Education in South Africa

Education of South Africa
A Research Paper

Introduction
Education was used as a means of control before and during the apartheid. With the ratio of whites to blacks in South Africa so extreme, it is difficult to imagine the minority maintaining power over the vast majority for so long a time. The ability to influence a mass of people through their education, or lack there of, was the backbone of the inequalities throughout South Africa’s history. It was the crux of all economic stratification and fed the fire for continuous racial tensions. Wars were fought for justice and power with protests and violence from both parties. However, few recognized the greater battle and pin pointed the true causation. In 1961, the administrator of the Transvaal so intuitively remarked “we must strive to win the fight against the non-White in the classroom instead of losing it on the battlefield” (Johnson 1982). That is, rather than risking a war against the majority which by numerical standards would definitely be lost, outplay the opponent through manipulation of education. It took several decades, but finally the ANC prevailed and ended the apartheid. Finally, harmony could be restored, segregated living and schooling could be eliminated and South Africa could change for the better. With the disparity of white and black education to the extreme, bold promises were made, policies announced and many resources put into education. However, almost two decades have passed and the unemployment rate is at an all time high and education for blacks remain poor to non-existent. Not to mention income levels disproportionally favor the whites. Can we still blame the apartheid for all South Africa’s economic and social problems? Or have the country’s leaders let their people down? Mamphela Ramphele, the founder of the Citizens Movement, describes South Africa as a ‘sinking ship’ with the main problem still being the education system (Sapa 2012). What needs to change to breath air into all the drowning passengers? To plan or discuss the future, one must understand and consider the past. In that light, this paper will discuss education in regards to pre apartheid, apartheid, and post apartheid South Africa. Furthermore, a personal account of my experience at a local primary school paired with statistics will highlight the issues remaining.
Background
The existing pattern of manipulated schooling in South Africa can be considered an outcome of colonialism, segregation and apartheid. In the early 1800s, the arrival of the British introduced the first system of education in Africa. The indigenous people of Africa were exposed to schooling under the provision of British missionaries. At this time, education was a means of spreading the British language, imposing their religion and just a general mechanism for social control. Their strategy was to ‘civilize’ the black Africans and ‘anglicize’ the white Afrikaners. And most of the school establishments were mixed, serving whites coloreds and Africans. However, the Afrikaners resisted European control in attempt to avoid becoming the lower class and giving up their country to the new settlers.
The political and economic configuration of South Africa transformed significantly when diamonds were discovered in Kimberley in 1867, and moreover in 1886 with the discovery of gold on the Witwaterstrand. Competition for such materials led South Africa from a rural agricultural society to an urban and industrialized one. At this point, political and economic control was up for grabs and ethnic tensions rose to gain this power. Afrikaners had success in defying the British plan and managed to maintain their culture and preserve their mother tongue. Both white groups recognized the potential to protect the poor whites from dipping down too far in the food chain by abusing the poorer Africans because “an uneducated man…can be exploited as an economic asset”(Johnson 1982). Education’s role can be molding a person for their prescribed field of work, and that is exactly what the whites conducted. They systematically programmed the Africans for work as cheap unskilled laborers and thus left the superior roles in society for themselves to fill. Clear ethnic and class stratification developed, and the government eventually adopted the view that Africans must fund their own education, which continued throughout the apartheid. Between 1910 and 1948, per capita expenditures on white education increased by 263% and African numbers in school plummeted to about 30% (Johnson 1982). Once again, limiting education was a tool to shape society for the benefit of one group – “the education of the White child prepares him for life in a dominant society and the education of the black child for a subordinate society”(Johnson 1982).
And in 1948, the Afrikaner National Party rose to power by an election victory, attaining further governmental policy control. The aim of the National Party was to increase and rigidify the segregationism imposed in the few years previous, and thus began the apartheid in South Africa. To facilitate the separation of all ethnic groups the Bantu Education act was introduced in 1953. And in combination with the National Education Policy Act of 1967, which stripped the provinces of most of their control over white education and empowered the Minister of National Education to determine general policy, the National Party was seemingly unstoppable. The net effect of the policies were to lower the standard of education for the Africans.
Under the apartheid, the statistics showcasing the differentiation between white and black education in South Africa is enlightening. As aforementioned, “education designed to sustain rigid apartheid stratification” (Johnson 1982). School attendance was free for Afrikaners and English children, yet rather expensive for Africans. Due to shortage of space, roughly 50% of the African children entering primary school were forced out by their fourth year. Only 10% of students went to secondary school. What’s more, in primary school the required language for Africans was their native tongue but secondary school saw a switch to English or Afrikaans. Thus, “little skill in a common language [was] being developed, so use of African vernaculars [promoted] separateness within the African population as well as between it and the white population” (Johnson 1982). Additionally, others issues of quality included overcrowding, usually having inadequately trained teachers, and chronic shortages of books and equipment.
Socialization
Not only did the apartheid limit African quality of education, the nationalist authority extended to the content. With control of what Africans were learning, the fundamental ideals of apartheid were sustained by systematically brainwashing the majority. The only thing holding the whites afloat was the notion that they were of superior value compared to the lowly Africans. Without ingrained belief, the reality cannot follow. “To the degree that Africans and whites accept the myths underlying the apartheid social charter, they are both integrated into the value system and a partial compliance with the social structure created, even among the Africans” (Fataar 1997). The ability to reach the minds of Africans from a young age gave whites capabilities to influence their thoughts, thus, internalizing the concept of superior European civilization. Therefore, the racial attitudes and stratification stayed intact. This brainwashing of sorts was not only present in the black African education but a similar approach was taken for the white youth. In a textbook given to white children the following passage was taught,
It is actually not only the white South African’s skin, which is different from that of the non-white. The white stands at a higher level of civilization and is more developed. The whites must so live, so learn, and so work that we do not sin to the level of civilization of non-whites (Johnson 1982)
Post Apartheid
Come 1994, when the ANC led by Nelson Mandela won election and ended the apartheid; education was on the forefront of changes to be made. South Africa’s ‘new Rainbow Nation’ painted an idealized picture, indicating equitable classrooms and communities. It was suggested that everyone would have access to the same educational provisions as the formerly all-white schools. “In their eagerness to participate in the international political and economic arena, policy planners adopted competency or outcomes-based curricular reforms that emulated those in industrialized countries…”(Spreen and Vally 2010). However, they ignored the countries such as Brazil, with similar histories and educational inequalities. And the implemented policies were largely based on quantity expansion opposed to quality, which as we soon shall see did not agree with the state of educational disparity. In fact, a recent study focusing on literacy has argued “despite the expansion, no improvement in the quality of schooling occurred” (Fataar 1997). Needless to say, there was considerable distance between policy and practice and the post apartheid eloquent guarantees have yet to be met with real life results. The key to policy making in regards to education in South Africa is successfully balancing quality and quantity improvements to the current system. Easier said than done, and it seems that the financial constraints are the biggest barrier to policy implementation and reform today (Spreen and Vally 2010).
“Persistent inequality is in part down to the governments failure to educate young South Africans, particularly black ones” (The Economist 2012). To emphasize the unfortunate condition of South Africa, several real world statistics follow. South Africa’s Gini Coefficient, the best-known measure of inequality, in which 0 is the most equal and 1 is the least, was .59 in 1993. And by 2009 had risen to 0.63. Consequently, after 18 years of full democracy, South Africa is one of the most unequal countries in the world (The Economist 2012). South Africa ranks 132nd out of 144 countries for its primary education and 143 for the quality of its science and math. In the departments of basic education’s national literacy and numeracy tests in 2010 only 15% of 12 year olds scored at or above the minimum proficiency on the language test. In math just 12% did. Three quarters of white pupils complete the final year of high school, but only a third of black pupils do. South Africa needs 25,000 new teachers a year but only around 10,000 qualify (The Economist 2012). The National Planning Commission stated that teachers in black schools teach an average of only 3.5 hours a day, compared with 6.5 hours a day in former white schools (Sapa 2012). And the culmination of all these facts is that unemployment is about 25%, while in 1994 unemployment was 20%. The unemployment rate among blacks is 29%, compared with 6% for whites. Additionally, youth unemployment is over 50%. Young people who fail to find work by age 24 will probably never have a fill time formal job (The Economist 2012).
From the statistics above, it is evident that South Africa’s education system is in turmoil and the future of the country hangs in the balance. “Many scholars throughout the world mention the disjuncture or gap between policy and implementation” (Spreen and Vally 2010). Mike Waters, Democratic Alliance social development spokesman, said, “it is time to end the rhetoric and provide realistic proposals to end this war against our children” (Phakathi 2012). And a spokesperson for the FW de Klerk foundation claims, “poor education lies at the root of most South Africa’s problems, including unemployment, poverty and inequality”(Sapa 2012). Rhodes University vice chancellor Dr. Saleem Badat called the state of education in the country a “tragedy”, adding that South Africans cannot “forever hold apartheid alone culpable” (Solomon 2011). It is time to take initiative and provoke change because at the rate it is going, the consequences could be abysmal. In order for policy aims to actually correlate to implementation in actuality, participation must be established. The design must not be left to “powerful stakeholders, protected interests groups or articulate policy crafters”(Spreen and Vally 2010) but instead the people who could promote applicability.
Personal Remarks
For the past several months while I have been living in Cape Town, South Africa I’ve been volunteering at a local primary school. St. Agnes is located in Woodstock, one of the many suburbs surrounding the city. With grades 1 through 6th, there is a range of ages from 5 until 13 years. I was assigned a grade 3 classroom with Mr. Nzenza, where I remained for the extent of my work. Right off the bat the differences between my memories of elementary school and this school were clearly significant. As soon as I walked into the class (of 35 students, compared to 25 in the US) my first day, Mr. Nzenza’s phone began to ring. He ended up answering it, which was a minor disruption to the already rambunctious class. This seemed unprofessional to me, but I resolved that the school couldn’t afford classroom phones so cell phones had to suffice. However, after a minute of conversation, Mr. Nzenza handed me his book and walked out of the class, not to be seen or heard from for the next 30 minutes. I, the new assistant teacher with no prior teaching experience or knowledge of this particular school or classroom rules let alone the names of all the students was left to lecture a room full of rowdy kids about the business cycle.
Most of the student body came from various surrounding townships. Moreover, they or their parents came from surrounding African countries. English was not the first language for these Xhosa, Afrikaans and French speakers. According to Walton Johnson, language influences what is learned and how it is learned (Johnson 1982). Thus, lack of a strong common language definitely affects the learner’s ability to absorb information. To boot, kids would constantly get up and walk around, chatting with their friends, throw pencils and erasers about or continuously tattle on their fellow misbehaving students. The experience was overwhelming to say the least. What I can say about their energy level, though, is that it definitely extended to educational participation. Any question Mr. Nzenza or I posed to the class would be received by lots of kids jumping out of their seats with hands raised, snapping and exclaiming “Miss! Miss!” or “Sir! Sir!” Getting called upon was an honor worth getting excited over, even if they had no clue of the correct answer. This display of outward engagement was unheard of back in my elementary school days. Although, besides a few minor grievances committed, we all obeyed our teacher and did our work as we were told.
As I was given the tedious task of marking the students’ work, I had a large insight into the intellectual levels of each individual student. The results were rather lopsided, with only a few students getting full marks and the rest getting 40% or less. The lack of reading and writing comprehension in addition to basic math concepts was obvious. The latest results from the 2011 annual national assessment shows that the average grade 3 learner scored 35% in literacy and 28% in numeracy (Phakathi 2012). One cannot blame St. Agnes in the least bit. They are doing quite well for the resources they are supplied. With limited books (not enough for each student), supplies, and facilities (no gymnasium, P.E. is conducted in the hallways) it is difficult to run a satisfactory educational establishment.
Final Remarks
Throughout South Africa’s immense history, education has always been a tool for engineering and institutionalizing societal disparities. During the apartheid, white supremacy prevailed in preserving their title through education, limiting quality and guiding the minds of the youth towards acceptance of social realities. Because of this, apartheid was sustained for an extended amount of time and the political and economic ramifications have yet to be fully lifted from the people of South Africa. “To be born black meant to be born into poverty, injustice and inequality. Poverty was black under a white government and it remains black under a black government” (Dlanga 2012). It seems, power changes people, preventing the current anti-apartheid government to bring about the equitable education system they had original promised and strove for. The public protector is investigating reports that hundreds of millions of rand are to be spent on improving President Zuma’s private homestead (The Economist 2012). Yet, enough time has passed that the apartheid can no longer be blamed and to better the future Carol Spreen and Salim Vally suggest that the South African state should chose another route toward development, one that is fundamentally more inclusive and challenges existing disparities through social action and local engagement (Spreen and Vally 2010).

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