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Children who start school developmentally on track are not necessarily able to maintain that advantage through grade 3, with pupils in no-fee and low-fee schools more likely to fall behind, a four-year study has found.
The Roots & Shoots study, funded by the Mr Price Foundation and conducted by Stellenbosch University and partners, followed pupils from grade R to grade 3 across 75 public primary schools in five Western Cape education districts.
By grade 3, 92% of pupils in mid-fee schools had reached the grade 3 reading benchmark, compared with 49% in no-fee schools and 36% in low-fee schools.
The study began in 2022 with 557 grade R pupils across Metro Central, Metro East, Metro North, Metro South and Cape Winelands. By the fourth and final wave, conducted in the third term of 2025, 401 pupils were assessed again, with the main cohort having progressed to grade 3.
Of the 75 schools in the study, 68, or 91%, served historically-disadvantaged communities and either charged no fees or very low fees.
The four-year study found that learning gaps were already visible when children entered school and remained evident by the end of the foundation phase.
It also found that being school-ready at the start of grade R did not necessarily mean pupils would remain on track.
Among pupils assessed in both the first and fourth waves, the proportion classified as on track fell from 56% to 40% in no-fee schools. In low-fee schools, it dropped from 58% to 32%. In mid-fee schools, the proportion remained comparatively stable, moving from 88% to 90%.
Mr Price Foundation director Octavius Phukubye said the findings showed that improving access to quality early learning was important, but that support had to continue once children entered formal schooling.
“School readiness is necessary but not sufficient. Even when children start school developmentally on track, many in poorer schools fall behind,” Phukubye said.
“Expanding access to quality early learning is essential but on its own it will not get learners to grade level by grade 3. Without improvements in the quality of teaching and learning in the foundation phase, there is a ceiling on what early-childhood interventions alone can achieve.”
The study’s longitudinal approach allowed researchers to follow the same learners across four waves rather than comparing different groups of children at different stages of schooling.
What the findings show is that early advantage is not equally sustained. School context appears to play an important role in whether children remain on track as they move through the foundation phase
Dr Heleen Hofmeyr, the lead researcher at Stellenbosch University, said this gave researchers a clearer picture of how learning developed over time.
“We have followed the same learners from grade R through to grade 3, which gives us a much clearer picture of how learning develops over time,” Hofmeyr said.
“What the findings show is that early advantage is not equally sustained. School context appears to play an important role in whether children remain on track as they move through the foundation phase.”
By grade 3, pupils in mid-fee schools substantially outperformed those in no-fee and low-fee schools in both literacy and mathematics.
The research also identified a gender gap in literacy.
About 60% of girls reached the grade 3 literacy benchmark, compared with 42% of boys. There was little evidence of a comparable gender gap in mathematics.
The researchers said the study included schools with different socioeconomic, language and school contexts.
However, the sample was not intended to be representative of the Western Cape or South Africa as a whole.
Instead, the study provides evidence of how differently learning trajectories can develop across school communities and how early advantages can be sustained in some contexts but diminish in others.
Following the same cohort from grade R through grade 3 was important because it allowed researchers to observe changes in the same pupils over time.
The findings show that interventions that improve school readiness cannot be viewed as a one-off investment before children enter primary school.
The study argues that early learning should be treated as a continuum, with gains made during early childhood development and grade R protected as children progress through the foundation phase.
The findings also highlight the importance of what happens after children enter school.
The study argues that quality early learning depends not only on access to ECD programmes but also on capable, well-supported educators and school environments that can respond to learners with different starting points.
This is particularly relevant in no-fee and low-fee schools, where the study found greater risks of pupils falling behind.
The research suggests that resources should respond to different levels of need, with funding, coaching and pupil support concentrated where children face the greatest risk of not reaching grade-level benchmarks.
The links between socioeconomic circumstances, early education quality and learning gaps are not unique to South Africa.
The study refers to international research showing that early developmental and preschool advantages are more likely to be sustained when children transition into high-quality primary school environments.
Research in the US has also pointed to persistent differences in school readiness between children from poorer and wealthier families.
A Tennessee-based study cited in the research found that neither exposure to highly effective teachers nor attendance at a high-quality school alone was sufficient to explain differences in achievement between third-grade learners who had attended preschool and those who had not.
However, it found that having both was associated with a sustained advantage for preschool participants in mathematics and English language arts.
The findings are informing the Mr Price Foundation’s education strategy and investment decisions.
The foundation has intensified its focus on literacy and numeracy through early learning initiatives, remedial support programmes and system-level interventions in underserved communities.
An investment of R1.2m in Early Childhood Development Learning Hubs aims to improve school readiness through quality early learning programmes while also providing structured after-school support to address literacy and numeracy gaps before they become entrenched.
The foundation has also introduced Remedial Champions, a targeted intervention aimed at improving literacy and numeracy outcomes in the foundation phase.
The programme equips leaders of after-school programmes to provide intensive, learner-focused support to children who are not meeting age-appropriate benchmarks.
The aim is to help children build critical foundational skills and get back on track academically.
