This scoping review examines methodological approaches to assessing secondary school systems in South Africa. A systematic search strategy was employed to identify relevant studies. The review included a total of 50 articles published between and across various databases such as PubMed, Web of Science, and Google Scholar. Panel data analysis revealed significant variations in school performance across different regions, with an average improvement rate of 8.5% over a five-year period. The findings suggest that incorporating longitudinal data can enhance the accuracy of clinical outcome measurements in secondary schools. Future research should prioritise longitudinal studies and integrate additional variables to improve the reliability of outcomes. Model estimation used $\hat{\theta}=argmin_{\theta}\sum_i\ell(y_i,f_\theta(x_i))+\lambda\lVert\theta\rVert_2^2$, with performance evaluated using out-of-sample error.