In 2020, South African primary school children in no-fee schools have learnt 50% to 75% less than what they usually learn.
This comes from assessment data from no fee primary schools in Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape collected in 2020 and 2021 as part of independent evaluations of these programmes.The survey found 42% of Afrikaans home language respondents were vaccine-hesitant, much higher than the national average and significantly higher than seven of the 11 language groups.
Although Nids-Cram is not provincially representative, in light of the language results and the predominance of Afrikaans in the Western Cape and Northern Cape, it is also clear respondents from these provinces had higher vaccine hesitancy on average.Less than half of children received free school meals in February and March 2021.
This shows receipt is still well below pre-pandemic levels , and possibly even November/December 2020 levels . Nids-Cram Wave 3 showed most parents and caregivers in SA agreed that children should be able to attend school every day, rather than the rotational timetables still in place in most no fee schools.
Among households with children, one third reported a child went hungry in the past week in at least one of the four waves of Nids-Cram.Weekly child hunger has declined from 16% in November/December 2020 to 14% in February/March 2021.: Two thirds of respondents reported their household had run out of money to buy food in the previous month in at least one of these surveys. Nearly half had run out at least two times.