Education and Labour Market Inequalities in South Africa

Education and Labour Market Inequalities in South Africa

Chapter in "Social Justice and Education in the 21st Century: Research from South Africa and the United States"

Book/ Book Chapters
Published in 2021 by Springer
Keywords: Education / Labour market inequalities / South African labour market

Framed within notions of social justice, inequality of opportunity and Bourdieu’s forms of capital, this chapter examines the gaps in educational and labour market outcomes in South Africa and how they have changed over time. With social policies aimed at redressing inequalities introduced from 1994, we track the changes in school mathematics achievements from 2003 to 2015; university graduation rates for science, engineering and health related (SET) felds from 2008 to 2017 and demographic shifts of workers in high-skill occupations from 2008 to 2018. Multiple data sources were used for the analysis including the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study, the Higher Education Management Information System and the Quarterly Labour Force Survey.