The main hope of a nation lies in the proper education of its youth.
Erasmus.

1Education is widely recognised as an important part of creating and maintaining a democratic society. Schools should provide a secure environment where children can develop socialisation, gradually construct their understanding of the complexity of the world they are growing up in and acquire self-confidence, knowledge and skills which will equip them to express themselves in and contribute to the society as fully-functioning adults. Article 8 of the United Nations ‘Convention on the Rights of the Child’ of 1989 recognises children’s right to education and declares that primary education should be free and compulsory to all; compulsory minimum schooling is the norm in stable developed societies and a goal to be worked towards in poorer, still developing countries.

2South Africa is in the interesting, if difficult, situation of straddling these two types of economy with a minority upper- and middle-class sector and much larger portion of the population living on or below the poverty line. The country’s infrastructure shows this same paradox of highly developed, sophisticated pockets within a larger reality of underdeveloped economy. In addition to this, it is also dealing with the effects of its long colonialist and apartheid history and in the process of reconstructing itself to form, for the first time, a unified society.

3From the arrival of the Europeans in South Africa, repression and segregation were integral parts of education. The first school of the Cape Colony was started in 1658 to teach slave children their masters’ language and religion; the first school for Africans opened in 1799 near what would later be King William’s Town, and in the nineteenth century many missionary schools like Lovedale, Adams Mission College and Marianhill Mission, were established. The education dispensed in these schools was Eurocentric, certainly, but (unlike what was to come next) followed the same syllabus as that taught to white children and many future African leaders came through these institutions.

4The final blow was dealt by the apartheid government when the Bantu Education Act of 1953 transferred control of all schools for Africans from the Department of Education to the Department of Native Affairs, obliging schools to register with the government and thereby relinquish their power to it. Schools which did not comply received little or no funding, resulting in the closure of virtually all mission and night schools. Henceforth, total control of curricula lay with the government.

5H.F. Verwoerd, at the time Minister of Native Affairs, stated: ‘There is no place for [the African] in the European community above the level of certain forms of labour. It is of no avail for him to receive a training which has as its aim, absorption in the European community.’1 Blacks were not to receive an education which might leave them with any ambition, only to be frustrated and disillusioned when faced with the reality of the ‘separate development’ society: ‘... good racial relations are spoiled when the correct education is not given.’2

6The 1963 Coloured Person’s Education Act set up a Department of Coloured Affairs to control ‘coloured’ education, which was made compulsory, and the 1965 Indian Education Act did the same for the Indians. Finally, so that there would be no doubt as to the ‘sanctity’ of the apartheid policy, in 1967 the National Education Policy Act was passed spelling out the Christian National Education that was to be dispensed in white schools. White children learned their superiority over the other ethnic groups, of the empty land to which their ancestors had come, of the divine nature of their control of the country. Nothing was taught in white schools about African languages or cultures apart from their primitiveness, barbaric nature and inability to stand up to white might. About 6 times as much was spent on educating a white child than on an African child. Although this was called ‘educating’ the youth, it was certainly not the ‘proper education’ referred to in the epigraph by Erasmus. It was an important cog in the machinery of indoctrination essential to the maintenance of the apartheid ideology, along with total control of the media, instilling a general climate of fear of ‘the other’ in people’s minds, where open communication became nearly impossible. The anti-apartheid movement, on the contrary, stated that: ‘The aim of education shall be to teach the youth to love their people and their culture, to honour human brotherhood, liberty and peace.’3

7With its long history of misuse as a tool for inflicting inequity and humiliation, the question to be asked is actually two-fold: how is South Africa healing its education system, first, so that, second, education can resume its rightful role as one of the fundamental elements in the construction of a democratic society? To answer, we shall look at the different stages of transformation that the education system has passed through on its road to equality and inclusion, then explore the ideological basis for the current education policy before concluding with some of the innovations and reasons for hope, which offset what still remains to be done.

8Nelson Mandela has expressed his conviction of the importance of education on many occasions, stating how his missionary schooling complemented his traditional up-bringing to make him the man he became. His reaction to the Bantu Education Act was to admonish the people to ‘Make every home, every shack or rickety structure a centre of learning.’4 The ANC Freedom Charter, two years later, stated that: ‘Education shall be free, compulsory, universal and equal for all children; Higher education and technical training shall be opened to all by means of state allowances and scholarships awarded on the basis of merit.’5 However, this aim was forcibly repressed for two more decades until, on 16 June 1976, the children of Soweto took to the streets to protest against what they saw as the last straw of humiliation: the government’s decision that Afrikaans become the official medium of Bantu education. These young protesters may well not have taken the full measure of their action, but their determination and courage, at the risk of their lives, galvanised others into action. The long hazardous road towards the end of apartheid had been opened–by school children.

9In 1979, the Bantu Education Act was replaced by the Education and Training Act, bringing African education under the control of the Department of Education and Training (DET).6 This was a mere cosmetic change, however, and the unrest in townships continued with the often ramshackle schools targeted for destruction and the second-rate education boycotted.

10In 1981, the De Lange Commission recommended the creation of a single department of Education for all South Africans, a suggestion the government would not even consider at the time. However, cracks in the system were become glaringly obvious and the middle of the decade saw the introduction of the new constitution of 1983 with the National Policy for General Education Affairs Act (1984) setting up ‘own affairs’ Departments of Education and Culture for each of the White, Coloured and Indian groups. African education was still managed by the DET, with the 10 homelands each administering their own schools. The structure of the education system mirrored that of the society, being fragmented into 19 different departments.

11In 1986, F.W. de Klerk, then Minister of Education, announced a 10 year plan to improve black education with the emphasis still on technical subjects and encouragement to industry to set up training programmes in order to ‘upgrade’ black workers. However, because of the social upheavals and floundering economy of the time, the government was unable to bring the policy to fruition. From the mid-eighties onwards, violence in the townships escalated as an anti-apartheid strategy to render them ungovernable and, so, force change; anything symbolising the system was targeted for destruction, including schools.

12Throughout these turbulent times, obtaining an education as a black person became a Herculean task. The trade unions played a more and more active role in providing education for workers. Robben Island was nicknamed ‘Mandela University’ for the debates and informal teaching circulating secretly among political prisoners. Some of those in exile were able to receive education abroad, whereas those who remained in the country very often received little or none of the inferior education on offer. This became all too obvious after the transition with the huge inequalities in qualifications and sophistication between those returning exiles and some of the so-called ‘inziles’, all of whom suffered during the struggle, but are not now benefiting from the new South Africa in the same way.

13When the need for change was recognised as inevitable and South Africa embarked on its slow process of transformation into a democratic country in the 1990s, the government put forward a recommendation by which white schools could become integrated. Pieter Clase, the Minister of Education in 1991, established three different models from which state schools could choose to be run. Parent committees at each school voted for the model they preferred: either a private school, Model A, which maintained control of its admissions policy, Model B, a fully state-funded model with open admissions policy, or the Model C status, a semi-private/semi-state option, where the school was required to accept up to a maximum of 49 % black enrolment. The introduction of school fees became a means of selection, effectively marking a shift from racial segregation to a division along class lines. By 1995, 94 % of white schools had accepted Model C status. One of the consequences of the model system was the increased involvement of parents in the running of schools, while an underlying rationale of the system, not wholly achieved, was for the more privileged sectors of the population to contribute financially to the education of their children so that a greater portion of public funding could go to less advantaged schools.7

14The new South African Constitution states that: ‘Everyone has the right–a. to a basic education, including adult basic education; and b. to further education, which the state, through reasonable measures, must make progressively available and accessible.’8 In addition, the South African Schools Act was passed in 1996, formally legislating on the transformation of the education system. At that time, almost 25 % of the adult African population had had no access to schooling, and only 3 % had a higher education, compared to 1 % of the white population with no education, and 25 % with access to higher education (Census, 1996, Statistics South Africa).

15Central control of education now falls under a single National Department of Education (DoE), with the 9 provinces administering their own schools. On a more local level, elected school governing bodies statute on school admission policies, school fees, the language(s) to be used in the classrooms, etc. 5.4 % of the GDP is allocated to education (compared to 7.1 % in France),9 representing around 18 % of the annual national budget.10

16The National Qualifications Framework recognises 3 bands of education:

• General Education & Training (to grade 9);
• Further Education & Training (to grade 12 or Matriculation);
• Higher Education & Training.

17In the state-run schools, the average ratio of learners to educators is currently 32: 1 (compared to 43: 1 in 1996), but in some township schools it can be as high as 60: 1. Schooling is compulsory from age 7-15, but there are 13 years possible from grade 0 (or R for Reception year) to grade 12, completed by the National Senior Certificate examinations, known as Matriculation (Matric).

18Much thought and discussion has gone into curriculum development since the changeover. In its final report, the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) described Bantu Education as a system which ‘constitutes a violation of human rights.’11 Education policy makers have wanted to redress this wrong by building upon a foundation of values present in the Bill of Rights and the TRC, namely those of human rights and ubuntu, an African word, paraphrased as:

...’a person is a person through other people’. It is not ’I think therefore I am’. It says rather: ’I am human because I belong’. I participate, I share. A person with ubuntu is open and available to others, affirming of others, does not feel threatened that others are able and good; for he or she has a proper self-assurance that comes from knowing that he or she belongs in a greater whole.12

19In 2001, the ‘Manifesto for Values in Education’ was drawn up with 10 values that were to be integrated into teaching and learning: democracy, social justice and equity, equality, non-racism and non-sexism, ubuntu (here defined as ‘human dignity’), openness, accountability (responsibility), the rule of law, respect and reconciliation. There were 16 strategies for making the values operational, including promotion of communication, of arts and culture and what is called ‘religion education’.13

20A new programme for schools, Curriculum 2005 (C2005), was introduced by the first Minister of Education, Sibusiso Bengu, on 14 March 1997 to be operational for all compulsory levels (grade 1 to 9) by 2005. It, too, contains TRC ideology, rejecting the authoritarian, structured curricula of Christian National Education. It introduced outcomes-based education (OBE), which defines what learners should know and be able to do (knowledge, skills, attitudes and values) and promotes an interactive teaching style.

Outcomes-based education forms the foundation of the curriculum in South Africa. It strives to enable all learners to achieve to their maximum ability. This it does by setting the outcomes to be achieved at the end of the process. The outcomes encourage a learner-centred and activity-based approach to education.14

21Eight Learning Areas are defined (Languages, Mathematics, Natural Sciences, Human and Social Studies (History & Geography), Arts and Culture, Life Orientation, Economic and Management Sciences, and Technology). Assessment is not simply a final examination, but continuous, formative evaluation of situations or activities that prove the learner able to put the acquired knowledge into practice. In its rejection of the authoritarian teacher-centred approach of the past, there are no clearly-stated syllabuses, and rigidly following textbooks is discouraged, so teachers are expected to create their own programmes. Many find this lack of curriculum content daunting when added to the insufficient resources available and the multiplicity of tasks that their daily work demands. The language of the C2005 is complex, expectations are not always clear, and training on its use has been summary, so teachers are not always sure of how to put it into practice. As for the pupils, OBE is more suited to those with easier access to the global culture and new technologies, so once again those from disadvantaged areas find themselves left behind. This programme, innovative though it is, may be overly-ambitious for the fledgling democracy, despite attempts at simplification by later ministers.

22One of the (many) problems still to be solved is how to teach South African history, since teachers were often themselves part of the system they are teaching the abuses of, either on the side of the victims or that of the perpetrators; secondly, in mixed classes it is important, but not easy, to go beyond anger and guilt to reach meaningful discussion from which learning can ensue. The TRC, itself, is taught in grade 9, although opinions on the wisdom of this are also mixed: the Commission dealt with extremely complicated moral issues, evoking such pain and suffering that many teachers do not yet feel able to teach it. Some teachers skirt around the issue of apartheid history, while some even continue teaching from apartheid-era textbooks. The South African History Project was launched in 2004 to offer solutions and to compile teaching aids.

23After the 1994 elections, in line with Affirmative Action policy to change the ratio of black to white teachers, voluntary severance packages were offered to white teachers wishing to leave the profession. Unfortunately, there were not sufficient replacements for them, so in addition to the cost of the package, the DoE has subsequently had to offer to reinstate some of these teachers. A huge burden carried over from the apartheid era was the poor training, if any, given to black teachers. Since all they were required to do was deliver ‘Bantu education, ’ a school leaver’s certificate was seen as adequate qualification (which is not to deny the existence of some excellent black teachers during that period).15 In the intervening years, much effort has been expended on initial and in-service training, albeit it by a multiplicity of different institutions, and it is now estimated that 90 % of teachers have three years’ post-Matric education and this will certainly continue. Nonetheless, the teaching profession is facing a crisis with large numbers suffering from depression or HIV/AIDS, resigning or moving to private schools (an estimated 20,000 teachers left last year for 6,000 starting up). Of the teachers interviewed for this article, most were distinctly pessimistic about the profession, stating that classes are too heterogeneous and difficult to handle, that syllabus changes are almost impossible to keep up with (‘they keep moving the goalposts’), that OBE requires a lot of preparation and administrative work, by which many are overwhelmed.16

24In April, 2007, Minister Pandor announced a National Policy Framework for Teacher Education and Development, which sets out the policy for the recruitment and training of teachers, both Initial Professional Education of Teachers and Continuing Professional Teacher Development. This has been welcomed as a necessary step to bring clarity and harmony to a field which over the years has suffered many inequalities and insufficiencies. In addition, a R700m bursary scheme has been launched by the DoE to attract more, better quality students to the profession.

25One of the major issues still to be worked through in education policy in South Africa is that of languages, which, in a country with 11 official languages can only be a challenge. Historically, language has, more than once, been a vector for power-wielding and transformation. In the post Boer War period, the British imposed English as the medium of education, dismissing as ‘kitchen Dutch’ the creolised language spoken by the Boers. This ultimately led to the radicalising of the Afrikaner mind, their formalisation of the Afrikaans language and their determination to rule the country. Ironically, once in power, the Afrikaners felt the same need to impose their language as a medium of education in African schools, which they did in 1976, resulting in the Soweto uprising.

26Among the 9 official African languages, there are two dominant linguistic groups: Nguni, which includes Zulu, Xhosa, Swati and Ndebele (accounting for about 45 % of the population) and the Sotho languages of Northern Sotho, Sesotho and Tswana (around 25 %). The Apartheid government, with its separate development policy, reinforced the differences of each language in promoting a spirit of ‘tribal’ identity, which halted any movement towards harmonisation of related languages. Many Africans, especially those living in urban areas, speak several languages in addition to their mother tongue.

27According to the 1996 Bill of Rights, ‘Everyone has the right to receive education in the official language or languages of their choice’ in public schools where ‘reasonably practicable.’17 ‘The provincial department of education must provide education in a particular language if there are at least 40 learners in Grades 1 to 6, or 35 in Grades 7 to 12, requesting the language.’18 The reality, of course, is often more complicated where schools battle with overstretched budgets, shortages of teaching staff, and where one classroom may contain numerous mother tongues:

... a school in a poor township in Mpumalanga ... has, in grade one, out of a total of 92 learners: 22 speakers of isiZulu, 7 speakers of isiXhosa, 13 speakers of siSwati, 4 of Xitsonga, 30 of isiNdebele, 14 of Sesotho and 2 of Tshivenda. ‘This could become a classroom nightmare, but it is the teachers themselves who somehow find the answers to this complexity.’19

28The study of two languages is compulsory for the last 3 years of schooling, one of which must be English or Afrikaans–‘a language of learning & training.’ The study of one of these two languages is considered essential for African children, to facilitate communication in society and, later in life, employment-seeking. English is the preferred ‘language of empowerment, ’ but there are regions where Afrikaans is dominant.

29As for those whose mother tongue is English or Afrikaans, there are seldom problems obtaining instruction in one’s own language, although earlier this year, a school in Mpumalanga lost its fight to remain an Afrikaans school when it was ordered by the Pretoria High Court to change to a parallel-medium school.20 This conflict is part of a battle being fought by Afrikaners to try and survive against an understandable post-apartheid backlash and the hegemony of English. The Federation of Afrikaans Cultural Associations (FAK) has expressed concern at the drop in numbers of Afrikaans-medium schools: 300 today compared with 2000 in 1994.

30Afrikaans is not the only language feeling the pinch and attempts are being made to promote the teaching of indigenous languages in schools. Minister Pandor has expressed a wish to make the study of an indigenous language (the language of the region in which the school is located) compulsory in all schools. This translates a wish to bridge the gap between the different population groups as well as to promote the languages threatened by English. Neville Alexander, director of the Project for the Study of Alternative Education in South Africa at UCT, which is helping to shape the country’s language policy, is a fervent supporter of home language education. He is convinced that

An English-only, or even an English-mainly, policy necessarily condemns most people, and thus the country as a whole, to a permanent state of mediocrity, since people are unable to be spontaneous, creative and self-confident if they cannot use their first language.21

31The Pan South African Language Board (PanSALB), set up in 1995 to elaborate the country’s current language policy, estimates that only 22 % of South Africans understand English well enough to conduct their daily lives in it. No doubt, some simplification of the current language policy will prove necessary in the years to come, but in the meantime, in many of the schools in the poorer areas, it is through initiative and inventiveness that the principals and teachers themselves find solutions.

32Apart from the language conundrum, schools have to deal daily with many other problems, which are not all solely educational issues, but emerge from the wider social context. In South Africa, half the population is under 15 years of age, much of it experiencing the troubles associated with poverty: unemployed parents, insufficient food, no money for books or school uniforms, even if 40 % of the schools–‘13,901 schools and just over five million pupils’22–in the poorest areas are now free. Among those who fall through the cracks in the system are the estimated 250,000 ‘street children, ’ who have been abandoned, orphaned or have run away from home for reasons of poverty or to escape violence and abuse.

33There are the generations of adults who lost out on education, because of receiving–or boycotting–Bantu education, because they had to leave school to work, and who are now illiterate and unemployable. An estimated 24 % of South African adults are illiterate and the Adult Basic Education and Training Act was introduced in 2000 to reinforce the government’s resolve to address this issue. By 2006, the problem still demands attention and R6bn have been invested in an Adult Literacy Campaign.

34Partly Adult Basic Education and Training, partly Further Education and Training is the issue of technical and vocational training, a vital need both for the individual, excluded by lack of skills, and for the economy, requiring skilled labour. During apartheid, blacks were largely excluded from ‘reserved’ skilled jobs, a state of affairs changed by the Manpower Training Act of 1981. Africans could then be engaged as apprentices for the first time. Unfortunately, employers’ racist attitudes, added to the economic slump of the eighties, meant that de facto change was slow to follow. Since 1998 and the Skills Development Act, training in different economic sectors has been accelerated.

35With its legacy of violence and hatred, South Africa owed it to its youth to set up programmes to teach strategies for dealing with and transforming violent behaviour. The Centre for the Study of Violence and Reconciliation (CSVR), which worked all through the transition period to study and combat violence, has set up the Youth Violence Prevention Programme to help schools deal with the violent crime, vandalism, drug dealing and sexual abuse undermining the proper functioning of the education and training system. Courses are designed for teachers, learners and parents; trauma counselling and free legal aid are offered. Another aspect of violence, corporal punishment, frequent in South African schools, has been abolished.

36Related to violence is the issue of racism, which, not surprisingly, still influences interactions. Openly racist behaviour, as well as more covert methods like bussing in white pupils to ‘crowd out’ black pupils, derogatory language and high fees, are used in the attempt to ‘guard one’s territory’; cases of discrimination can be brought before the South African Human Rights Commission. The DoE has designed its own ‘Strategy for Racial Integration’ for use in schools, whilst other programmes, like ‘Facing the Past– Transforming the Future’ in Cape Town, provide workshops for teachers, especially history teachers, to help change their attitudes so they in turn are able to transmit a message of tolerance and peace to their pupils.

37Concomitant to this is the question of sexual violence and discrimination, which is still alarmingly widespread. The Gender Equity Task Team, established in 1996, continually pushes for legislation to protect the (mainly) girls and women affected. Although the number of girls in education is high compared to other African countries, teen pregnancies too often prevent them from finishing their schooling. This, as well as the high abortion rate, shows the need for sex education in schools, not to mention the necessity of raising awareness of the importance of protection from HIV/AIDS.

38The AIDS pandemic means that, apart from children living with single-parents or orphans (1m now; estimated 3m by 2010) living with relatives or in care, the number of child-headed households has grown drastically with an estimated 118,500 children living in 66,500 child-headed houses in 200523. HIV/AIDS awareness programmes have been introduced in schools to increase awareness of prevention as well as to council both learners and teachers on how to deal with the problems resulting directly or indirectly from the disease. Living with the infection or with infected family members can lead to stigmatisation and rejection by others, difficulty in concentrating in class or even abandoning studies, substance abuse, to mention just a few handicaps. Greater awareness of the disease together with a more open communication is being fostered in training programmes.

39The National School Nutrition Programme, launched by the Department of Health, now under the responsibility of the Department of Education, employs more than 22,000 adults to prepare and serve school meals, and provided meals to about 5,3 million learners in 17,000 public schools in 2005-06.

40Enormous differences persist in school amenities and resources, such as the gap between the wealthier, more developed provinces and the less developed (Limpopo, Eastern Cape and Kwazulu-Natal being the poorest) or that between formerly white cities and towns and the still economically-depressed townships and rural areas. A battle was recently being waged by the teachers of a school in the township of Khutsong, which has been transferred administratively from the wealthy province of Gauteng to the much poorer North-West–it is situated on the border between the two–meaning a drop in what it can expect in funding from its provincial government. The policy of redistribution adopted by the government attributes a greater percentage of public funding to schools in poorer areas, but this is never as much as the sums schools in middle class areas can collect from school fees.

41Redistribution of resources is a thorny issue and policy so far has tended more to allay the fears of the (largely white) middle class, which complains loudly–parents and teachers alike–about the fall in standards of education since the desegregation of schools. Those who benefited from the apartheid years find it hard to accept that their lifestyles are bound to suffer in the process of redress and redistribution necessary now. The fall in standards of former white schools, because of the integration of youngsters who have not had the same pre-school opportunities or who do not speak English (or Afrikaans) fluently, is not considered as a normal and understandable transition phase, but as a hardship by parents whose children are being ‘slowed down.’ As a consequence, while black children whose parents can afford it are being sent to the former white schools to take advantage of the better infrastructure and more highly-qualified teachers, white children whose parents can afford it are being sent to private schools.

42It must be pointed out that, albeit the context is different and the South African situation an extreme one, this kind of two-tiered education system, divided along socio-economic/class lines, exists in most societies.24 In the same way, public school systems everywhere tend to attract criticism.

43Higher Education and Training is the responsibility of the DoE. Currently, over a million students attend state-funded tertiary institutions in 11 universities, 5 universities of technology and 6 comprehensive institutions, in addition to hundreds of private institutions. In the 1950s, only one institution of higher education for Africans was in existence in South Africa: Fort Hare University in the Eastern Cape. It had started as the South African Native College in 1916 and attracted students from many African countries, having educated prominent personalities like Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Julius Nyerere and Kenneth Kaunda. Up to the 1950s, universities were free to establish their own admissions criteria and two of them especially, the University of Cape Town and the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg, were seen by the nationalist government as potential hotbeds of political protestation. The Extension of University Education Act in 1959, therefore, set up separate ‘tribal colleges’ for black university students, which effectively banned Africans from entering ‘white’ universities. At the time there were only about 1,000 black students who had managed, against all odds, to make it into universities.

44Five institutions of tertiary learning were established: the University of the North, Turfloop, was started for Sotho, Tswana and Venda speakers; the University of Durban, Westville, for Indian students; the University of Zululand for Zulu and Swazi speakers and the University of Western Cape was set aside for those classified Coloured. Separate legislation turned Fort Hare University into a tribal college for Xhosa speakers. It was only a matter of a few years before a spirit of revolt emerged in the universities. Far from being the subservient suppliers of administrative and managerial staff needed in the homelands, these universities were instrumental in igniting what would later flare up into the Soweto students’ protest of 1976. The Black Consciousness Movement was started by Steve Biko when he was a student at Natal Medical School along with the South African Students Organisation (1969), which broke away from the NUSAS25 multiracial ideology by advocating a need to affirm a separate black identity and pride.

45With the end of apartheid, universities have become multiracial and most of the ex-tribal colleges have been incorporated into the former ‘white’ campus nearest to it. The governing bodies of the universities have taken on black intellectuals, like Dr Mamphele Ramphele, banned for her role in the Black Consciousness Movement, who became UCT’s Vice-Chancellor in 1996, the first black woman ever to hold such a position; the writer Njabulo Ndebele was named Vice-Chancellor of the University of the North (now University of Limpopo) in 1993. These changes have not all gone smoothly, as the turbulent appointment of William Makgoba to the post of Vice-Chancellor of Wits University illustrates.

46Having graduated with distinctions from the University of Natal, Makgoba won a scholarship (the first black South African to have obtained this particular fellowship) to pursue his studies in Oxford. There, he obtained his PhD, excelled in his research and built a successful career in various universities in the world. He was appointed Deputy Vice-Chancellor at Wits in 1995, but very quickly came into conflict with the university’s top (white) academics, who accused him of having lied about his credentials. His too-compassionate handling of student protests would seem to have been at issue; Wits was resisting, some said, the transformation from bastion of the liberal elite to a more democratic institution whose student population mirrored more closely that of the South African society.26 After an acrimonious battle, both sides recanted and Makgoba stayed on in a less influential post.

47Another university to have made headlines early 2007, although for different reasons, is Fort Hare, which the PAC wishes to see renamed Robert Sobukwe University in honour of its (the PAC’s) founder, once a student of the university. Fort Hare has refused, saying that, despite the colonial connotations of its name, it carries an international reputation for the important role played by its students in the resistance against oppression.

48 Against the backdrop of ills and accusations of mismanagement must be held up the stories of hope and promise, stories of individuals as opposed to generalisations and statistics, schools in townships where the dedication of the teaching staff and involvement of parents has instilled an atmosphere of hard work which reaps results. Bhukulani High School in Soweto, to mention just one, has totally transformed itself from dilapidated, under staffed and crime ridden, with the vast majority of its students struggling to pass their exams, into a school worthy of the name, where the Matric pass rate has risen from 21.5 % a decade ago to nearly 98 % in 2006.27

49There are many projects and innovations, some of which high profile, like the two schools funded by Oprah Winfrey, Sir Richard Branson’s business school for students from disadvantaged backgrounds and Microsoft’s contribution to the funding of SchoolNet, an organization, supported by the DoE, devoted to expanding the use of the Internet in South African schools. More locally, William Smith, a scientist turned teacher, has become a household name through his television classroom, ‘The Learning Channel’, started in 1990, where he enthusiastically and caringly answers student viewers’ questions. The READ (Read Educate and Develop) Educational Trust started in 1979 by a small group of women, concerned about the lack of books in township schools, now works in partnership with the DoE, supplying books to libraries as well as training librarians and teachers and developing methods of teaching literacy skills. Over the years, the expertise and reputation of this organisation has grown to the extent where ‘ [i]t is believed that learners who have been exposed to READ’s literacy programmes “are on average two grades higher in reading and writing than their peers”.’28

50A report published by the Department of Education in 2006 shows that the number of pupils now completing their education is on the increase: 97 % of 7- to 15-year-olds now attend educational institutions and 83 % of 16- to 18-year-olds.29 Access to education has increased steadily since the early nineties.

51Undeniably, much still remains to be done, but it is important to remember where South Africa has come from in only 13 years and that the apartheid years had left a good two-thirds of the population without adequate preparation to compete in the national market let alone in today’s global economy. The economy looks healthier than it has for a few decades. The vibrancy and desire to improve one’s life is palpable in the country and there is every chance that the country will succeed in healing its wounds and continue to overcome its many difficulties.

52If one examines the statistics, in so many ways South Africa still appears to be a country poised on the edge of a crisis, but its future will be created by individual efforts and stories and, once again, success against overwhelming odds is always possible. Education in any country is a large, complex work in progress and, as this article has shown, in South Africa, it is a vocation not to be entered into by the faint-hearted! As one of the teachers wrote in answer to how the changes in teaching since 1994 had affected him:

It has forced me to adapt and adjust to acquire new skills. It has excited me and kept me in rather than getting me to retire... made me acquire additional skills and allowed/encouraged me to develop and extend my creativity. In short: it has kept me alive.30

53Teachers need to be able to accept the changes in which they are operating and integrate them into their teaching, to use them to stimulate their lessons and their relationships with the pupils, and become fully aware of the responsibility with which they are entrusted. The government needs to hone its priorities and goals for education, bridging the gap between curricula and the many different realities of the classrooms, to offer teachers the training and support they most certainly need. With this determination from both partners, education will without doubt constitute one of the most important factors in healing the painful legacy of apartheid.