Using data from the 2nd round of the Southern African Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) we investigate the impact of school resources, teacher quality and quantity on pupils’ mathematical ability, after controlling for outside school influences. We use meta-regression analysis to identify consistent effects across the sample, and find both the quantity and quality of teachers to be strongly correlated with achievement, while teaching resources display inconsistent effects. In addition, we find strong correlations between achievement and external influences, such as household wealth and parental education. These findings hold across subjects.