Browsing by Author "Spaull, Nic"

Now showing 1 - 4 of 4
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    Counting the cost : COVID-19 school closures in South Africa and its impact on children
    (AOSIS, 2020-12-07) Spaull, Nic; Van der Berg, Servaas
    Background: When the new coronavirus rapidly spread across the globe, the impact of the virus on children was still unclear, and closing schools seemed the responsible thing to do. But much has been learnt since about coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) and the effects of lockdown and school closures, both in South Africa and internationally. Aim: It shows that the mortality risk of the virus is extremely small for children, even when assuming an extremely pessimistic scenario for total COVID-19 deaths. Setting: We review the evidence at a national level in South Africa using nationally-representative datasets. Methods: This article offers evidence drawn from nationally representative household surveys, school surveys and administrative datasets, as well as research reports. Results: International evidence predominantly shows that children are not important transmitters of this virus, which is different from the case for influenza, for example. We show that there are considerable costs to the lockdown for children. These relate to foregone leaning opportunities, mental health, nutrition and physical health. Conclusion: We show that re-opening the economy whilst keeping schools closed results in many unintended consequences, including that children are at higher risk of being left home alone. Considering all of this, we propose that all children should return to schools, crèches and early childhood development (ECD)centres without any further delay.
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    Examining oral reading fluency among Grade 5 rural English Second Language (ESL) learners in South Africa? An analysis of NEEDU 2013
    (AOSIS Publishing, 2016) Draper, Kim; Spaull, Nic
    The ability to read for meaning and pleasure is arguably the most important skill children learn in primary school. One integral component of learning to read is Oral Reading Fluency (ORF), defined as the ability to read text quickly, accurately, and with meaningful expression. Although widely acknowledged in the literature as important, to date there have been no large-scale studies on ORF in English in South Africa, despite this being the language of learning and teaching for 80% of ESL students from Grade 4 onwards. We analyze data provided by the National Education and Evaluation Development Unit (NEEDU) of South Africa, which tested 4667 Grade 5 English Second Language (ESL) students from 214 schools across rural areas in South Africa in 2013. This included ORF and comprehension measures for a subset of 1772 students. We find that 41% of the sample were non-readers in English (<40 Words Correct Per Minute, WCPM) and only 6% achieved comprehension scores above 60%. By calibrating comprehension levels and WCPM rates we develop tentative benchmarks and argue that a range of 90-100 WCPM in English is acceptable for Grade 5 ESL students in South Africa. In addition we outline policy priorities for remedying the reading crisis in the country.
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    Hunger as a driver of depressive symptoms : optimising responses to mental health aspects of the COVID-19 pandemic
    (Health & Medical Publishing Group, 2021-07) Hunt, Xanthe; Stein, Dan J.; Spaull, Nic; Tomlinson, Mark
    The COVID-19 pandemic has had major implications for mental health, and much has been written about clinical interventions and health policy to address this. In South Africa (SA) and other low- and middle-income countries, this mental health burden may have unique aspects. In the international literature, symptoms of depression may be driven by experiences of food insecurity and hunger. In the context of the pandemic, in which food insecurity and hunger are on the rise, hunger as a driver of poor mental health in the pandemic warrants further discussion.
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    Investigating the comprehension iceberg : developing empirical benchmarks for early-grade reading in agglutinating African languages
    (AOSIS, 2020-02-18) Spaull, Nic; Pretorius, Elizabeth; Mohohlwane, Nompumelelo
    Background: Reading development in agglutinating African languages is a relatively under-researched area. While numerous studies highlight the low comprehension levels among learners reading in African languages in South Africa, little has been done to probe beneath this ‘comprehension iceberg’ in terms of decoding skills. Aim: As a tentative step towards benchmarking in African languages, we analyse the sub-components of reading across three languages (Northern Sotho, Xitsonga and isiZulu), to better understand the nature of alphabetic knowledge, word reading and fluency in these languages, how these relate to one another, and how accuracy and speed relate to comprehension. Setting: Data was obtained from 785 Grade 3 learners across three African languages in three provinces in South Africa. Methods: The early grade reading assessment (EGRA) framework was adapted to the written features of the three languages to assess letter-sounds, single-word reading, non-word reading, oral reading fluency (ORF) and oral comprehension. Results: We present results on fluency, accuracy and comprehension and their interrelationships in these morphologically rich languages. While differences emerged between the conjunctive and disjunctive orthographies, strong relations occurred across the languages between letter-sound knowledge and word reading, word reading and oral reading fluency, and ORF and reading comprehension. Results suggest minimum thresholds of accuracy and ORF in each language, below which it is virtually impossible to read for meaning. Conclusion: There is a strong need for language-specific norms and benchmarks for African languages. Preliminary minimum decoding thresholds for comprehension found in these three languages serve as a move in that direction.