Education Series Volume III, Educational Enrolment and Achievement, 2016

"The majority of young people aged 20-34 in South Africa have a higher level of education than their parents. This was just one of the findings from a report on Educational Enrolment and Achievement for 2016, which Statistics South Africa (Stats SA) released recently. Data from the Community Survey 2016 was used to analyse intergenerational educational mobility, i.e. whether or not children realised higher educational attainment than their parents. Positive trends were observed across all educational categories, with the largest improvement being seen in the completed secondary category – as compared to 17,9% of parents who had completed secondary schooling, 45,2% of their children aged 20-34 had completed secondary schooling, a 27-percentage point difference. 

The data shows that the higher the parent’s education level, the more likely the children are to achieve upward educational mobility. Amongst children aged 20-34 who had completed a post-secondary educational qualification, 51% had parents with some or completed secondary schooling, and 19% had parents with some or completed primary schooling. When comparing the educational attainment of individuals aged 20-34 to their parents’ educational level, it was found that close to 70% of those who had completed secondary schooling were first-generation high-school graduates. Similarly, just over 70% of those who completed post-secondary education were first-generation post-secondary qualification holders."