LONG WALK TO EDUCATION: A Quantitative Analysis of the Effects of Motorized Transport on the Educational Outcomes of South African Learners

Abstract

For many South African learners, the act of getting to school itself is a significant challenge. Their journeys are often characterized by long distances, unsafe transport modes, and harsh conditions that expose them to many hazards including crime, theft, road accidents, and poor weather. Additionally, these arduous journeys are likely to take a toll on their learning capacity. Access to school transportation, therefore, is a key precondition to education. This thesis studies how motorized transport affects educational outcomes, including school participation and academic performance, in South Africa. The findings from this study suggest that using motorized transport can have either positive effects or negative effects on school participation and performance scores, depending on a learner’s location. While motorized transport is associated with increased reading and math scores for urban learners, rural learners who use motorized transport are expected to have increased reading scores but decreased math scores. Also, the presence of motorized transport generally reduces the likelihood of tardiness, absenteeism, and class skipping for urban students. Conversely, rural learners who use motorized transport are more likely to be absent, more likely to skip class, but less likely to be tardy, as compared to those who do not use it. These discrepancies are likely to be related to the differences in the nature of motorized transport in each of these regions. Nonetheless, these results imply that the provision of reliable scholar transport is likely to improve a learner’s school participation and academic performance, no matter which region he/she is from.