2.2 The Educational Landscape of Global South Countries
2.2.4 Education Landscape of South Africa: An Exemplar of a Challenged
The Global North and Global South divide does not necessarily signify literal geographic separation as these regions are sometimes interwoven and even at times found within one another (Trefzer et al., 2014). Although South Africa (situated in the Global South) is currently regarded as a UMIC (an economy with a “Gross National Income per capita between $4,096 and $12,695”) (World Bank, 2022, para. 2), it is considered one of the most unequal countries in the world (World Bank, 2018). As an emerging economy, South Africa’s educational context differs from those found in developed regions like America and Europe but is similar to countries from the Global South. Getting a basic education is difficult in many rural areas in South Africa because of poverty. Such inadequate educational possibilities hinder families' ability to eradicate poverty and perpetuate the poverty cycle across generations (Mohangi et al., 2016).
Post-colonial South Africa faces many challenges, with the educational landscape facing numerous obstacles for teachers to deliver quality education. These obstacles include lower literacy rates, discipline problems, shortages of digital technology (StatsSA, 2017a), infrastructure, frequent power shortages, transportation to and from school, poor sanitation (Ebersöhn 2012), and high rates of teacher absenteeism (Msosa, 2020). South African teachers face chronic and cumulative stressors that result from a unique socio-political context (Ebersöhn, 2018). Post-colonialism has had devastating consequences for the African education system. After the abolition of apartheid, new laws in 1994 and the start of a democratic South African government, there have been numerous transformation challenges, especially in education - transformation priorities have been access, redress and equity.
(OECD, 2022). Even after access to education was made a transformation policy, organisational changes (such as national and governmental policy change, facilities and infrastructure, and health and support services) were not sufficient in meeting the huge demand required for transformative change. This has resulted in unequal access to education and other resources for marginalised groups (Pillay, 2003; Taylor & Von Fintel, 2016).
Constraints and enablers vary in degree and scale, so in an unequal and transformative ecology, constraints are experienced by those with limited resources due to an inequitable
distribution of available sources. Consequently, variability exists regarding resource availability on the scale of individual, families, schools, institutions, communities, and society (Ebersöhn, 2017).
Colonial legacies continue to wield significant influence over the lives of those affected.
Apartheid left behind decades of political instability, structural disparity, poverty, and growing complex relationships with imperial powers through funded projects and structural adjustment programmes (Chisholm & Leyendecker, 2008; McLeod, 2010). Educational spaces in South Africa should emphasise enabling spaces for well-being pathways suitable for a post-colonial Global South space (Ebersöhn, 2016). The legacy of colonialism often results in the neglect of indigenous knowledge belief systems in postcolonial countries, favouring Euro-Western and Global North knowledge (McLeod, 2010).
The process of addressing past inequalities created by colonialism and Apartheid is complex and ongoing. Reconciliation involves the reparation of all kinds of deprivations. The government is faced with addressing structural inequalities caused by Apartheid on a practical level and considering an extremely diverse population's educational, linguistic, financial, and cultural differences (Chisholm & Leyendecker, 2008). As a result of the dominance of English and the standard of postcolonial education (despite English not being the first language of teachers and learners in South Africa), low literacy rates are reported in many postcolonial countries (United Nations Development Programme [UNDP], 2018). The intrinsic importance of local languages and cultures is now being recognised worldwide for educational reasons, as the mother tongue plays a critical role in children's ability to access and generate knowledge (Ball & Mcivor, 2013; Ferguson, 2013).
The constitutional foundations for a system that successfully accommodates a diverse population are in place. However, the practical implementation of such a constitution is still far from being actualised and will take decades to come to fruition (Mlachila & Moeletsi, 2019).
Despite the DBE’s efforts in fulfilling this fundamental right to education, learners continue to confront difficulties, such as dropping out of school and having poor academic performance and success. These issues draw one's attention to the quality of education offered in schools and the lingering effects of post-colonial disparity (Marishane, 2016). Studies show that multiple South African schools may not have adequate resources to mitigate challenges to T&L, and teachers seem ill-equipped to provide quality education (Bryan, 2005; Milner &
Khoza, 2008; OECD, 2019).
The reasons behind South Africa's poor educational outcomes are diverse and multifaceted. South Africa spends 20% of its budget on education, and insufficient finance is not the primary explanation for poor educational outcomes (Mlachila & Moeletsi, 2019). The legacy of colonialism plays an insidious and powerful role in the ability of the education system
households depend on failed public schooling and are fated to show poor educational outcomes. The wealthiest 20-25% of South African households who have access to private schooling achieve better educational outcomes. As poverty and unemployment are distributed according to levels of education and class, “the bimodality of South Africa’s education system is perpetuating economic inequality through employment and earnings channels” (Mlachila &
Moeletsi, 2019, p. 6).
The South African Constitution promises the right to basic education (Marishane, 2016). “According to the South African educational policy, schooling is compulsory between the ages of 7 and 15 years or up to the completion of Grade 9” (Gilimani et al., 2016, p. 191).
The DBE created and implemented regulations to ensure that learning takes place in a safe and secure setting, that learners will have adequate T&L support material, health and nutritional services, and are excused from paying school fees if their parents are impoverished (Marishane, 2016). Research reveals “that there has been huge progress in the implementation of these initiatives, particularly in primary schools with enrolment figures showing a reduction of race disparity in South Africa” (Leask, 2019, p. 33). The no-fees program has helped over 70% of primary and secondary school learners who depend on a daily meal supplied by the schools (StatsSA, 2015). Yet, despite these developments, the achievement discrepancies in mathematics and literacy between fee-paying and non-fee- paying schools imply that learners from underprivileged backgrounds continue to perform at a lower level than their more fortunate counterparts (Reddy et al., 2020).
In the context of a post-colonial nation like South Africa, “education systems are heavily influenced by political, social and economic factors” (Mansfield et al., 2018, p. 54). Education needs to provide a continuous flow of the necessary skills, knowledge, and attitudes to develop the economy (Majhanovich, 2016). The exploration of current education reform efforts in South Africa highlights the disjuncture between policy intention and practice and the impact on education quality (Tikly & Barrett, 2013). The no-fees policy, which was implemented to assist financially disadvantaged learners in gaining entry to schools, has resulted in significant disparities between schools that charge a fee and schools that provide free tuition. Non-fee- charging schools have substantially higher teacher-to-learner ratios, which has resulted in an influx of second-language learners (Sayed & Ahmed, 2013). Teachers at these schools are overworked due to many learners, limited resources, and a lack of abilities to provide a high- quality education. “Schools in poor communities face environmental challenges such as low accountability and poor management that overshadow the impact of teacher knowledge”
(Mlachila & Moeletsi, 2019, p. 38).
In South African schools, the health risk linked with HIV/AIDS is a distinct and serious reality that has disastrous effects on academic performance and learning. Teachers are frequently forced to assume alternative roles as medical caregivers and take on more
responsibilities due to these issues (Mansfield et al., 2018). Ideally, responses to social needs at a community level “should be visible across an array of social sectors. Thus, too, the education sector is expected to fulfil a leading role” (Ferreira et al., 2010, p. 101).
Limited professional prospects and low salaries have also been linked to high levels of absenteeism of teachers in developing countries due to the need to partake in informal entrepreneurial activities to supplement their insufficient salaries (Mansfield & Beltman, 2019).
Schools with limited resources, limited community support and parental involvement, low PD possibilities, large class numbers, and poor learner discipline are all aspects that contribute to teacher attrition in South Africa (Carver-Thomas & Darling-Hammond, 2019; Castro et al., 2010; Ramos & Hughes, 2020). Effective T&L has to occur amidst limited resources, infrastructure, and teacher aids in South African schools. “Teachers, learners and families have to overcome everyday burdens of limited transport, lack of electricity and water, and scarce services, to access available educational resources” (Ebersöhn, 2017, p. 1).
Progress in South Africa, given an Apartheid legacy, has included improved access to school materials, better nutrition, improved household incomes, and redistributive transfers in the form of government grants (Soudien et al., 2021; Zizzamia et al., 2019). South Africa, like Brazil, Mexico, Turkey, and Malaysia, is a UMIC with access to resources and infrastructure that poorer countries do not have. However, because of significant racial and social divisions, most of South Africa's population is poor and unequal, with 55.5% unable to meet their basic necessities in 2015 (StatsSA, 2017b; Zizzamia et al., 2019). Schools in South Africa fall into a two-tiered system characteristic of the wider society, with 75% of learners comprising of mainly poor and black learners from disadvantaged backgrounds in no-fee-paying schools and 25%, comprising mainly white middle-class learners in fee-paying privileged schools (Spaull, 2013; Zizzamia et al., 2019).
The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the already fragile and unequal South African education system. The negative impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic included the widening of pre-existing education inequalities and learning losses because of school closures (Soudien et al., 2021). On the 15th of March 2020, the South African president declared COVID-19 a national disaster and implemented a Level 5 lockdown for 35 days where only essential services and businesses were allowed to operate. There were two choices for continuing learning activities during the Level 5 lockdown in March 2020: Schools only had the choices of self-study with parental and family support or online tuition during the hard lockdown after March 2020. learning. Even for learners from affluent families and schools, the transfer was difficult for both parents and teachers. These online hurdles were considerably more onerous for children from low-income families who did not have access to a desk, a quiet workspace, internet connection, computers, or parents who could home school their children
had access to a computer at home, and only 10% had some type of internet access (StatsSA, 2019). Although it is still too early to identify the full impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the South African school system, early indications suggest that those who are vulnerable and have less access to resources have suffered disproportionately (Soudien et al., 2021).
Teachers working in the South African context face extreme challenges due to poor service delivery and extreme poverty (Darling-Hammond, 2007; Ebersöhn, 2017; Mampane &
Bouwer, 2006). Poverty-related obstacles in education include: a lack of books and T&L material; large classrooms with too many learners, poor facilities, low pass rates, lack of teachers, poor quality teachers (Ebersöhn, 2014; Milner & Khoza, 2008), limited PD, health challenges, threatened the livelihood of learners and their families, inadequate school structure, and health challenges (Ebersöhn & Loots, 2016; Levine, 2014). Less equal societies mean fewer opportunities for equality to exist and the constant presence of immense adversities (Bennell et al., 2002; Ebersöhn, 2017; Mampane & Bouwer, 2006); thus, the need for TR becomes important.