformative socio-economic right that provides the foundation for lifelong learning and economic opportunity. All children have a right to basic education, which the Constitutional Court has ruled extends to Grade 12.[4]  

Historically, basic education has been compulsory from Grade 1 (the year in which a child turns seven). The Basic Education Laws Amendment (BELA) Act was signed by the President on 13 September 2024 and came into effect on 24 December 2024.[5,6] The BELA Act means that from 2025, Grade R has been formally integrated into the foundation phase and has become compulsory for children in the year that they turn six. Because this indicator gives a retrospective view of attendance rates, it still measures attendance against the previous compulsory starting age for children. The compulsory stage ends on completion of Grade 9 or when the child turns 15. After this, children may leave school, but the state has a responsibility to provide basic education up to the end of Grade 12 for those who want to complete school.

South Africa has high levels of school enrolment and attendance. Among children of school-going age (7 – 17 years), the vast majority are reported to attend some form of educational facility. There was a small but significant increase from 2002 when the reported attendance rate was 95%, to 2018 when reported attendance rates were 98%. The overall increase was mainly due to the growth in reported attendance rates for African and Coloured children, and in 2018 for the first time since this indicator was tracked, there were no significant differences in attendance rates across race groups.

All schools were closed between March and June 2020, due to the outbreak of COVID-19 and the resultant lockdown. From June, schools partially re-opened, but only for specific grades. Schools re-opened for all grades from late August 2020, but even then, they operated at reduced capacity with rotational timetabling of classes.

Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) ran its 2020 General Household Survey (GHS) later than usual, from September to December. The survey included the usual question about whether household members were attending an educational institution but did not ask whether they were attending every day. Thus, reported attendance rates do not reflect the regularity of attendance, even at a time when it is known that learners were unlikely to be attending every day. Reported attendance rates in the last quarter of 2020 were at a similarly high level as previous years, with just a small decrease of one percentage point from 2019, to 97%. Wave three of the National Income Dynamics Study – Coronavirus Rapid Mobile Survey (NIDS-CRAM) survey, conducted in November 2020, asked whether children had attended school at any time in the last seven days. The overall estimate was 98%, a similar attendance rate to that reported in the GHS. Attendance rates earlier in the year had been much lower, and varied substantially by grade, ranging from 88% for Grade 12 learners to as low as 11% for Grade 9 learners.[7] This was due to the staggered re-opening of grades and prioritisation of those approaching the end of the primary or secondary school.

Reported attendance rates remained at 97 – 98% in 2021 – 2024. Of the 12.9 million children aged 7 – 17 years in 2024, 12.6 million were reported to attend school (97%), while 330,000 were not attending. Attendance rates were similarly high across all provinces.

Overall attendance rates tend to mask dropout among older children. Analysis of attendance among discrete age groups shows that although there is a slight drop in reported attendance among children beyond the compulsory schooling phase, attendance still remains at 95% for children aged 16, dropping to 93% among 17-year-olds. At age 18 there is a substantial drop: to around 85% among young people who have not completed Grade 12. Differences in reported school attendance rates between boys and girls are not statistically significant.

The GHS asks about reasons for non-attendance for those who are not attending an educational institution. The main reasons for non-attendance can be divided into three main categories: system failures (including exclusions and quality problems); financial barriers; and illness or disability. Together, these account for nearly two thirds of non-attendance.

Of the school-age children who were not attending any school in 2024, 11% were “unable to perform at school”, 5% left because “education is useless or not interesting” while a nominal 1% dropped out because they failed their exams. Worryingly, 10% of those not attending were not accepted for enrolment, up from 4% in 2022 and suggesting that capacity constraints may be an emerging obstacle to the realisation of this important right. Together, these reasons signal failures in the education system and account for nearly 30% of all reported non-attendance.

The second main barrier to education is financial or accessibility constraints. These include the cost of schooling (the reason given for 14% of children not attending schools in 2024) and difficulties in reaching school (2% were not attending because the school is too far). Six percent of those not attending were too busy due to work or domestic responsibilities, suggesting that for some families the opportunity cost of education is a barrier.

Disability is also an important reason, accounting for 8% of non-attendance in 2024 and again pointing to a failure in the education system to accommodate children with disabilities. Illness accounted for an additional 4% of the non-attendance rate.

Pregnancy accounts for 3.5% of all non-attendance, and 8.5% of non-attendance among teenage girls who are not attending school.[8-10]

Although the costs of education are cited as a barrier to attendance, the overall attendance rate for children in the lower income quintiles is not substantially lower than those in the wealthier quintiles, although there is a statistically significant difference in reported attendance rates for children in the poorest income quintile (97%) compared with the richest income quintile (99%).

Attendance rates alone do not capture the regularity of children’s school attendance or their progress through school. Research has shown that children from more disadvantaged backgrounds – with limited economic resources, lower levels of parental education, or who have lost their mother – are more prone to dropping out or progressing more slowly than their more advantaged peers. Racial inequalities in school advancement remain strong.[11,12] Similarly, school attendance rates tell us nothing about the quality of teaching and learning.[13] Inequalities in learning outcomes are explored through standardised tests such as those used in the international SAQMEC,[14] TIMMS and PIRLS[15] studies. The DBE’s controversial Annual National Assessments[16] were discontinued in 2017, meaning that the only national standardised assessment is matric.