2.7 The unique South African context
2.7.5 Explaining the performance gap
2.7.5.1 The lingering legacy of Apartheid
The lingering impact of Apartheid on education continues to be felt equally acutely in terms of raw, socio-economic disparities and sociological issues that threaten to persist for far too long after the demise of legislated segregation in South Africa. The National Planning Commission, while conceding some changes since the advent of a democratic constitution and the subsequent progress made in many areas of human development in South Africa, notes that ‘social exclusion and alienation’ persist among many of the previously disadvantaged communities (National Planning Commission, 2011). It is true that there has been increased migration from the townships and previously disadvantaged areas into traditionally White areas, with the resultant attendance of ‘White’
or ‘Indian’ schools by children of this emerging Black middle class. However, the vast majority of Black Africans remains in the townships and rural areas and continues to experience poverty, extremely poor levels of education, literacy and all the other social ills that the formal end of Apartheid in 1994 promised to eradicate. As a consequence, drop-out, repetition and matriculation rates remain low among Black students. Given the deep-rooted nature of the impact of Apartheid policy and legislation, it is unlikely that Black students will perform academically on a par in the foreseeable future. What must be achieved as soon as possible, however, is the improvement of Black academic performance to a point where minimum, critical thresholds are achieved that allow Black graduates to at least be competitive in the workplace (Letseka and Maile, 2008).
As is the case with a number of studies conducted internationally (Oates, 2003, Obiakor, 2004, Stroter, 2008, Horsford, 2010), researchers in the South African context often refer to socio-economic factors to attempt to explain the race-based performance gap in education. For example, Howie and her associates at the University of Pretoria investigated the impact of second language learning on learner performance and found that learners whose home language was one of the African languages performed worst on language tests. Their discussion and conclusions on the results of the study focus on socio-economic explanations. They opine that South Africa’s ‘political heritage’, the inadequacy of resources in the schools these learners attended and the severity of the socio-economic context under which learning takes place explain the poor performance results. Similarly, the superior performance of the English and Afrikaans home language speakers is explained with reference to the
‘diversity of quality imposed historically on the education system along race and language lines’
(Howie et al., 2008). Recent evidence shows that the majority (70%) of drop-outs from higher education institutions is in the ‘low economic status’ category, earning less than R1,600 per month, and that the majority of these people are Black. Students from this socio-economic grouping tend to rely on parents to fund their education. An analysis of the reasons why these students tend to drop out
of their studies suggests that stress levels due to having to work part time while studying to assist in paying student fees is a large contributing factor (Letseka and Maile, 2008).
This focus on socio-economic factors is understandable, given that socio-economic disparities are typically race related. For example, in terms of median expenditure per capita, little has changed since the promising dawn of the post-Apartheid era. In 1995, median per capita expenditure for Black Africans was R333 per month as opposed to R3,443 for Whites, and in 2008 the figures were R454 per month for Black Africans and R5,668 for Whites. Poverty figures (when considered in terms of the international benchmark defining the ‘poverty line’, viz. $US2 per day per person) suggest that more than 25% of South Africans are in a state of poverty at any given time, most of whom are Black.
As at September, 2011, 86% of the 4,442,000 unemployed people in South Africa were Black, 10%
were Coloured, 2.7% were White and 1.3% were Indian. With an average Gini coefficient of .67 since 1995, South Africa remains one of the most unequal societies in the world, with Whites dominating the top end and Black Africans dominating the lower ends of the scale (National Planning Commission, 2011, Statistics South Africa, 2011).
The situation at South African schools and institutions of higher learning paints an equally bleak picture. As of 2009, approximately 2,799 schools (mostly ‘Black’ schools in rural areas) had no electricity, 412 schools were mud structures and 706 schools did not have appropriate sanitation and there is no evidence of this situation having improved since then. Chisholm et al. (2005) report that in ‘disadvantaged schools’ (mainly ‘Black’) less teaching occurs- average teaching time is 3.5 hours versus 6.5 hours in what were previously ‘White’ schools. Reddy et al. (2010) estimate that approximately 10% of teachers in predominantly Black schools are absent on any given day. The disparity in terms of institution quality between ‘historically White’ universities and ‘historically Black’ universities paints a similar picture. The fact that significantly more students who attended
‘historically Black’ institutions are unemployed in comparison with those who attended ‘historically White’ institutions is an indictment on the relative quality of these institutions (Letseka, 2009). Table 2-9 shows the unemployment rates of students who studied at either historically black or historically White universities by race.
Institution Population Group
Black African Coloured Indian White
Historically White 45 28 37 27
Historically Black 53 22 60 -
Table 2-9 Graduate unemployment rates by institution (Source: Adapted from Letseka (2009))
The National Planning Commission’s Human Conditions Diagnostic (2011) comments on the profound impact socio-economic factors have on education, noting that the educational background of parents, nutrition and the availability of learning material are especially important for school pupils, and that socio-economic factors account for significant premature drop-off rates among students in higher education. It is not surprising therefore that the same report bemoans the fact that ‘schools in South Africa are simply not adequately preparing young people for higher education (or the workplace, for that matter) and that higher education is failing to produce the number of appropriately skilled professionals the economy requires (National Planning Commission, 2011).
Apart from the aforementioned socio-economic disparities that persist in South Africa along racial lines, sociological issues that were born in the Apartheid era are proving disturbingly stubborn and difficult to get rid of. Arguably one of the most serious of such issues facing education in South Africa relates to persisting, deep seated racism in higher education. The so-called ‘Soudien Report’
(officially entitled the “Report of the Ministerial Committee on Transformation and Social Cohesion and the Elimination of Discrimination in Public Higher Education Institutions”) was commissioned by the Department of Education in 2008 to “investigate discrimination in public higher education institutions, with a particular focus on racism and to make appropriate recommendations to combat discrimination and to promote social cohesion” (Department of Education, 2008). While finding that institutions had generally complied with broad transformation requirements, (such as employment equity policy), the report makes a number of alarming allegations in terms of the disjunction between institutional policy and the real-life experiences of both staff and students, finding that discrimination, particularly with regard to racism and sexism, is ‘pervasive’ in South Africa’s institutions of higher learning.
Commenting on the impact of such ‘pervasive’ discrimination, the report refers to the devastating psychological and physical harm that is being done and points out that the victims of the discrimination ‘are denied the opportunity to realise their full potential’ and that as a consequence, the country is ‘robbed of valuable, untapped human resources’ (Department of Education, 2008).
In view of the findings on widespread discrimination, the Soudien report recommends the introduction of staff development programmes at institutions of higher learning with a view to sensitising faculty to the diverse learning needs of their multicultural student base. This recommendation is in line with international precedents that argue the value of such initiatives, such as the example of the Netherlands, where such interventions have been effective in helping to narrow the race based academic achievement gap (Rijkschroeff et al., 2005). Other recommendations include a gender sensitisation intervention and a programme aimed at ensuring a culturally sensitive and appropriate curriculum (Department of Education, 2008).
Given the findings of studies on the importance of a sense of affinity and, conversely, the negative impact of discrimination in the multicultural classroom, to students’ learning experiences and achievement (McCroskey and Richmond, 1992, Obiakor, 2004, Wilson, 2006, Horsford, 2010), this state of lingering racism is extremely concerning and provides insights into the possible reasons for the persisting race related academic achievement gap.