Education in South Africa: The Present Crisis and the Problems of Reconstruction

IN THE URBAN AREAS OF SOUTH AFRICA TODAY, THE EDUCATION SYSTEM FOR AFRI can people is in a state of collapse. The material infrastructure is in shambles; inadequate supplies of books and other basic equipment and disintegrating buildings are common. Teachers, often poorly trained, are de? moralized. Students in many cases come to school without participating in classes. Violence among students is widespread. Police and other security forces frequently intervene in schools. Regular schooling and examinations are disrupted by endless rounds of student boycotts. In the rural areas, schooling is somewhat more intact, but similar trends exist. This article seeks to assess the reasons for the current condition of the education system and the prospects for its future replacement by a more adequate and democratic one. Origins of the Crisis The catastrophic state of the school system can best be explained in his? torical perspective. South African schooling was not initially racially segre? gated; the 19th-century Cape mission schools admitted both black and white students. But with the upsurge in racial and imperialist ideology in the late 19th century, a segregated structure was established that has endured to this day (Fredrickson, 1982: 264-277). Compulsory education for whites became a reality early in this century; for African people it remains voluntary. Through? out, the level of facilities provided in white and black education systems has been dramatically unequal. Up to the 1940s, the South African state took a fairly disengaged approach to the provision of schooling for blacks; most African schools were run by missionary organizations. In these schools the state took responsibility only for paying the salaries of teachers. Most state and mission schools were primary schools of variable quality (Christie and Collins, 1984: 160-183). However, a small core of excellent mission sec? ondary schools and teacher training colleges did exist. Institutions such as Lovedale, Healdtown, and St. Peter's produced several generations of black