Why we use peer comparisons instead of rankings
Research into school rating systems worldwide — including Niche.com, GreatSchools.org, and Ofsted — shows that single-number scores and letter grades primarily measure community wealth, not school quality. A school's overall score can often be predicted with high accuracy from household income alone. To avoid reinforcing this pattern, SchoolSeek uses contextual peer comparisons that show how a school compares to similar schools.
What is a peer group?
A peer group consists of schools that share the same quintile, phase (primary, secondary, or combined), and province. This means a Quintile 2 primary school in the Western Cape is compared only to other Quintile 2 primary schools in the Western Cape. This approach ensures schools are measured against others facing similar resource constraints and serving similar communities.
How percentiles work
Within each peer group, we calculate where a school falls for measurable indicators like the learner-to-educator ratio. If a school has a "lower L:E ratio than 80% of similar schools", it means 80% of schools in the same peer group have a higher (less favourable) ratio. Note: the L:E ratio includes all staff classified as educators (teachers, HODs, deputy principals, principals) — it is not the same as actual class size. The percentile is displayed as a visual bar showing the school's position among its peers.
What we measure — and what we cannot
With current EMIS data, we can compare learner-to-educator ratios within peer groups. This is a resource indicator — it reflects staffing levels, not teaching quality or actual class sizes. The ratio counts all staff classified as educators, including those in management or support roles who may not teach classes directly. We also display NSC matric pass rates for secondary and combined schools, compared within quintile-based peer groups.
What happens when a peer group is small?
Some peer groups have fewer than 5 schools. When this happens, the percentile comparison is less statistically meaningful, and we flag it with a note. A school being "in the top 20%" of a 3-school group tells you less than the same position in a 50-school group.
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Data sourced from the Department of Basic Education EMIS database. Read our full methodology