2.7 The unique South African context
2.7.1 A history of inequality in education
and found that African-American students scored higher on IT self-efficacy than their Caucasian counterparts, and that Anglo-American females had lower IT self-efficacy than any other group.
2.7 The unique South African context
By the mid 1970s, assisted by various further pieces of legislation, including the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act, communities all over the USA had made significant progress toward desegregated schooling. Although some data suggest that desegregation has resulted in improved academic performance for minority students, other authors have also cautioned that desegregation has created challenges of its own, such as a racial identity disconnect for minority students who find themselves in educational environments that favour the White majority in various ways, in which most teachers are not of the same ethnicity and wherein there is not only an indifference in respect of coveted cultural values, but in many cases a sense of hostility toward minority groups on the part of the administration and teachers (Jussim et al., 1996, Oates, 2003, Obiakor, 2004).
2.7.1.2 South Africa
Since 1948 and the official advent of Apartheid as a legislated system of segregation, South Africa has been divided into four racial groupings: White, Black, Indian (typically used of anyone of West Asian origin) and Coloured (mixed race). Despite the demise of Apartheid as a legal system, race continues to be a dominant aspect of the social dynamic in South Africa and these references to people in terms of racial identity continue to be part of life for South Africans. Arguably the most devastating set of policy in terms of perpetuating White dominance in South Africa during the Apartheid era was that related to education. This is starkly illustrated using the example of per capita expenditure for education across the various race groups in pre-1994 South Africa (as per Table 2-3).
Black Coloured Indian White
1970 17 73 73 282
1980 139 253 513 913
1993 1,659 2,902 3,702 4,372
Table 2-3 Per capita government expenditure (Rands) on education in South Africa (Source: Adapted from Tihanyi (2007), Eyber et al. (1997) and Nkabinde (1997))
Not only do the figures in Table 2-3 illustrate the vast chasm between the races in terms of government input, they also show clearly that not all non-White groups were treated equally. For example, Indians generally received more than Blacks and Coloureds during the Apartheid years. In 1970, Indians received 400% what their Black compatriots received, and in 1980 they received more than either of the Black or Coloured groupings.
The South African National Planning Commission’s Diagnostic Overview for 2010/11 claims that the national average allocation per learner has increased to R11,192 in 2010/11, and that equalisation of per capita government expenditure between races has been achieved (National Planning Commission, 2011). (The same report, however, points out that differences in per capita education spend per learner remain between private schools, public schools that charge school fees and no-fee schools.)
During the decade preceding the formal demise of Apartheid, South Africa experienced a period of unlegislated transition in education as one previously segregated school after the other opened its doors to all races. Unfortunately, the caveat to this account of ‘transition’ is that many of these former White schools, having lost the advantage of favourable government subsidy, raised their fees. The issue became, and continues to be, one of LSM (Living Standards Measure) and affordability, rather than race. As a consequence, South Africa still faces the challenge of having a relatively small group of schools being attended by more than one race- typically White, Indian and Coloured students- while former Black schools remain predominantly ‘Black’ and under-resourced.
The post 1994 government emphasised the role education would play in the new dispensation. In fact, education was not seen only as one of the benefactors of the new political landscape, but was seen to be a major role-player in the transformation of post-Apartheid South African society (Duvenhage, 2006). In 1995, the Department of Education’s White Paper for Education and Training stated in lofty terms the special role that education would play in South Africa’s evolution to a non-racial society in which all would have equal opportunity to thrive and enjoy the new ‘just and peaceful society’
(Department of Education, 1995). As Duvenhage (2006) points out, the ANC government of the day appeared to sincerely dedicate significant resource and effort to the task of educational transformation. Areas of focus included establishment of a truly non-racial educational system, bolstering of education management structures, improving infrastructure and updating the school curriculum.
De Wet et al. (2009) comment on the relative successes and failures in the transformation in education efforts of the middle and late 1990s. They point out that definite progress could be reported in respect of teacher qualifications and standards, per capita spending on students across the various races, access to schools and teacher to student ratios. However, De Wet et al. also refer to a number of studies done a decade after 1994 that identified serious lingering gaps, including disturbing literacy and numeracy levels, lack of interest in African culture and language in previously White schools, lack of discipline and student violence levels in previously Black schools, grossly unequal resourcing among schools, poor teacher work ethic issues, poor school administration and management and
manipulation of enrolment policies to limit transformation in some higher LSM schools (Jansen, 2002, De Wet and Wolhuter, 2009).
De Wet et al. (2009) consider the reasons for the apparent failures of key aspects of the execution of the education related ideologies that inspired the political leaders of post-apartheid South Africa and suggest that ‘demographic, economic and political realities’ can sometimes get in the way of their successful implementation. Examples in the South African context include the failure of the mergers of tertiary institutions and the floundering of OBE (outcomes based education) due to the realities of poorly resourced schools and inadequately qualified teachers (Jansen, 2002, Warnich and Wolhuter, 2009). De Wet et al. (2009) refer to a number of basic factors critical to educational transformation and development that appear not to have enjoyed appropriate levels of attention in the decades following 1994, such as the fact that 16% of public schools still had no electricity in 2009 and 67%
had no computers. Shockingly, the South African Institute of Race Relations reported in its South African Survey 2007/2008 that 15 years after the demise of Apartheid, only 46% of Grade 1 learners reached Grade 12 and that since 2003 the pass rate for matriculants has dropped significantly each year (The South African Institute of Race Relations, 2008).
2.7.2 The current education and skills development landscape in South Africa