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The Department of Basic Education (DBE) has revealed that repeating school grades is draining billions of rands from the education budget — funds that many experts say could be better spent on improving early literacy and learning.
According to the Funda Uphumelele National Survey, a major national study into reading outcomes for learners in grades 1 to 4, up to 8 % of the DBE’s budget — around R20 billion — is being used to fund the repetition of learners who fail to meet expected outcomes.
The same report highlights a troubling literacy picture in South African schools:
• 15 % of Grade 3 learners scored zero on reading assessments, meaning they could not decode even a single word by the end of their third year of schooling.
• Only around 30 % to 31 % of learners in grades 1 to 3 are reading at the expected level in their home languages, according to the survey results.
These figures underline a foundational problem: many pupils enter schooling without strong reading skills, which affects their ability to succeed in later grades.
Research in the report suggests that repeating learners in Grade 1 can lead to temporary learning gains. However, these improvements tend to fade as pupils move up through the system.
Experts argue that spending such large sums on repetition isn’t the most effective way to improve learning outcomes — especially when many of the problems begin in the earliest years of schooling.
Educational researchers and advocates are calling for a shift in how the funds are used. They recommend:
• Investing more in Early Childhood Development (ECD) so children start school better prepared.
• Introducing structured reading programmes in the early grades, which have been shown to deliver more lasting improvements than repeating learners.
The evidence suggests that focusing on early learning and literacy could reduce the need for repetition in the first place — breaking a costly cycle and giving learners a stronger start in their education.
Redirecting funds from repetition toward ECD and structured reading programmes might help more children build essential skills from the beginning of their schooling journey.
Education experts warn that unless funding shifts towards effective early literacy support, the cycle of poor reading outcomes and expensive grade repetition may continue.
