Our initiating coverage of the education sector focuses on the two major listed companies in the sector, ADvTECH and Curro. We assess the respective operations of these companies and provide an overview of the education landscape in the country. We highlight the impact of past funding policies on the current funding of public schools. We investigate the impact of attempts to redistribute teaching resources throughout public schools post democracy and how such attempts have contributed to the shortage of skilled teachers in SA. In our view, independent schools could increasingly cater to parents seeking quality education for their children. In the tertiary sector, we find a low transition rate of learners from secondary school into tertiary could provide an opportunity to attract enrolments. With affordability being among the foremost impediments to SA learners enrolling for tertiary education, we believe further enrolments could be gained by independent operators in the sector through affordable distance qualifications.
