Republic of South Africa An Enduring Tale of Two Unequal System

22
Republic of South Africa: An Enduring Tale

of Two Unequal Systems
Shaheeda Essack and Duncan B. Hindle
Introduction
The goal of this literature review is to describe and critically assess how soci-
ologists and researchers in related disciplines in South Africa (SA) have stud-
ied racial and ethnic inequalities in education from pre-1994 to 2017. The
current chapter builds up on the first documented review on research carried
out on race, ethnicity and educational inequality which was conducted in
2014 by Essack and Hindle (2014). The review identified eight research tradi-
tions that had dominated the field: (1) from oligarchy to democracy; (2) pol-
icy development – state versus resistance movements; (3) the impact of the
removal of race-based policies; (4) racial (de) segregation; (5) (de)segregation
and school resources; (6) curriculum studies; (7) teacher training and peda-
gogy; (8) charting inequalities in student outcomes. Some challenges identi-
fied in the previous review relate to identifying research paradigms that yield
suggestions on improvement with respect to policy and impact to the embed-
ded nature of learner experience within a school context to how inequalities
can be addressed in former African schools and mixed-race schools. This
chapter builds on the previous review, and read together they show the
S. Essack (*)
National Department of Higher Education and Training, Pretoria, South Africa
e-mail: Essack.S@dhet.gov.za
D. B. Hindle
National Education Collaboration Trust, Pretoria, South Africa
e-mail: hindle@mweb.co.za
© The Author(s) 2019 931

P. A. J. Stevens, A. G. Dworkin (eds.), The Palgrave Handbook of Race and Ethnic Inequalities
in Education, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-94724-2_22
932 S. Essack and D. B. Hindle
ersistence of many of the issues raised in the previous chapter. Continued

p
educational inequalities, and the challenges in realising the broader socio-
economic gains of democracy, remain central themes. Consequently, the
quantitative and positivist methods of analysis retain their dominance in the
research traditions, and focus on the impact of the removal of race-based poli-
cies; racial (de) segregation; (de)segregation and school resources and inequal-
ities in student outcomes. However, when supported by quantitative results,
qualitative methods have also provided a deeper understanding of many
issues. Newer traditions such as “rural education” reflects a shift from the
period of instability while establishing the new democratic state, towards one
that is more focused on universal issues of equity and quality in education.
Altogether, nine research traditions have been identified in this review.
In several ways, the current review indicates a politically biased research
agenda on racial inequalities in education, drawing largely from statistical
data to highlight inequalities in pass rates, drop-out rates and grade repetition
to the qualitative research incorporating methods and concepts such as “eth-
nography” and “humanizing pedagogies”. Although some research does not
draw strictly from the sociological perspective (and such research is limited),
the political and economic dimensions invariably impact on the system as a
social whole which in many ways perpetuate the structural functionalist
framework which ultimately exposes the fault lines in both policy and
practice.
The socio-political nature of education in SA cannot be removed from its
historical past, as most research indicates. The enduring legacy of apartheid
and the concomitant struggle of the state and its policies, within a neo-liberal
economic system, have not necessarily fully addressed national systemic
inequalities, regardless of the progressive policies.
Unlike the United Kingdom (UK), the United States of America (USA)
and Europe, in SA the majority Blacks have been the victims of inferior edu-
cation while the white minority enjoyed legal advantage. De-racialisation is
therefore in part a peripheral issue, the mainstream issue remains the quality
of education for the majority who are tacitly excluded from the integration
project. Further, because studies cannot utilise control groups, direct com-
parative studies between racial groups on educational performance in a class-
room setting are also not part of the research tradition.
The following discussion is divided into four parts: the national context,
methods, the nine research traditions, conclusions and discussion.
Republic of South Africa: An Enduring Tale of Two Unequal Systems 933
National Context
This section offers a brief overview of the main characteristics of the SA edu-
cational system, the transition from education under apartheid to education
under democracy, and key developments in policy from pre-1994 to 2017. In
this description and analysis, it is necessary to invoke the terminology of
apartheid, with four racial categories used, described here as (Black) African,
Coloured, Indian and White. Where appropriate elsewhere, the (general)
term Black is used to include African, Coloured and Indian groups compared
to White groups. This is not intended to confirm any sense of racial classifica-
tion, and the terms are used only for historical or analytical reasons.
The Educational System of the Country
The following discussion is divided into four parts: the apartheid, the resis-
tance and the immediate post-apartheid period, as well as the period after two
decades of democracy, from 2014.
The Apartheid Period
Prior to the advent of inclusive democracy in 1994, SA had a highly frag-

mented education system, divided on grounds of race (primarily), language
(within racial groups), and region. In all there were 19 education Departments:
national ones for White, Indians and Coloureds,1 as well as a national depart-
ment for Black Africans “residing in South Africa” In addition there were many
Africans living in “homelands” or self-governing territories (including Transkei,
Ciskei, Bophuthatswana, KwaZulu and Venda), which each had their own
Department of Education (DoE). On top of all this was laid a language deter-
mination, with White schools divided as to whether they used either English
or Afrikaans (the two official languages) as the medium of instruction, and
African primary schools on the basis of language (and hence ethnic identity).
Sociologically, the basis for this was to avoid any notion of an “African major-
ity” identity; the apartheid regime hoped that by imposing enough racial, eth-
nic and linguistic categories in society, SA would be a nation of many minorities.
1
Racial categories as defined in terms of apartheid legislation. Whites were of European extraction,
Indians originally from Asia, and Coloured as people of mixed race. Black Africans were given various
designations, including ethnic ones including tribal orogins (Zulu, Xhosa and so on). Post 1994, the term
Black is used to describe all “non-white” persons, including Africans, Indians and Coloureds. These have
reference with regard to affirmative action legislation and policy.
These divisions were not just organisational categories: there were specific lay-
ers of material and cultural advantage and disadvantage that went with each.
Resistance to Apartheid Education
Opposition to “Bantu Education” (as education for Blacks was officially known,
where Bantu means “Black people”) was extensive, and a core pillar of the broader
anti-apartheid movement. Repression, intolerance and inequality were driven by
the education system, with children socialised into their pre-determined role
either as a “White boss” or a “Black worker” (Alexander 1990; Kallaway 2002).
Besides the physical deprivation of poor facilities and under-trained teachers in
most Black schools, the psychological trauma of being groomed for second class
citizenship was profound, and has been described by former Education Minister
Naledi Pandor (1994–1999) as “one of the most enduring legacies of apartheid”,
resulting in a diminished sense of self-worth. A study by Mathonsi (1988) also
showed how final school results were manipulated by the apartheid state in rela-
tion to the labour absorption capacity of the country: if fewer jobs were available
more students were failed so they remained in school for longer. Success at school
was thereby delinked from effort and achievement and subjected to a range of
external factors, which further undermined the credibility of the system.
The student protests of 1976 are well documented (Baloyi 2004), including
their origins in relation to a directive that half of all subjects should be studied
in Afrikaans. Besides the fact that most Black children (and their teachers) did
not speak Afrikaans, its association with the apartheid system was very strong,
and the directive was broadly rejected. This sparked off a national revolt,
which in turn became a catalyst for much wider civil disobedience and the
final changes which came about in 1994 (Landman 1992; Muller 1992). In
this way students have been characterised as having led the revolution, while
their parents had been “too patient, too tolerant, for too long”.
A large part of this resistance came from the teachers themselves, who for a
long time had been passive agents of the apartheid state, despite their stated
dislike of what was happening (Levin 1991; Moll 1991; Hartshorne 1992).
The lure of professionalism prevented these teachers from taking direct action,
and many (reluctantly) simply followed the prescripts. However, by the late
1980s a growing number of teachers, some of whom had been politicised and
mobilised during the student protests of the former decade, began to organise
outside of the traditional teacher organisations, and adopted a more militant
and aggressive stance towards the apartheid authorities. Civil society organisa-
tions were formed around the issue of education, which coalesced in the for-
mation of the National Education Crisis Committee (NECC) as the voice of
the progressive forces in regard to education. Its immediate agenda was the
pursuit of a unitary and equitable education system. The broader goal was the
democratisation of society, and this was captured in the slogan: “Peoples
Education for Peoples Power” (Chisholm 2006).
The Immediate Post-apartheid Period: 1994–2010
After the first democratic elections of 1994, the Bill of Rights contained in the
Constitution of the Republic of South Africa (RSA 1996) was promulgated.
This secured an inalienable right to basic education, including adult basic
education, and to further education, which the state, through reasonable
measures, must progressively make available and accessible. The first year of
schooling is a “reception year”, which is not compulsory. Grades 10, 11 and
12 are also not compulsory (in terms of law) although there is an expectation
that children should complete Grade 12 and access is not denied. The national
policy on inclusion, contained in Education White Paper 6, acknowledges
and respects differences in learners, especially with respect to disability, and
promotes an approach that responds to their needs. Special schools are pro-
vided for (although insufficient in number), but where possible learners with
special needs are encouraged to attend mainstream schools.
Access to higher education is based on the National Senior Certificate
(NSC) results at the end of Grade 12, and remains highly competitive.
Accountability issues have a complex set of approaches in South African
public schools. A decentralized, liberal model informs the overall design of the
system, where elected school governing bodies have extensive powers and func-
tions, including those of teacher recruitment, the setting of school fees, and the
determination of language and other policies. Some of these, like language, are
used as exclusionary mechanisms, and fees in some over-subscribed public
schools (especially former White schools) are beyond the reach of many.
The resourcing model is intended to be pro-poor, although there has been
limited tangible progress for many poor and rural communities. The policy
on school fees is justified on equity grounds: limited state resources are
directed towards the poor, while the rich carry part of the costs themselves.
Since non-personnel costs (around 20% of the total) are allocated to schools
on a redistributive basis, the wealthiest schools receive only a small portion of
their running costs from the state. This requires them to raise fees to main-
tain the facilities, and to privately employ additional teachers. The second
ground is that there is provision for a fee exemption where the school fee is a
certain proportion of the “family income”. However, schools are minimally
compensated for granting fee exemptions, and have a strong disincentive to

admit pupils who may qualify for this.
These school governing body powers and functions have not worked to the
advantage of poorer communities, who are unable to collect fees from largely
indigent parents, and are also limited in their choice of available teachers. As
a result, the poorest 80% of schools are now declared “no-fee schools”, and the
power to recommend principals and teachers for appointment is under review.
Since the adoption of the National Development Plan, a rigorous system of
monitoring and evaluation has been institutionalized, with a Department of
Planning and Monitoring located in the Presidency. Targets and outcomes are
monitored and reported on, which serves to identify blockages in service
delivery, and a Technical Assistance Unit based in the National Treasury
(GTAC) works with responsible departments to address these. Much of the
research data that is available has come from these agencies.
In education, accountability approaches are held hostage by the continuing
inequalities in resourcing, which defy reasonable comparisons between schools
and teachers. In response to empirical research which has shown that teacher
absenteeism and unprofessional conduct is a major problem, various mecha-
nisms have been initiated by successive Ministers to improve the accountabil-
ity of schools and teachers. These have included a Policy on Whole School
Evaluation, a Policy on Systematic Evaluation, and an Integrated Quality
Management System, but each has been undermined by the need for an even
playing field on which to be judged. Teacher unions have been remarkably
successful in invoking the legacy of apartheid (with its poor teacher training)
and the current poor facilities at schools to render any form of summative
assessment meaningless.
A body was established post 2010 to undertake schools evaluations (a
national inspectorate in all but name), but it too was burdened with the need
to undertake development as part of its function, and the intended National
Education Evaluation Unit became the National Education and Development
Unit (NEEDU). To date, it has produced a number of systemic reports, but
no school or official has yet been held to account for the poor performance of
learners.
A system of Annual National Assessments (ANAs) has been in operation
since 2010, with universal standardized assessments at grades 3, 6 and 9. The
results in many cases were shocking, indicating serious problems from early
on in the system. These ANAs have recently been suspended, at the insistence
of teacher unions, which were starting to experience parental pressure regard-
ing school results. Again, the resistance has been phrased in terms of the
responsibility of the Department to act on the results, to provide training and

support, which it has largely failed to do.
Despite initial caution, SA has opened itself to international evaluative
studies, including both Trends in International Mathematics and Science
Study (TIMSS2) and Progress in International Reading and Literacy Study
(PIRLS3). The results of these are in the public domain, and confirm the poor
performance of the system, with some pointers as to what should be reme-
died. SA is also a leading participant in the Southern and Eastern African
Consortium for Measuring Education Quality (SACMEQ), which also con-
ducts comparative assessments, but infuses a significant amount of “context”
into the results. This identifies useful correlations between realities and educa-
tional outcomes, which may be used in policy and planning outcomes.
Although the school remains a central unit of analysis in tracking progress
towards equity, as well as in regard to performance, the pressures of account-
ability are not felt at local level, where communities and District authorities
are often tolerant of consistent failure. Accountability has become highly
political, with provincial politicians and officials competing for prominence
when the Minister reports to the nation on the Grade 12 results. Since 2010,
the national pass rate has improved from around 60% to nearly 80% in 2016,
raising some questions about the credibility of the examination and the stan-
dardization processes, and the possibility of political interference.
Two Decades After Democracy: The Period 2010–2017
After more than 20 years of democracy, the Constitutional and legal frame-
work governing education is now well established, including the imperative
for co-operative governance between the national and provincial spheres of
government, each of which has designated powers and functions. Overall par-
ticipation rates are high at primary levels, with high levels of gender equity.
Retention rates are a problem, with some 50% of learners leaving school
before completing the national exit examination, the National Senior
Certificate (NSC). Performance levels, as measured in national and interna-
tional assessments such as Southern and Eastern African Consortium for
2
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).
3
Progress in International Reading and Literacy Study.
Measuring Educational Quality (SACMEQ4), TIMSS5 and PIRLS,6 have

improved since 2011, although marginally, and from a very low base.
This period of relative policy stability (compared to the immediate post-
apartheid period) has been beneficial for the system, allowing time for systems
and procedures to consolidate, and to avoid the kind of policy overload expe-
rienced by teachers and schools. However, it has also allowed for a period of
reflection, as the education system continues to reflect high levels of inequal-
ity (predominantly racial inequality), together with low levels of performance,
especially in poorer and rural schools. The ambitions of the legislative and
policy framework have not been achieved, and poor, rural Black children have
hardly benefited, if at all, from the democratic dispensation of 1994.
Many efforts have been made to address these failures in delivery, but the
predictive nature of the race, poverty and rurality nexus has hardly been
eroded in terms of outcomes. Public schools are at least two-tiered – urban
middle-class and poor rural; some have argued that peri-urban “township”
schools constitute a third tier – between the above two. Migration into the
urban centres has put enormous pressure on the relatively few former white
“good” schools; those who do not get there seem destined to either leave
school or achieve so poorly as to not proceed with any further education,
despite being unemployed (Statistics South Africa Labour Report 2017).7
One major intervention has been the provision of at least one year of pre-
schooling for all children, and near universal access has been achieved. This is
a major achievement, which evidence suggests should have improved out-
comes. However, the recent TIMSS study (2015) found that for the poorest
60% of the cohort, a year of pre-schooling has made no difference to later
educational outcomes – suggesting that the structural burden of race and class
inequalities is sufficient even to erode the benefits of an Early Childhood
Development (ECD) intervention. Taylor and Shindler (2016) describe this
as an “especially disturbing trend” and suggest that “far from ameliorating
social inequality, the introduction of Grade R appears to be increasing it.”8
These structural inequalities are not only to be found in education – they
pervade the home and the community in general – reinforcing a widespread
culture of failure and alienation.
4
Southern and Eastern African Consortium for Measuring Educational Quality.
5
Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS).
6
Progress in International Reading and Literacy Study.
7
Unemployment among school leavers is currently above 40% (StatsSA Labour Report, 2017).
8
Taylor N and Shindler, Education Sector Landscape Mapping South Africa, December 2016. Table 22
(www.jet.org.za).
Evidence is therefore mounting to suggest that whatever interventions,

capacity building programmes or other support mechanisms are introduced,
these seem unlikely to bring about the equitable system envisaged in the
Constitution, and certainly not at the pace required. SA has been told her
policies are beyond reproach, but a policy that is poorly implemented has
little benefit for its intended beneficiaries. The data is clear: after two decades
of democracy, education is in crisis, and this poses real socio-political chal-
lenges for the country. In the past year, higher education has been under siege
from students, and the country already has a history of school children lead-
ing a national movement.9
This suggests that the legislative and policy framework for education, devel-
oped more than 20 years ago, requires a fundamental rethink, based on the
evidence of the immediate post-apartheid period, and considering the current
socio-economic imperatives, which are not necessarily the same as in 1994.
The Constitutional promise of an equitable, quality education has not been
realised for most children: South African education remains highly inequita-
ble, based largely on racial divisions, which in SA coincide with both class and
a degree of rurality.
ain Migration Patterns and Composition and Size

M
of Ethnic “Minority” (Majority) Groups
As indicated in the previous chapter, there is no documented research on the

migration of non-SA people into SA schools though there is evidence of
movement of people from other African countries to SA schools. The domi-
nant research continues to be around the performance of learners with respect
to the past racial categories as this is significant for purposes of monitoring
equity. Research indicates that those learners who attend well-resourced
schools continue to perform better than those who do not and this pattern of
inequality goes hand in hand with race. White learners and those who can
afford the more expensive schools from the other race groups continue to
enjoy better schooling. Taylor as cited in Pendlebury and Enslin (2004:
(34):31–50) claims that “…while a growing number of relatively poorly
resourced African schools are providing education of high quality, the major-
ity of the country’s top schools are privileged institutions, formerly reserved
for white and, to a lesser extent, ‘coloured’ or Asian children.” Further, the
remaining top performing schools fall into two groups: English-speaking
9
The 1976 student movement was begun by schoolchildren from Soweto near Johannesburg.
schools which enrol African learners in numbers which vary from 25% to
75%, and Afrikaans-speaking schools containing minimal numbers of African
pupils. (http://www.jet.org.za).
This trend continues for the post-1994 period to current. Internal migra-
tion from neighbouring countries remains a major factor, as economic and
political pull and push factors bring large numbers of people to South Africa,
many of them children. The Constitution protects the right of every child to
education, without reference to citizenship, so they are admitted to public
schools. In conditions of poverty and scarce resources, socio-political conflicts
do break out, with xenophobic type attacks against foreigners, especially for-
eign owned shops.
Internal migration is also a major factor in regard to education planning
and resourcing. Migration to urban centres is a growing trend, with the
Gauteng province receiving more than 80,000 additional learners from other
(poorer) provinces at the start of the 2017 academic year. Even if these chil-
dren are not getting access to the top schools (no more than 20% of the total),
their education in an urban township is likely to be better than that in the
rural area.
At a resourcing level, the financing principle is that “funds follow the
learner”. This means that poorer rural provinces, already losing pupils because
of poor quality education, lose funds to those provinces that are able to attract
them, thus aggravating an already problematic situation. This is further com-
pounded by the ability of economically developed provinces (like Gauteng
and the Western Cape) to get additional funding based on their contribution
to Gross Domestic Profit (GDP), and for them to generate and use own rev-
enue generated in the province. In 2016, Gauteng topped up their national
allocation by over R2 billion, for an Information Communications Technology
(ICT) rollout programme, while the Eastern Cape department was forced to
borrow from other provincial Departments just to meet basic needs.
In addition there is a large migration of learners within provinces, as fami-
lies move from the rural parts of the provinces to bigger towns, or as children
move to live with relatives nearer town. The consequence of this is a growing
number of financially unsustainable small schools in rural villages; schools
which should be closed but which also constitute the lifeblood of the very
limited local economy, and residents understandably fight for them to stay
open, despite a generally poor standard of education. This becomes an addi-
tional burden to provinces with rural populations, where the costs of deliver-
ing education are much higher than in concentrated urban areas.
Despite this substantial pattern of migration, South African schools can

largely be identified as “White” or “Black”, mainly historically “African”
schools and or historically “Coloured” or “Indian” schools. This is not only a
reference to the racial composition; it is reflected in the infrastructure, loca-
tion and design of the school. Almost all White children attend “White”
schools, almost all African children attend “Black” schools, with perhaps 10%
of them at the White schools. School admissions are governed by the schools
themselves, and despite the best attempts of government to prevent it, schools
inherently seek to replicate their complexion and institutional culture. Staff
appointments are no different; where the school selects teachers it is bound to
propose that that best match their view of the school. As a result, White
schools have mostly (if not all) White teachers; Black schools have Black
teachers, and the same applies in most Indian and Coloured schools, numeri-
cally and culturally. This is not just race based: Black teachers are most likely
to be proposed from the same ethnic group as others at the school.
Disillusionment with the public school sector has resulted in an exponen-
tial growth in the independent school sector. This includes top-end schools,
of international standing, as well as mid and low-cost urban and peri-urban
private schools. Some of these are market driven and of questionable quality,
but they are responding to an obvious and profitable demand. Many foreign
teachers are employed at these schools, with conditions of service well below
those of state employed teachers.
evelopments in Terms of Relevant Educational

D
and Social Policies
Discussion on policy developments within the education system is similarly

considered in terms of the apartheid, the resistance and the immediate post-
apartheid period, as well as the period after two decades of democracy, from
2014, each with their distinctive sociologically informed approaches. Any
transition is a critical moment in the life of a society, and exposes many of the
assumptions of that society.
The Apartheid Period
Key policy research in this period was large scale and state funded aimed at
justifying structural inequalities. The key policy documents produced were the
De Lange Report, The Buthelezi Commission report, the 1983 White Paper
on Education and the Education Renewal Strategy (ERS). These papers were
mainly descriptive aimed at explaining the nature of educational inequality in
apartheid SA with a view to justifying it. These reports are significant since
they reveal how the state “manipulated” its position of authority to legitimate
educational inequality based on perverse and crude notions of racial inferior-
ity. These reports are discussed in greater detail under Tradition 1.
Resistance to Apartheid Period
The transformation of education was not simple, and this was well under-
stood. In crude terms, the question was if “education for liberation”, in which
pupils would remain at school, be taught by “progressive” teachers, and use
education to achieve a heightened, post-liberation consciousness, was a cor-
rect strategy, or whether political liberation needed to precede any kind of real
transformation, in which case schools should be boycotted or even burnt
down until the edifice of apartheid collapsed (Alexander 1990). This tension
was never fully resolved; while significant efforts were put into trying to pro-
vide alternative curricula and materials to teachers, the mood in many schools
was one in which education was willingly sacrificed in pursuit of broader un-
governability and the end of the apartheid state. This un-governability
included the complete non-recognition of education authorities, including a
refusal for principals or members of the “inspectorate” to do their work, which
has left many schools still today without the requisite authority and discipline
to be effective (Baloyi 2004).
The major policy development by pro-democracy forces was in 1992 when
the National Education Policy Investigation (NEPI) produced a comprehen-
sive, multi-volume report that provided a well-researched argument for a sys-
temic overhaul of the education system towards a unified, democratic and
non-racial system. In 1994, on the eve of assuming power, the African
National Congress (ANC) Policy Framework for Education and Training was
published, strongly influenced by the Congress of South African Trade Unions
(COSATU) and the National Training Board (NTB). They advocated the
integration of education and training within a single qualifications frame-
work, which could improve both the quality and relevance of educational
knowledge and skills for the world of work and bring about greater equity and
redress (de Clercq 1997: 151). Soon thereafter, the Minister of Education
released the First White Paper on Education and Training.
The Immediate Post-apartheid Period 1994–2010
Post 1994, SA had a unique opportunity to define and build a new education
system from scratch. But at the same time there was an increasing recognition
that social institutions do not work this way – they change slowly, and they
have to take account of what already exists. This challenge was highlighted
during the long process of negotiations which led to the 1994 transition, in
which education featured prominently (Hartshorne 1992; Baloyi 2004).
1996 ushered in the first of far-reaching policy and legislative changes.
These included the promulgation of the National Education Policy Act (NEPA)
which defined the powers and duties of the national and provincial education
ministries (Carrim 2001: 101). However the outgoing apartheid regime had
insisted on a maximum devolution of powers in the Constitutional frame-
work with regard to education as a way of exerting control on some areas of
governance. The function was therefore designated by NEPA as a “concur-
rent” responsibility of both national and provincial governments, with both
having legislative and executive powers, but with provinces having the bud-
gets and administrative responsibility for the management of schools.
Also in 1996, following an extensive set of consultations, the South African
Schools Act (Act No. 84 of 1996) (“the SASA Act”) was enacted, which dealt
with the funding, organisation and governance of schools (Carrim 2001:
102). The SASA Act extended significant powers and functions to elected
school governing bodies. Powers of admission, language policy and other cru-
cial elements like selecting and recommending teachers for appointment were
given to schools to determine. But most significantly, schools were given the
power to set and collect compulsory school fees, with complicated exemption
policies intended to protect poorer learners from being excluded. This liberali-
sation, which gave public schools more powers than their counterparts any-
where else in the world, has allowed privileged schools to remain so, with a
careful selection of fee paying parents, teachers who reflect the historical tradi-
tions of the school, and the use of school fees to employ additional teachers
and procure other teaching and learning resources. As a result, such schools
perform substantially better than the majority, although whether they should
be regarded as “public” schools is debatable, since they have effectively been
privatised. Ironically, Taylor as cited in Paton (2008: 1) is of the view that:
“Free education across the board will be the final nail in the coffin of the pub-
lic school system”.
In 2002, the National Curriculum Statement (NCS) was revised. The
much awaited curriculum reform came in the form of Curriculum 2005, an
indigenous form of Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) which departed fun-

damentally from the apartheid based Christian National Education (CNE).
This was underpinned by the values of democracy, equity and human rights
as enshrined in the Constitution, and fundamentally altered the nature of
education in SA.
In conclusion, SA has maintained a largely functional education system
around the 1994 transition, with near universal enrolment, especially among
girls. However, the country has not as yet achieved the equality goals required
by the Constitution, and despite progressive policies has become a conserving
force in society, confirming in most cases the racial and economic inequalities
in society.
The Period After Two Decades of Democracy: 2011–2017
The Department of Education was split into the Department of Higher

Education and Training (DHET) and the Department of Basic Education
(DBE) after the 2009 elections, and the almost two-year transition period
served to seriously interrupt the work of government, including that of policy
formulation. The decision was intended to allow for a more focused approach
to the transformation of the post-school and the Technical and Vocational
Education and Training (TVET) sectors, which remain poorly aligned to
social or economic needs. It also relieved the school sector of the complexities
of adult and further education and training.
Teacher education was significantly disrupted by the separation of func-
tion, given the rightful interests of each Ministry in the matter. Higher
Education is responsible for this, and policy documents have been prepared to
harmonise these interests, with the development of “Minimum Requirements
for Teacher Education Qualifications10” (MRTEQ, DBE, 2016) to ensure
higher education teacher education programmes serve the needs of schools.
In regard to Basic Education (the school sector at both General and Further
Education levels), there have been very few substantive legislative or policy
developments in this time. Certain aspects of policy have been revised, some
legal clauses amended, but there has been no significant change to current
policy, including equity related laws and policy, in this period.
One development in this period has been on the refinement of the curricu-
lum, through the publication of the new national Curriculum and Assessment
10
MRTEQ, DBE, 2016.
Policy Statement11 (2012, CAPS, Department of Basic Education). This is the

fourth iteration of the curriculum post 1994, and reflects a continuous trend
of increasing specificity of content ad sequencing, and a retreat from the out-
comes based approach of the first post-apartheid Curriculum 2005. Also
under consideration are questions of a more differentiated curriculum, with
distinct but equivalent qualifications, as well as the introduction of an exit
qualification after 9 years of schooling. Both of these signify a concern about
the relevance of the current curriculum, although the policy decisions have
not yet been taken on either of these.
Several recent studies have demonstrated a new appetite for looking at the
empirical evidence of the past twenty years in order to understand the impact
of post 1994 legislation and policy on the achievement of equity and quality
in education. This has been stimulated by the fact that more reliable and com-
parable data is becoming increasingly available, through research studies and
from government information. These are showing identifiable trend lines,
over time, and in terms of numerous variables, including race, class and gen-
der. International studies as well as local national assessments are providing
data about learner performance, including qualitative data about contexts,
and these can be mapped against other known variables.12 This has provided
new insights into the impact of policy choices made over two decades ago,
and a recognition that a fundamental re-assessment of some of the founda-
tional legislation and policy on education may be required. This in itself could
signal a return to increased policy making in the future, following a period of
some stagnation.
In a recent commissioned paper, Crain Soudien (2017)13 refers to the edu-
cation system as a bifurcated one: one for the urban rich (which is mostly
non-racial but a small part of the system), and another for the Black, mainly
African, rural poor. Urban schools are effectively state-subsidised private
schools, with significant own income raised from compulsory school fees,
while rural schools are poorly resourced in terms of infrastructure, teachers
and materials, are poorly managed, and generally perform poorly.14 The paper
was presented to an education policy symposium, convened through a col-
laboration between the government, business and professional bodies, which
in itself is a signal that some new thinking is indeed required.
11
CAPS, Department of Basic Education, 2012.
12
Schools do record the race of each child; this is required to measure progress towards racial equity.
13
CEO of the Human Sciences Research Council, a statutory body.
14
Furthering the Developmental Imperative? An assessment of the past 20 years of education legislation
and policy in South Africa, National Education Collaboration Trust, 2017. Report available at www.nect.
org.za
Taylor and Shindler (2016),15 also in a commissioned report, recognise that
much has been achieved in pursuit of the fundamental rights to education enshrined
in the constitution since the establishment of the first democratic government in
1994. Not only have realistic levels of universal access to schooling been achieved, but
also, unlike many other developing countries, access to schooling in South Africa has
been achieved equally for male and female children.
However, while significant gaps remain in the provision of education, particularly
in the post-school skills development sector, profound questions regarding relevance
and quality pose the greatest challenge to every sector. In addition, quality is inequi-
tably distributed, adding a further brake on the life chances of poor learners in all
sectors.
The very inefficient rate of learning in schools serving the poor is undoubtedly the
greatest problem faced by the entire education system. Poorly educated primary school
children battle when entering high school, university, TVET college and adult edu-
cation programmes. They constitute the large majority of the youth, unable to access
work or skills programmes.
Gustafsson (2017) at the University of Stellenbosch16 has analysed the leg-

islative and policy context governing education, and measured progress
against these.17 He begins with the National Development Plan (NDP)18 as a
point of departure for considering what should change in the basic education
sector. The NDP provides guidance on “critical success factors”, and advises
that policy should be formulated on the basis of experience and evidence. The
NDP also calls for a “vigorous national education discourse”, which may be
what is starting to emerge.
Gustafsson (2017) starts by identifying the policy priorities for education
identified in the NDP, which include:
(a) Twelve years of compulsory schooling by 2030 (currently only 9 are

compulsory);
(b) A more effective appointment process for school principals, together with
better defined rights and responsibilities;
(c) More reliable national assessments of learning, with results reported to
parents;
(d) Financial incentives for teachers, attached to standardised assessments;
15
ibid.
16
www.us.ac.za
17
Gustafsson M, Legislation and progress in basic education in South Africa, Unpublished report;
Research on Socio-Economic Policy (ReSEP), University of Stellenbosch, May 2017.
18
National Planning Commission, 2012.
(e) A second year of pre-school for all children; and

(f ) Broadband access for all schools.
Gustafsson (2017) also identifies other significant studies which deal with
the measurement of policy impacts, including the following19:
(a) A report titled “Identifying binding constraints in education”, prepared by

the Department of Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation (DPME, 2016);
(b) The Public Expenditure Review (National Treasury, 2012);
(c) The post provisioning report (DBE, 2013);
(d) The report on the use of information by districts (DBE, 2013);
(e) The Review of the Annual National Assessments (ANA) (World Bank,
2012);
(f ) The Ministerial Committee Report on the National Senior Certificate
(DBE, 2014); and
(g) The Review of Data Use in the Education Sector (DBE, 2017).
Each of these reports draws certain conclusions and makes recommenda-

tions, but few of these have been implemented to date.
Gustafsson (2017) concludes with a useful analysis on what government
considers has contributed most to recent improvements in the education sys-
tem, which may have future policy implications. First among these is better
access amongst learners to textbooks. There is a stronger emphasis on text-
book use in the curriculum, and increased spending on books. The TIMSS
data point to the very dramatic changes that occurred: in 2002 as few as 30%
of Grade 9 teachers reported using a textbook as their main classroom resource
for teaching mathematics. By 2011, this figure had increased to 70%. In sup-
port of this theory of change is the finding, from a randomised control trial
conducted by the Department in 2012, that delivering study guides to schools
helped improve Grade 12 examination results substantially.
Secondly, more standardised testing, and in particular the introduction of
the ANA programme, seemed to have sent strong and influential signals
through the system. This would be in line with conclusions drawn in other
countries, often supported by good empirical evidence. Given the amount of
criticism that has been directed at the design of ANA, by teachers and even
education researchers, it may appear strange to attribute educational gains to
this programme. However, it seems that even a flawed testing system, whilst
clearly not ideal, is better than having no standardised testing at all.
19
All reports available at www.dbe.gov.za
Thirdly, more suitable curriculum documents, and training associated with

this, seem to have contributed to better classroom practices. The 2012
Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement has much greater specificity,
with more content and more details on how to teach, as opposed to just
descriptions of the learning outcomes to be attained.
The frustrations of the education sector, sometimes captured in the calls for
the “de-colonisation of education”, reflect a broader social unease with the
slow pace of delivery against the promise of liberation in 1994. Recent call for
“radical economic transformation” have attempted to tap into more populist
sentiments, and included an attack on “white monopoly capital”. An eco-
nomic recession and record levels of unemployment are potent threats to the
inclusive nature of society, as inequalities widen and poverty deepens. In
2017, the number of social grant beneficiaries (14.2 million) exceeded the
number of people employed; the current path is simply unsustainable.
Methods
The literature review faced some restrictions. First, it was decided to include
only studies that focused on SA as a research context. Second, the literature
review was restricted to contributions between pre-1994 and 2017 from the
discipline of sociology and related disciplines that focused on the relationship
between educational inequality and race or ethnicity. For SA, the focus was
mainly on race. Third, only research that focused on secondary education was
included for analysis. As a result, studies that investigated other forms of edu-
cation, such as preschool, family, primary, higher, or adult education were
excluded. Finally, only peer-refereed journal articles, commissioned reports
and (edited) books were considered or analysis. Although these four criteria
for inclusion strongly guided the review process, studies were sometimes con-
sidered that did not fulfil at least one of these criteria, because they were per-
ceived as valuable or important examples of specific research traditions, for
example, this includes some of the critical policy documents consulted. The
restrictions are not meant to marginalize other literature sources, disciplinary
perspectives and/or forms of education.
The process of sampling specific research contributions involved a search of
the relevant databases using specific research queries in seven selected data-
bases for the period 2010–2017. These include (1) The library catalogue at
the University of South Africa (UNISA) for books on http://millennium.
ac.za/ and http://millennium.unisa.ac.za/airpac. (2) The SAePublications for
South African Journal articles. (3) Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.
com). (4) The Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) database. (5) The
journal “Perspectives in Education”. (6) The South African Institute of Race
Relations (SAIRR). (7) The “Journal of Education”. Thereafter, a manageable
sample of articles were selected and systematically analysed. Additional infor-
mation identified in reports, journals, books, and key researchers were
included in the review process. The methodology has thus remained the same
as for the previous comparable review.
Research Traditions
A literature review for the period 2010–2017 is a continuity of the eight
broad research traditions from: (1) oligarchy to democracy; (2) policy devel-
opment – state versus resistance movements; (3) the impact of the removal of
race-based policies; (4) racial (de) segregation: causes and consequences; (5)
(de) segregation and school resources; and (6) curriculum studies; (7) teacher
training and pedagogy; and (8) charting inequalities in student outcomes.
The research tradition of “rural education”, which is an emerging tradition, is
included as a ninth tradition. The following section provides a descriptive
analysis for each research tradition.
Oligarchy to Democracy
Despite the progressive schooling policies and the Constitutional mandate

that affirms equal schooling for all its citizens, 23 years after democracy, South
African society remains deeply divided on the basis of race – inequality per-
sists. The deep divisions and its manifestations in all spheres of life reflect
most starkly in the schooling system and its impact on access to the labour
market as well as potential opportunities.
Inequality Persists
Whilst this paper focuses on research from the period 2010 to current, it is
worthwhile reflecting on some of the past studies as a means to provide con-
tinuity and context to the current study. A brief look at past and current
research indicates that inequality in education does persist. In 2002, van der
Berg (2002: 1) argued that: “…while inequality is strongly rooted in the labour
market, labour market race differentials has declined as a cause of inequality.
While differentials in educational quality are large and small for residual earn-
ings, education becomes the one factor amenable to policy.” This issue goes to the
core of this research tradition.
Census data, survey data, data from the Project for Statistics on Living
Standards and Development (PSLSD), school level data and the Labour Force
Surveys (LFS) have been used to gauge the improvement in schooling for
mainly Black learners. In 2010, van der Berg (2010: 1–26) concluded that
despite massive resource shifts to Black schools, matriculation results, in
mainly Black schools, deteriorated in the post-apartheid period, but with high
standard deviations as shown in regressions of matric pass rate obtained from
school level data that identifies racial composition as the major explanatory
factor alongside socio-economic background (as measure by school fees set by
school governing bodies) and educational inputs (measured by teacher-pupil
ratios and teacher salaries as proxy for qualifications and experience), teaching
resources and the malfunctioning of large parts of the school system. The sup-
port for the persistence of inequality in schooling is found in research con-
ducted by Keswell (2010a: 1–28) on data from the PSLSD, the first racially
representative national survey of living standards to be conducted in SA, and
the LFS of 2001/2002. The estimates are for individuals and not households.
The results indicate that (a) despite improvements between race and gender,
equal opportunity does not exist, progress towards levelling the playing field
is slow and school quality “…does not appear to have a marked impact on the
racial differences in the return structure observed previously” (Keswell 2010a, b:
13) and (b) whereas, at the end of apartheid the rates of returns for both Black
and White stood at 11%, a decade later it stood at 43% for Whites and
declined to 7% for Africans.
The implications are that race in earnings is no longer a strong factor in
generating wage differentials between individuals but plays a strong role in
determining how educational attainment comes to be valued in the labour
market. In the end, “Racial differences in the return functions might lead to an
incentive structure facing Blacks that is at odds with the further acquisition of
schooling. This may impede or possibly even reverse gains made over the past decade
in the equalization of schooling attainment, thereby leading to a self-fulfilling
racial poverty trap in which employers continue to pay the disadvantaged group a
wage equal to the average marginal product of the disadvantaged group, leading
to persistence of the unequal reward structure, and hence a continuation of
inequalities in educational attainment” (Keswell 2010a, b: 13).
While primary schooling is almost universal, advancement to secondary
schooling nearly as high and disparities in educational attainment between
the different racial groups has decreased, Whites continue to finish about two
additional grades compared to African and Coloured groups (Branson and

Lam 2010: 101). Van der Berg (2007: 849) argues that an important question
is: “…whether changes since the transition have substantially ameliorated the role
of race in education.” His study, which draws on census and survey data reveals
that whilst qualitative educational attainment differentials (years of educa-
tion) have been substantially reduced, qualitative differentials remain larger.
Despite massive resource shifts post-apartheid, overall matriculation rates for
Blacks did not improve. As a consequence, the school system does not sup-
port upward mobility for poor children in the labour market. The legacy of
racial inequalities reflects in very poor pass rates especially in Black schools,
which form the majority, with high standard deviations. Regression of matric-
ulation pass rates from school level data shows that racial composition of
schools (as a proxy for former school department) remains a major explana-
tory factor besides socio-economic background and educational inputs.
Van der Berg (2007) describes the problem as x-inefficiency rather than
allocative efficiency.
Pedagogy, Democracy and Democratic Citizenship
In advancing the concept of democratic citizenship, the Department of Basic

Education developed a practical guide for teachers that can engender demo-
cratic citizenship education in schools. Davids and Waghid (2012: 19–111)
combined an analysis of this article with a post-graduate teacher training pro-
gramme at a SA university and concluded that there is a need for a renewed
and enhanced version of democratic citizenship education. Lange (2012:
110–111) looks at the concept of citizenship in the context of challenges
brought about by globalization and neo-liberalism and focuses on the concep-
tual preconditions that need to underpin the idea of ‘teaching’ citizenship
through the university curriculum. Combining the republican notion of citi-
zenship and Hannah Arendt’s contribution to thinking politics, citizenship
and education to propose a political pedagogy that can help foster a citizen-
ship identity that counters the individualist identities provided by the insidi-
ous influence of the market in higher education. Lange (2012: 110–111)
concludes that Hannah Arendt’s notion of understanding, action and purpose
of education is a “…useful starting point for the conceptualization of citizenship
and pedagogy.”
The basis and conduit for engagement between the formal school structure
and the pupil is the curriculum. Research indicates that the curriculum is the
basis from which most engagement takes place. Spreen and Vally (2012:
88–111) analyse citizenship and education in SA through different phases

over two decades including the xenophobic/Afrophobic attacks of 2008/2009
and discuss how ideas and values around citizenship are translated into class-
room practice. The method of research includes looking at a number of stud-
ies such as the school-based research on values and democracy (Wits Education
Policy Unit, 2001); discrimination in schools (Vally and Dlamba 1999); work
which assesses implications of schools and teachers creating space for dialogi-
cal memory making in post-apartheid SA (Dryden-Petersen and Sieborger
2006), issues of nation and citizenship in history text books (Chisholm 2008);
how respect and responsibility are enacted in schools (Hammett and Staeheli
2011) and an examination of the Manifesto on Values, Education and
Democracy as supplied in the classroom (Pillay and Ragpot 2011) as cited in
Spreen and Vally (2012: 89). They acknowledge that school communities face
enormous challenges in meaningfully promoting human rights and critical
thinking toward an emancipatory consciousness.
Pivotal to this is an understanding of inequalities in society which militate
against social justice and the development of teachers as critical transforma-
tive intellectuals. They conclude that racial integration in schools continues to
be a myth, relationships are superficial especially among those Black learners
who migrate into White Schools. When mixed with notions of foreign nation-
ality, they provide fertile ground for conflict. They propose an alternative
form of critical citizenship that includes the ‘ethics of care’ and public partici-
pation towards a praxis of hope. The overarching argument is that there is a
need to redefine citizenship education and the teaching of social justice, place
it firmly in the curriculum in order to address inequality and contribute to the
project of social transformation – a humanizing pedagogy which must accom-
modate social movements and political struggle.
In summary, the research indicates that the transition from an oligarchic to
a democratic state has not resulted in the establishment of a racially equal or
education or economic system, where educational outcomes translate into
equal opportunity for Black and White learners. Racial integration in schools
remains a myth. Significantly, access to the labour market continues to remain
unequal and in favour of Whites. Census data, survey data, data from the
PSLSD, school level data and the LFS continue to remain useful tools for
analysis. Studies on democratic citizenship, human rights and social justice
have emerged as a response to race-based inequalities in education. Such stud-
ies easily utilise the underpinnings of what constitutes pedagogy and curricu-
lum to make the argument for a politically humanizing pedagogy and
curriculum as tools for advancing citizenship, human rights and emancipa-
tory consciousness. Through all of this, teachers are seen as critical
transformative agents and pedagogy is encouraged to accommodate social

movements and political struggle.
Policy Development: State Versus Resistance Movements
Unlike the period from 1980 to 2010, where many educational policies were
developed, from 2010 to 2017, there have been very few substantive legisla-
tive or policy developments. Certain aspects of policy have been revised, some
legal clauses amended, but there has been no significant change to current
policy, including equity related laws and policy. The policies developed in this
period include the “Minimum Requirements for Teacher Education
Qualifications” (MRTEQ, DBE, 2016) and the publication of the new
national Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (2012, CAPS,
Department of Basic Education), a fourth iteration of the curriculum post
1994 which reflects a continuous trend of increasing specificity of content
and sequencing, and a retreat from the outcomes based approach of the first
post-apartheid Curriculum 2005.
The period 2010–2017 is characterised by a plethora of critique on the suc-
cess or failure of policy implementation. Central debates relate to policy and
its content which, according to du Plessis (2013: 87) establish the parameters
and directives for implementation, the success of which depends on the sup-
port it generates among stakeholders. Furthermore, Christie (2008) highlights
that despite the policy emphasis on structural changes, human agency and its
influence on policy outcomes cannot be ignored. Akoojee (2010) makes a case
for policy making to be understood within the context of a “21st century devel-
opmental state” and concludes that developmental challenges in post-apartheid
SA remain daunting and must be identified and thus calls for a serious re-
shaping of policy. Not surprisingly then, the focus on engagement at the grass-
roots is essential if the intended outcomes of policy are to be realised.
Policy and Its Failures
A chapter on education and training, written by Dr. Vusi Gumede (2015) for
students of political economy at the University of South Africa,20 notes that
education is confronted by the need to address the continuously changing
social and economic dynamics. He notes that the reforms that have taken
place in South Africa’s education system since 1994 were necessary for a newly
20
http://www.codesria.org/spip.php?article2625
democratic country that had inherited a racially segregated and dysfunctional

education system. However he does question whether the imperatives that
drove decisions at that time, which included the need for a negotiated transi-
tion phase, are still the same today, and whether the knowledge we now have
would cause us to consider different options.
Gumede (2015) identifies the failures in education in SA as being in pri-
mary school literacy, mathematics and science education, which are all funda-
mental to the development of modern economies. In addition, poor school
management systems, inappropriate curriculum changes as well as poor per-
forming teachers, have resulted in poor performance and low academic stan-
dards. Gumede (2015) concludes by arguing that “Although the reforms
undertaken since 1994 have accomplished some of their intended objectives, they
have not gone far enough.”
The Need for Re-thinking Policy
Much of the research during this period focused on the impact of educational
policy on the system as a whole. Gustafsson’s (2017) analysis of the legislative
and policy context begins with the NDP as a basis for guidance on “critical
success factors”, and advises that policy should be formulated on the basis of
experience and evidence calling for a “vigorous national education discourse”,
which may be what is starting to emerge.
Soudien (2017) describes the education system as a bifurcated one: one for
the urban rich a small part of which is non-racial and one for the Black, rural
poor. Soudien (2017) urges that new thinking on policy is required. Research
undertaken by Davids and Waghid (2012: 19–111), Spreen and Vally (2012:
88–111), Nkoane (2012: 98–104), Zinn and Rodgers (2012: 76) and Taylor
and Shindler (2016: 9) points to the need to consider questions of a more
differentiated and critical curriculum and one that promotes human rights
and citizenship. Clearly, all of the research emphasise the need to critique and
understand the empirical evidence of the past twenty years in order to under-
stand the impact of post-1994 legislation and policy on the achievement of
equity and quality in education.
Data-Sets
One of the challenges facing effective policy-making and decision making is

the lack of quality data which would help to identify what is working and what
is not viable. Van Wyk (2015: 1–23) provides an overview of the datasets per-
taining to education in SA that inform or could inform policy making. He

identifies the following data-sets: (a) education management information sys-
tems, (b) the learning outcomes data, (c) international test data such as PIRLS,
TIMSS, SACMEQ, (d) ANA, and the National Senior Certificate. The master
list of schools is a record of each school in SA which makes the learner-teacher
ratio per school possible – a useful dataset for education planners. It provides
information on the socio-economic status of the school, location of the school,
school size match school data across years and link it to other data sets.
The annual SNAP survey contributes to EMIS of the province, with respect
to management, administration, governance of schools and the supply of
school resources to schools. It also informs allocation of funds per learner
based on the National Standards for School Funding Norms, allocation of
teachers to schools and the publication of education data. It gives a good indi-
cation of the trends and patterns in the entire education cycle in South Africa.
However, the pdf format available on the website of the Department of Basic
Education is difficult to manipulate (Van Wyk 2015: 1–23).
The Annual School Survey (ASS) provides information on overage, enrol-
ment, repetition and dropout rates by gender and province which has pro-
found value for future policy development. Performance data in the form of
standardised test scores, ANA, PIRLS, TIMSS, SACMEQ and the NSC serve
to measure school performance and determine quality and efficiency of the
school system. The Schools Report is useful in so far as it provides data on
official school number, quintile, number of students that wrote and the num-
ber of students that passed for individual schools. The School Subject Report
is an important data source on the NSC since it includes key subjects with
data elements such as year of examination, quintile of the school, number that
wrote and number that passed for specific key subjects (Van Wyk 2015: 1–23).
Van Wyk (2015: 1–23) also makes a case for integrating data from multiple
sources which can be merged through the use of a common field across a col-
lection of data sources. Data integration adds value to the data, enhances the
process of decision making and supports the creation of a longitudinal dataset
necessary for research on grade repetition and dropout. The paper is useful as
it provides a list of large-scale datasets and where to find them.
Trade Unionism
Whilst Taylor and Shindler (2016),21 also in a commissioned report, recognise

that unlike many developing countries universal access to schooling has been
21
ibid.
achieved, equally for male and female children, serious concerns on relevance,
quality and the inefficient rate of learning in the poorest schools is the greatest
challenge in the entire education system. Equally, the resistance movement
that characterised the same period has subsided.
An assessment of teacher union movements conducted by Govender (2013:
77–88) indicates that: “The development of teacher’s labour rights in South
Africa has mirrored the broader context of socio-political change, an integral part
of which was the ideological tension between teacher professionalism and union-
ism.” The formation of the South African Democratic Teachers Union
(SADTU) in the 1990s formed part of the historical struggle for democracy
and freedom. Militant in nature, it focused on teacher’s labour rights and
strikes as opposed to teachers’ professional role. In contrast, the National
Association of Professional Teachers Organisations of South Africa
(NAPTOSA) adopted a professional approach whose organisations had been
privileged pre-1994 apartheid state. SADTU and NAPTOSA emerged from
the ideological tensions between unionism versus professionalism and federal-
ism versus a unitary structure. The former insisted on the teacher’s right to
strike and became a unitary structure and the latter supported the learner’s
right to uninterrupted learning and became a federal structure.
Post-1994, teacher unionism was acknowledged as part of the democratic
labour dispensation with the right to strike and collective bargaining which
NAPTOSA began to support and has subsequently engaged in strike actions
together with SADTU. The establishment of a professional body called the
South African Council for Educators (SACE) and the Education Labour
Relations Council (ELRC) served as a forum for broader policy discussion
and debate thereby curbing militancy and resistance. At the same time many
policies were developed and NAPTOSA was able to contribute to policy
development far more effectively than SADTU. Seeing this as a weakness,
SADTU began to correct this situation. Yet, it continues to maintain its
ideological roots of unionism giving rise to tension with the Department of
Basic Education (Govender 2013: 77–88).
By the mid 1990s, unions tended towards professional unionism. Teacher
unions became far more involved in policy development and served on vari-
ous committees from funding, governance and curriculum. The positive
impact was a departure from confrontation to a focus on quality learning for
students, accountability for school management and professional develop-
ment. Despite the unions strength, the Department was able to maintain its
position of dominance over policy development, which remains a source of
tension between the state and the unions (Govender 2013: 77–88).
At the same time, resistance has also taken on a form of academic protest as
evidenced in the writings of Pillay and Ragpot (2011) as cited in Spreen and
Vally (2012: 89), Davids and Waghid (2012: 19–111), Spreen and Vally
(2012: 88–111), Nkoane (2012: 98–104), Zinn and Rodgers (2012: 76),
Davies and Steyn (2012: 29–38), Nel (2012: 1–12), Ngcobo and Martin
(2015: 87–99), and Constandius and Rosochacki (2012: 13–20) who consis-
tently make the case for the teaching of social justice to contribute to the
project of social transformation – a humanizing pedagogy which must accom-
modate social movements and political struggle.
In sum, with few policy developments in this period, the focus has shifted
to the success or failure of policy implementation which has been the subject
of most research post-1994 and especially from 2010 to current. The critique
focuses largely on failures in the system especially with respect to quality, or a
lack thereof, and the minimal changes to policy and legislation. Policy making
based on experience seems to be emerging with a strong call for placing the
human rights discourse within the curriculum. Standardized tests seem to
support the calls for accountability. Research on the importance of quality
data-sets are emerging as they are seen to support substantive research and
planning. While the resistance movement has subsided in its militancy, it
remains as a crucial player in holding the state to account on various issues
ranging from teachers’ working conditions to professional policy making.
Curriculum Studies
Twenty three (23) years into democracy, studies on the impact of policy on
social justice at all levels of education continue to dominate the research
agenda. At the core of these studies is the link between social justice, race and
the embedded inequalities that transcend the institution, its culture and its
curriculum. Such studies can only be viewed positively for its inherent ability
to highlight contradictions and guide the way forward.
Curriculum and Social Justice
The case for social justice in education are vigorously articulated by several
researchers including Spreen and Vally (2012: 88–111) who claim and con-
clude that: “…despite the legal imperatives of the Constitution, policies and cur-
riculum, structural inequalities will continue to thwart attempts at social
cohesion.” They argue that: “…the values and rights enshrined in the Constitution
remain contradictory and contested and cannot be separated from conflicting

claims constitutive of social divisions in SA society.” For example, in 2011, 1.6
learners in the Eastern Cape were denied their right to school nutrition and
100,000 from accessing state-subsidized transport” (Spreen and Vally 2012:
92). Clearly, the impetus for social justice in education derives from racial
inequalities in the system (Ngcobo and Martin 2015: 87).
Framed within concepts such as social inequality, humanizing pedagogy,
neo-colonial knowledge construction, citizenship, democratic education and
racial integration, a range of studies have emerged. Interestingly, most of these
studies adopt qualitative methods that delve deep into the individual and
communal psyche of schools and institutions. For example, Nkoane (2012:
98–104) bases his research on the premise that inequalities in apartheid SA
was created by crystallised colonialism and perpetuated by neo-liberal and
neo-colonial forms of government. He maintains that social integration and
democratic citizenship for social justice can only occur if the modes of con-
structing knowledge are socially just and if the research methods and interac-
tion with participants is democratic. By drawing on the tenets of Critical
Emancipatory Research (CER) as a tool to challenge, transform and empower
to achieve social justice and democracy, he concludes that the narrative and
the language of texts are significant and the communication between partici-
pants and the researcher is crucial as they interact with each other. Dialogue
therefore becomes important in research striving for social justice based on
democratic participation and citizenship Nkoane (2012: 103).
Different Types of Pedagogies for the Sub-Altern
Communication and dialogue as embedded in different types of pedagogies

become the key conduit for realising educational equity. In focusing on a
humanizing pedagogy against the legacy of educational inequality with respect
to a lack of voice, agency and community, Zinn and Rodgers (2012: 76)
found that the educational arena remains a battlefront. Mining stories is used
as a form of pedagogy the results of which indicate voice, agency and com-
munity – given impetus through story – were keys to both individual and
collective transformation, thereby providing a basis for further inquiry.
Central to this process is the intertwining of dialogue and teaching which
must give rise to growth and a sense of power with rather than over students.
Davies and Steyn (2012: 29–38) adopt the framework of critical pedagogy to
debate pedagogical approaches within social justice education in a university
context among privileged White students. The results indicate that there is a
rationale for revising commonly held assumptions on social justice education,

that resistance must be engaged with rather than avoided, create functional
discomfort rather than safety, dialogue and personal experience as forms of
intervention when dominant students engage in problematic ways, encourage
educators to challenge, yet help students from privileged positions to under-
stand the nature of oppression. Critical pedagogy therefore has the potential
to create social justice. Similarly, in an ethnographic study conducted by Nel
(2012: 1–12) using critical discourse and thematic analysis at a historically
White Afrikaans university, the results indicate that Black staff members expe-
rienced discourses of fear, powerlessness, bitterness and non-engagement at
the local, institutional and societal level. Ngcobo and Martin (2015: 87–99)
explored through self-reflexive action research reports which form part of the
assessment requirements for the Advanced Certificate in Education (ACE)
programme, how 20 teachers used social justice pedagogy as a conduit for
making the curriculum accessible to all learners. The results indicate that these
teachers conceptualised and understood social justice on a basis of a philoso-
phy of education as transformation, which called on them to traverse political
borders. For them, teaching for social justice meant breaking the cycle of
social ills, victimhood and hegemony.
A case study carried out by Constandius and Rosochacki (2012: 13–20)
premises that addressing social inequality and developing conditions for dem-
ocratic flourishing is particularly important in the newly democratized
SA. Through engaging students in university curricular with the intention of
fostering global citizenship, the qualitative data obtained from participants in
the module showed that despite the module’s emphasis on exploring cultural
difference, the predominant response from students was surprise at the feeling
of commonality instead of ‘otherness’ that arose between learning partners.
This outcome suggests both the existence of deeply entrenched cultural preju-
dices as well as the possibility of educating for tolerance and social cohesion.
In summary, the last decade has seen a growing interest in the area of edu-
cational inequality, race, social justice and the manner in which it intersects
with the curriculum. Not surprisingly, the research methods lean toward the
humanist form of pedagogy which engages concepts such as critical theory,
emancipatory theory, transformative engagement, democracy and citizenship.
The focus of these studies indicate the need for an education focused on citi-
zenship and social justice aimed at addressing racial and other inequalities in
the education system.
The Impact of the Removal of Race-Based Policies
Given the stark inequalities in the SA schooling system, it comes as no sur-

prise that there are those who argue that “While the rich get education, SA’s poor
just get ‘schooling’” (Spaull 2015b). No-fee schools make up 66–88% of the
schools in SA – almost all of which are dysfunctional since, according to
Spaull (2015a), they do not impart the values, skills and knowledge to suc-
ceed in life – a view supported by at least ten independently conducted,
nationally representative surveys (Spaull 2015b: 2).
Two Schooling Systems
Fundamentally then, it can be argued that SA has two schooling systems. This
view is supported by studies conducted by Spaull (2012, 2013a, b), and
Harber and Mncube (2011). Significant in a study conducted by Spaull
(2013a: 436–447) is the evidence that the primary education system in SA is
dualistic in nature. First, schools that served White pupils under apartheid
remain functional and schools that served Black students remain dysfunc-
tional – incapable of imparting the required numeracy and literacy skills at
particular levels. Spaull (2013a, b) uses the concept of bimodality of student
performance and states that two sub-systems can be distinguished when split-
ting performance by former-department, language or socioeconomic status
and when looking at government reporting econometric modelling, SACMEQ
III dataset. When the two sub-systems are modelled separately, it was found
that only five of the 27 factors are shared between the two models for math-
ematics, and 11 of the 30 factors for reading. “This suggests a bifurcated system
where the process which converts inputs into outputs is different for each sub-
system. This means that observing averages is misleading – modelling a single
schooling system when there are in fact two school systems can lead to spurious
results and misleading policy decisions” (Spaull 2013a: 436).
Why Two Schooling Systems?
Adopting development theory as a framework, Harber and Mncube (2011)

make some conclusions that support the notion of two schooling systems.
While race as a factor for admissions is illegal, high school fees serve to exclude
the majority of poor Black, mainly African, students. Equal treatment as in
the allocation of resources has been achieved yet unequal access to good qual-
ity schooling persists as a result of extreme poverty. Unequal access to quality

schooling thereby perpetuates an unequal society. The contradictions and iro-
nies prevalent in post-apartheid SA schools continue to influence and per-
petuate all forms of inequality. For example, Hunt (2007) as cited in Harber
and Mncube (2011: 4) found that schools did little to embrace a new culture
based on non-discrimination. The 2006 report released by the South African
Human Rights Commission further confirm that for the majority of poor
Black students schools are dysfunctional and the opposite holds for the White
minority. Dysfunctional schools are seen to be associated with apathy, depres-
sion, impotence, anxiety about safety, lack of agency, disempowerment and
projection of blame onto others (Christie 1998: 4).
Statistics drawn from (Spaull 2012, 2013a, b) as cited by Wilkinson (2015)
reinforce the notion of the two schooling systems. Only 4.1% of grade 6
pupils in SA’s wealthiest 25% of schools were classified as functionally literate
in 2007 whereas 25.6–43.3% are functionally literate in the remaining 75%
schools. Results from TIMSS which was conducted in 2011 and tested 11,
969 pupils showed that the least poor 20% of schools significantly outper-
formed the remaining 80% of schools in both science and mathematics. In
the wealthiest 20% of schools, 43.5% of pupils achieved an intermediate
score for science whereas in the poorest 80% of schools, 1.6–7.6% of pupils
achieved an intermediate score for science. In the wealthiest 20% of schools,
36.3% of pupils achieved an intermediate score for mathematics whereas in
the poorest 80% of schools, 0.6–4.3% of pupils achieved an intermediate
score for mathematics.
Two Schooling Systems, Race, Class and Culture
An ethnographic study of language study conducted in a public school in Cape

Town that focused on how classroom practices regulate and school staff frame
language diversity shows that the school offers stratified linguistic choices
which correlate with social inequality indicative of most schools in SA. The
concept of register thus becomes important as it enables a connection between
social value and linguistic value in new ways. A register analysis allows for
studying: “… how racialized and class-based social differences become ideologically
linked with language variation.”, and it examines how race and class “…are
evoked by language differences and language hierarchies” (Collins 2017: 52).
The study adds to the body of knowledge for developing register theory and
analysis. First, race is a critical issue for understanding the social dynamics of
the current century, a necessary engagement for register analysis, given the
“…demonstrable ability of such analysis to integrate language variation, cultural

categorization, and socio-historical processes.” Second, registers and register pro-
cesses are scaled. Their language linked cultural stereotypes and social domains
frame and give meaning to language use in intimate settings as well as to
global language hierarchies, but understanding register in scale requires ongo-
ing theoretical and empirical efforts, as analysts examine and debate the com-
municative layering of human experience (Blommaert 2007; Collins 2017;
Wortham and Reyes 2015).
The study also shows that attention to social processes of en-registering
requires analysis of sociolinguistic scale, a conception of vertical relations of
inequality that underlie sociolinguistic phenomena (Blommaert 2007; Collins
and Slembrouck 2009).
Grade R provision which has been a policy imperative since 1994 and
enacted in the National Education Act of 1996 proposed a universal Grade R
(not a right and not free) as opposed to compulsory Grade R (not a right and
not state funded) that targets children from lower socio-economic back-
grounds (Feza 2013). In 2001, Grade R enrolment was 21% and increased to
62% in 2009 and 87.7% in 2011. The strategic plan for 2011–2014 pro-
duced in 2010 indicates that Grade R universality would be achieved by 2014.
In conclusion, in understanding racial inequalities in education, race, as a
factor, cannot be de-linked from socio-economic status, culture and language
and its impact on school performance. Similarly, schools weak on organisa-
tion, stability and quality only serve to reinforce inequalities, mainly for
African learners. Whilst the statistical data provides factual data on
performance, ethnographic and developmental approaches serve to advance
understanding on the human experience. In the end, the qualitative impact of
the removal of race-based policies has been contradictory, in some cases even
more destructive and mostly it remains unreachable.
Racial (De) Segregation: Causes and Consequences
Whilst there has been improvement for African, Coloured and Indian South
Africans post-apartheid, the racial disparities and inequalities remain.
Educational inequality has a direct link to income inequality and has become
the focus of much research in the third decade of post-apartheid South Africa.
Returns to Schooling
Salisbury (2016: 43–52) viewed data from the National Income Dynamics
Study (NIDS) conducted by the South African Labour and Development
Research Unit (SALDRU), based at the University of Cape Town which inter-
viewed 7296 households with a total of 21,406 adults over the age of 15.
NIDS provides the first nationally representative survey with detailed infor-
mation on grade repetition. The results indicate that whilst there is some
improvements to the returns to schooling for Africans and Coloureds, returns
by race shows that disparities between races are far greater than between gen-
ders. Salisbury (2016: 47) presents some of the findings in Tables 22.1 and
22.2 below which indicate that Whites earn far more than Africans and
Coloureds and they receive a far greater return on their extra years of
schooling.
The study concludes that White South Africans earn on average 369 percent
more than Africans and 355 percent more than Coloureds (Salisbury 2016:
48). The returns for Asians/Indians are nearly identical to Whites though only
42 individuals in this sub-group had full data (Salisbury 2016: 47).
Branson and Lam (2010: 85–109) also affirm that education is significant
in explaining inequality. They analyse data from NIDS and depart from the
view that returns are high on income and employment with respect to com-
pletion of secondary schooling and post-secondary degrees. They focus on
questions such as “Is this child currently enrolled at school?”; and for adults the
question is “What level are you currently enrolled in?”. Some of the information
obtained from NIDS is similar to information contained in the LFS, the GHS
and the Community Survey (CS). The study concludes that while there are
significant improvements in the educational attainments for non-whites,
leading to reducing educational inequality among the race groups, the study
concludes that there are large increases in attainment in younger cohorts than
in older ones and Africans spend one year longer in school, but attain about
one year less schooling than their White counterparts (Branson and Lam
2010: 85). For example, completion in primary schooling is almost universal
(92% have completed Grade 7) in the youngest age cohort (25–29) with sec-
ondary schooling completion (Grade 12) increasing from 17% to 42%
between 60–65 and 25–29 cohorts. The results are consistent with other stud-
Table 22.1 Returns to one additional year of schooling by race

Returns to schooling Mean years of Mean earnings (SA Rands/
Race (%) schooling month)
African 15.9 8.8 3095
Coloured 18.8 8.4 3217
Asian/ 25.1 12.5 7460
Indian
White 22.6 13.2 11,425
Full sample 18.7 9.2 3946
Table 22.2 Returns to one additional year of schooling by gender

Returns to schooling Mean years of Mean earnings (SA Rands/
Gender (%) schooling month)
Male 18.1 8.8 4470
Female 21.2 9.5 3356
Full 18.7 9.2 3946
sample
ies (Anderson et al. 2001; Case and Deaton 1999; van der Berg 2007; Louw
et al. 2005). They conclude that controlling for school fees as a proxy for
school quality reduces much of the racial differences. A significant conclusion
is that grade repetition continues to be correlated with race and income.
The Labour Market and Inequality in Education
Similar results can be found in a study conducted by Branson et al. (2012:

2–25) which shows that the labour market is the key driver of overall house-
hold inequality. In order to understand what drives the labour market inequal-
ity, they use national household data survey data to review changing returns
to education in the SA labour market over the last 15 years focusing on the
returns to gaining employment as well as the earnings returns for those that
have employment. Data is drawn from Household Surveys collected by
Statistics South Africa and the LFS from 1994 to 1999 on men and women
aged 25–29. The results indicate that (a) whilst the distribution of schooling
is very similar for both men and women in both racial groups and there are
improvements for Africans in schooling over time, large racial differences in
schooling remain where White men and White women have more years of
schooling than their African counterparts though the percentage of White
men and women with more than 12 years of schooling has shifted slightly.
Further, women go through schooling somewhat faster than men in all race
groups and the percentage of men completing 12 years of schooling has
remained the same; (b) there is a slight improvement in African and White
women completing 12 years of schooling noting that major changes for
African men and women lie below grade 12. Returns to schooling are quite
modest until the completion of secondary school; (c) consistent with the
results from Keswell (2010a, b), there are high returns to post-secondary
schooling in terms of earnings and employability which ironically has resulted
in consistent levels of inequality. The earning returns to completing grade 12
(versus grade 11) for Africans are very high in both years; (d) the returns to
post-secondary education are even higher and have increased over time. For
example, African men with two years of post-secondary schooling have earn-
ings that are 40% higher than African men with grade 12 in 1997 and 70%
higher in 2007 – a man with 14 years of education earned almost twice as
much as one with 12 years of schooling; and (e) however, the difference
between Africans and Whites is great – Africans with 15 years of education (a
completed university degree) have similar earnings returns to Whites as grade
12 – which also persists over time. Further, African males with a Diploma or
Degree are close to 20% points more likely to be employed than African
males with Grade 7. The returns for employment from matric is relatively
small at 4% points in 2007.
Grade Repetition
Grade repetition is a major issue in SA schools, resulting in resourcing ineffi-

ciencies and social disruption. The problem of overage children is well docu-
mented, and the Department follows a policy which allows for only one
repeated year in every 3-year phase. This can still mean up to four extra years,
and pupils as old as 21 in class. Failing Mathematics is a major reason for this
repetition, and especially high levels at Grade 9 have caused the Department
to “condone” students who get as low as 20% for the subject, and allow them
to progress. Educationally, this is poor policy, but it does serve to retain pupils
in schools, which is socially beneficial.
In 2013, the apparent intake rate (AIR) was 104.6%, a drop from 122.8%
in 2009 (Taylor and Shindler 2016: 9). Also, in 2013, the gross enrolment
ratios (GER) was 112.8% in Grade 1 and 106.6% in Grade 2 which indicates
that a large number of children did not start school at the appropriate age or
because of repetition (Taylor and Shindler 2016: 9). In a study conducted by
Simkins (2013: 7) for the period 2010–2012, he notes that repetition rates
are high in Grades 1 and 2, they drop through the rest of primary school and
begin to rise in secondary school peaking at Grade 10 and remaining high in
Grade 11. Results from the 2013 GHS show that the main reason for not
attending school for 7–18 year olds are due to poverty followed by a percep-
tion that education was useless and pregnancy. Between 2010 and 2015, an
increase of 18.6% was noted in Grade 12 enrolment which was attributed to
the policy of only being allowed to fail once resulting in Grade 11 learners
being promoted to Grade 12 even though they had failed Grade 11 (Taylor
and Shindler 2016: 11).
Literature on retention, social promotion and its effects indicates that direct
measures of grade repetition are rare in SA household surveys. Branson and
Lam (2010: 85) draw on information from census surveys, LFS on age distri-
butions among currently enrolled students in a given grade and NIDS. They
use multivariate regressions and linear probability models. Questions posed
are direct questions on whether a grade was repeated, how many times it was
repeated and the outcome for respondents under age 31. The results indicate
that by Grade 10 over 50% of African males and 40% of African females have
repeated at least one grade. Grade repetition is much higher among the lower
quintiles where over 60% of males in the poorest quintile who reached Grade
11 repeated at least one grade. The level among Indian and Whites is low.
Table 22.3 below indicates the mean age of starting and ending school,
number of years in school and the highest school grade completed (Branson
and Lam 2010: 92).
Although males and females start school at approximately the same age,
there are differences across racial groups. The mean age for starting school for
the 20–24 age group is 6.2 years for Africans, compared to less than 6 years
for Coloureds, Indians and Whites. There is also a systematic decline in age in
starting school across cohorts for Africans, with more than 1.5 year decline
between 55–59 and 20–24 year old cohort. The above compares to 17.1 years
for Coloureds and 17.7 years for Indians and Whites.
The age of school leaving appears to have declined over the past 1.5 decades,
driven by large declines among Africans – respondents from 30 to 34 cohort
completed school on average at age 20.3 compared to age 18.8 in the 20–24
group, a decline of 1.5 years. Similar declines are seen for Coloureds, while
the age at which Indians and Whites complete school increases.
According to Branson and Lam (2010: 95), the specific results on grade
repetition show that (a) males are much more likely to repeat almost all grades
than females with the greatest gender difference apparent in the younger
grade; (b) 13.2% of African males repeated Grade 1 compared to 6.7% of
African females; (c) grade repetition is highest in Grades 1, 10, 11 and 12 for
males, and remains low, below 7%, for females until Grade 10; (d) since the
sample includes all those respondents under 1 who had attempted the grade;
the sample decreases at the higher grades and is selective of those who have
not dropped out; (e) grade repetition is especially high in Grades 10 and 11.
Fifty eight (58%) of the learners leave the schooling system without complet-
ing matriculation (Murtin 2013); 70% of learners who started in grade 1
dropped out before completing grade 12 (Uys and Alant 2015: 20–39); and
nearly one third of learners are re-enrolled in school after having been dis-
enrolled for at least one year (Pugatch’s 2012).
Table 22.3 Age of starting and ending school
Age group Age start school Age end school
Male Female African Coloured Indian White Male Female African Coloured Indian White
20–24 6.12 6.10 6.18 5.86 4.99 5.97 18.80 18.49 18.83 17.05 17.79 17.66
25–29 6.33 6.32 6.47 5.63 5.26 5.75 19.16 19.06 19.39 17.65 17.74 17.41
30–34 6.53 6.44 6.66 5.86 5.21 5.67 19.60 19.87 20.28 17.84 17.39 17.26
35–39 6.76 6.63 6.96 5.93 5.10 5.54 19.77 19.41 19.96 18.32 16.26 18.72
40–44 6.60 6.61 7.07 5.95 5.02 5.14 19.00 18.91 19.56 16.69 17.56 18.06
45–49 6.58 6.74 7.08 5.64 5.56 5.69 18.56 19.34 19.96 16.42 18.26 17.70
50–54 6.81 6.84 7.33 5.83 7.69 5.07 18.81 19.46 20.46 17.16 17.99 17.45
55–59 7.09 7.07 7.74 6.27 6.00 5.18 17.96 17.05 17.62 16.21 15.20 17.88
Total 6.52 6.51 6.76 5.85 5.51 5.49 19.11 19.09 19.56 16.21 15.20 17.88
Age group Number of years in school Highest school grade completed

Male Female African Coloured Indian White Male Female African Coloured Indian White
20–24 12.74 12.41 12.71 11.09 12.72 11.7 10.07 10.67 10.33 9.93 11.03 11.46
25–29 12.81 12.72 12.91 12.04 12.48 11.68 10.03 10.3 10.06 10.14 11.07 11.23
30–34 12.82 13.26 13.37 12.08 12.22 11.6 9.79 9.88 9.62 10.2 11.51 11.48
35–39 12.48 12.8 12.78 11.82 11.28 13.19 8.91 9.11 8.56 9.81 10.38 11.6
40–44 11.84 11.67 11.74 10.3 12.58 12.2 8.36 8.23 7.6 7.97 10.63 11.39
45–49 11.74 11.88 11.81 10.7 12.64 12.24 7.79 7.57 6.61 8.33 9.95 11.68
50–54 11.07 11.17 10.74 10.42 10.2 12.23 7.13 6.68 5.85 6.45 10.02 11.23
55–59 11.1 10.47 9.33 10.65 10.04 12.52 6.44 5.59 4.34 6.42 7.18 11.46
Total 12.44 12.44 12.62 11.4 12.04 12.18 9.03 9 8.65 9.02 10.41 11.44
Notes: Sample intended to be 20–59 year olds who were not studying at the time of the survey. The age start school and number of
Republic of South Africa: An Enduring Tale of Two Unequal Systems
years in school numbers should be considered with caution since these questions were poorly answered. Missing values are imputed
to the average value within age group and population group cells. The probability of non-response on these variables increases with
age, at an increasing rate which is in line with recall difficulties. In addition, young, white better educated men are less likely to have
missing data. The number of years in school is calculated using the age start and end school variables. Weighted means presented
967
Drop-Out
A new procedure for estimating promotion, repetition and dropout rates for
learners in SA schools is proposed. The procedure uses three different data
sources: data from the SA GHS, data from the Education Management
Information Systems, and data from yearly reports published by the
Department of Basic Education. The data from the GHS are utilised to esti-
mate repetition rates for learners in three different age groups. Keeping these
repetition rates fixed, the data from the other two sources are used to estimate
dropout and promotional rates, which are based on a birth-year-cohort
approach for the different age groups. This procedure involves minimising the
difference between actual flow-through rates and simulated flow-through
rates for both the birth-year cohorts and age groups. The procedure gives dif-
ferent results when compared to published literature. Key results on drop-out
and grade repetition are summed up as follows:
(a) Learners who are one year older than the normal age for a certain grade,
have higher repetition rates than learners who are in the other two age
groups.
(b) The dropout rate for learners who are one year younger in than the nor-
mal age in each grade is relative compared to those who are a year and two
years older.
(c) Dropout rates for the norm+ age groups for grades 8 and 11 are higher
relative to the same age groups for the two age groups.
(d) The dropout rate in grade 7 for all three age groups is zero, which is an
unexpected result.
(e) The promotion rates for the norm + age group are lower for grades 8–11,
if compared to the other two age groups. This is expected since higher
repetition and dropout rates were estimated above for this age group in
grades 8–11.
(f ) There is a steady increase in the dropout rates from grades 9–12. The
repetition rates reach a maximum at Grade 10, and decline then towards
grade 12. Reasonable stable promotion rates are observed from grades
1–7, followed by a steady decline from grade 8 towards grade 12.
(g) Crouch (2005) suggests that the correct way to calculate dropout is to
consider age-specific and grade-specific enrolment ratios from the SA
GHS. By using the proportion of learners enrolled, and applying this to
the total population, the number of learners not in school can be
calculated.
(h) Modisaotsile (2012) reported on very high dropout rates and low literacy
and numeracy levels, claiming that 50% of the learners enrolled in grade
1 complete grade 12. He also stated that sexual abuse, pregnancy and
abuse are factors that increase the dropout rate in secondary schooling. In
a study conducted in the KwaZulu-Natal province of SA, Grant and
Hallman (2008) affirmed this by finding a strong correlation between
school performance and pregnancy-related school dropout of female
learners.
Repetition rates should not be considered in isolation, but within the con-
text of dropout and flow-through rates. Repetition rates can also be estimated
from data sources other than GHS. Crouch (2005) cautions that repetition
rates are poorly reported and thus poorly estimated, that 60% of the learners
enrolled in grade 1 do not reach grade 12 or its equivalent in Further Education
and Training colleges.
In summary, empirical data indicates that there is differential return to
schooling for Whites and Blacks with grade repetition and a high drop-out
among Black, mainly African, learners militating against any form of redress.
Data obtained from research on income, household and labour market sur-
veys, national and international assessments provide the basis for u
nderstanding
the phenomenon of the differentials in return to schooling with the potential
to impact on major policy reforms.
(De) Segregation and School Resources
Research points to the link between high drop-out and quality of education –
the latter informs the former. Impacting on drop-out and repetition are issues
of access and quality. Chisholm (2005) claims that despite government’s best
efforts to improve access and quality in education, learner performance is still
low, (Fleisch and Shindler 2007) claim that access to education is lower than
what most published sources suggest, the quality of basic education for a large
proportion of Black learners is substandard (Murtin 2013) and there is no
quality in access to resources, such as laboratories and computers, between
previously disadvantaged schools.
Quality, Access and Performance
Spaull (2015a: 34–41) argues that poor quality of education reinforces an

intergenerational cycle of poverty where poor kids (mainly Black) inherit the
social standing of their parents and/or guardians irrespective of ability and

effort. He addresses key questions on the level of learner achievement, when
inequalities in learning outcomes emerge, the links between education and
the labour market and most importantly why learners drop out. He argues
that neither the matriculation results nor the ANA are reliable indicators of
what learners know and can do. The former only reflects the performance of
50% of learners who started schooling 12 years earlier because they drop out
of school before reaching matric – mainly in grades 10 and 11. The latter is
still in its infancy.
He draws on data from SACMEQ (2007), TIMSS and PIRLS and con-
cludes that local grade 6 learners performed worse than learners in many
poorer African countries whereas 41% of rural grade 6 learners were func-
tionally illiterate compared to only 13% of urban learners in the same
grade.
PIRLS The pre-PIRLS study of 2011 showed large linguistic inequalities,

that is, for those learners whose language of learning and teaching was
Xitsonga, Tshivenda or Sepedi, one in 2 (50%) could not read by the end of
grade 4 (the grades in which reading is the focus) compared to one in 10
(11%) English and Afrikaans children. Such learners would not be able to
engage meaningfully with the curriculum in later years and would therefore
lag behind.
TIMSS TIMSS studies show that the performance of grade 9 learners

improved by approximately one-and-a-half grade levels of learning between
2003 and 2011. Three-quarters (76%) of grade 9 learners in 2011 had not
acquired a basic understanding of whole numbers, decimals, operations or
basic graphs. In TIMSS 2003, 90% of learners had failed to acquire these
skills.
GHS The GHS of 2011 shows that only 44% of Black and Coloured youth
aged 23–24 had attained matric compared to 83% of Indian youth and 88%
of White youth. The inequalities in learning outcomes are large and already
entrenched by the age of eight. Referred to as “cumulative learning deficits”
these learners are disadvantaged when trying to compensate at the high school
exit level (Getting Schools Working).
Surveys Multiple nationally representative surveys reveal that by grade 3 chil-

dren in the poorest schools are already three-years-worth of learning behind
their wealthier peers and as this gap grows, they are 5 years’ worth of learning
behind their wealthier peers (Spaull 2015a: 36). Given the phenomenon of
lagging behind and the terminal nature of grade 12 (learners cannot go beyond
grade 12 regardless of knowledge and skills), there is widespread drop-out at
grades 10 and 11. NIDS also supports this view and correlates it with socio-
economic status and school quality in SA. Grade repetition is not sufficient to
address the problem and other alternative need to be found. Fifty percent
(50%) of grade one learners make it to matric. In 2014, only 532,860 learners
wrote matric (and 403,874 passed) even though there were 1,085,570 learn-
ers in the cohort that started grade one twelve years earlier. He argues that
rather than looking at the matric pass rate as a measure of success, an appro-
priate measure would be to calculate the proportion of a cohort that started
school 12 years ago, passed matric – which would be about 36% in 2014,
down from 40% in 2013. Household surveys, by Gustaffson, indicate that the
four most prominent reasons why students drop out are: (1) lack of financing;
(2) wanting to look for a job; (3) falling grades; and (4) pregnancy (for female
learners). The Quarterly Labour Force Survey (QLFS) confirms that an
unequal education system feeds into and perpetuates an unequal labour
market: +35% of the labour force was unemployed, one in five (+18%) were
employed in unskilled occupations, +32% were employed in semi-skilled jobs
and +15% in highly skilled jobs.
In the end, at least 75–80% of learners come from poor households, do not
have access to quality pre-school education, enter school unprepared, attend
low quality primary and secondary schools with a high drop-out. Such schools
have poor coverage of the curriculum, weak subject and content knowledge
among teachers, low cognitive outcomes and poor educational outcomes. The
opposite holds for the minority privileged group (mainly Whites and Indians).
Resources
As stated under the research tradition from Oligarchy to Democracy, Van der
Berg (2007: 849) maintains that qualitative differentials remain large and
describes the problem as x-inefficiency rather than allocative efficiency. Van
der Berg’s (2008: 145) study also indicated more resources did not necessarily
improve school performance. He claims that international tests indicate that
SA educational quality lags far behind even much poorer countries. Historically
Black schools constitute 80% of enrolment and van der Berg claims that edu-
cational quality in these schools has not improved since political transition.
Key questions in his study include: “What factors inhibit performance in poorer
(mainly Black and Coloured) schools?” and “What is the role of school effective-
ness, socio-economic status (SES) and resources in determining educational perfor-
mance at Grade 6 level in SA?”. He draws data from SACMEQ II, 2001,
school and pupil performance using ordinary least-square (OLS) regressions
for analysis, regressing test scores on various SES measures, school inputs for
the full and reduced sample, controlling for SES and teacher inputs and using
survey regression and hierarchical linear models (HLM). Key to the study is
how effectively schools convert resources into educational outcomes and how
effective are poor schools in overcoming socioeconomic disadvantage (van der
Berg 2008: 145–154). The results indicate that the high interclass correlation
coefficients (rho) reflect far greater between –school variance than for other
countries as reflected in the proportion of overall variance of 0.70 for reading
scores and 0.64 for mathematics scores in SACMEQ II.
Quintile 5 schools (the richest quintile) outperformed the other quintiles
with marks above 500 (the SACMEQ mean), or below 400 (one standard
deviation below this mean). Further, below a certain SES threshold, i ndividual
reading or mathematics score did not improve much with higher SES – most
schools were not able to turn SES into educational advantage.
Regression Analysis
The regression analysis on the full sample indicates that the effect of pupil SES
appeared non-linear with SES playing an increasing role at higher levels and
that pupil attendance, grade repetition, parent education and household
resources were important determinants of academic success. School equip-
ment and infra-structure impacted positively including mathematics (van der
Berg 2008: 148). The regression analysis on the reduced sample (where 10%
of the richest schools were dropped followed by another 10%) indicated that
the major part of educational disparity in SA schools was between rich (mainly
historically White and Indian) schools and other schools – possibly due to
their ability to convert their resources and efficiency into performance (van
der Berg 2008: 148). Regression analysis using quintile regression indicates
that the relationship between scores and explanatory variables were stronger
and higher in richer schools. Regression analysis at the school level indicates
that most regressors were school level equivalent, a strong negative impact for
under-age children, the proportion of male children impacted negatively on
reading, school equipment played a positive role, sharing text-books did not
bring benefits. Regression analysis within hierarchical linear modelling mod-
els and the nesting of pupils within schools indicates that at the average SES
level of 0.00, rich schools outperformed other schools meaning that attending
an affluent school yielded returns in terms of reading and mathematics.
Parental Background
The involvement of parents in their children’s schooling has come to domi-

nate some of the research on factors that influence parental involvement in
their children’s schooling. Ndebele (2015) conducted research on eight public
primary schools, two each from different geographical and socio-economic
areas such as the inner city, suburban and township where six hundred parents
formed part of the study. The focus of the study was parental’s involvement in
homework at the Foundation Phase. Ndebele (2015) highlights that the con-
cept of ‘parents’ in SA is complex found in different family structures such as
the nuclear family, extended families, child-headed households, single-parent
families and multi-generational households (Amoateng et al. 2004). The
study draws on the cultural capital theory of Bourdieu (1977), Bandura’s
(1977) theory of Social Learning, Bronfenbrenner’s (1979) theory of the ecol-
ogy of human development and Epstein’s theory of school and partnerships.
The results indicate that the majority of the parents from across the socio-
economic divide held a positive view towards homework yet parents from low
income groups have fewer homework resources, the majority of whom report
that they only supervise their children’s homework. Yet, at least 70% of par-
ents mainly from the city-centre, peri-urban and township areas did not
supervise, check and sign their children’s homework. Parents from higher
socio-economic groups are more engaged and involved in their children’s
homework than parents from the poorer township and inner city schools. A
lack of assistance in Mathematics was more pronounced among parents in the
two township schools (3 and 8), compared to those in peri-urban and upmar-
ket areas. The highest percentage of parents who read aloud to their children
was in the upmarket suburban school 6 (49%) whereas township schools 3
and 8 had the lowest percentages, with 18. 9% and 22.7%, respectively. The
highest percentage of parents who listened to their children was at school 6,
with 76.5% whereas township schools 3 and 8 had the lowest percentages at
31.5% and 28.6%.
McKeever (2017) adopted inequality theory to examine educational
inequality at the end of the apartheid era and focuses on major transitions
during students’ educational careers. The multinomial regression models
show that strong relationships between race and educational achievement
where non-Whites are less likely to make the transition into lower secondary
school and Africans are the least likely to go to secondary schools that included
studies in Mathematics and/or the Sciences. Further, non-Whites are less
likely to have made the transition to upper secondary school. Overall,
Coloured respondents are much less likely to attend upper secondary school
across all types of schooling than all other groups and Asians are more likely
to attend rigorous schooling than other non-Whites. The respondent’s level of
educational achievement is related to the occupation of the parents and also
the quality of that education. Respondents whose parents had better educa-
tion were more likely to obtain more and better educational levels. Those
whose fathers were working class or lower middle class were less likely to have
attended lower secondary school, while those whose fathers were working
class were less likely to have taken mathematics and/or science than children
of lower middle-class fathers.
The study also found that parental background is crucially related to edu-
cational achievement for Africans in SA. The most common outcome for
those whose parents had low education and lower educational attainment is
not attending lower secondary school, whereas respondents whose parents
had less education but held better jobs are most likely to attend a lower sec-
ondary school. Among those African students whose fathers attained only a
lower level of education, not attending higher secondary school was the most
common outcome. Among the children of more highly educated fathers,
African men with fathers who held working-class jobs were most likely to not
attend secondary school at all (McKeever 2017: 127–128).
Other research has shown that the level of education of caregivers and eco-
nomic resources of the home are major predictors of educational success
(Anderson et al. 2001; Liddell and Rae 2001; Sibanda 2005; Thomas 1996;
Townsend et al. 2002). The study supports the idea that qualitative differ-
ences matter even when quantitative differences are pervasive (McKeever
2017: 128).
In summary, quality appears to be measured against performance on
national and international assessments with Black learners in mainly poorly
resourced schools performing far worse than their counterparts in the histori-
cally White and better resourced schools. Whilst reasons for poor performance
are attributed to a lack of resources and the home and community environ-
ment, an important observation is the inability of weak performing schools to
convert resources into equitable outcomes. An enduring feature is that the
culture of learning from the apartheid era still remain (Fiske and Ladd 2004;
Smith 2011).
Teacher Training and Pedagogy
Teacher training and pedagogy continue to play a critical role in what is per-
ceived as the most salient conduit between the process of policy-making and
implementation. Emerging studies focus on aspects of placing the teacher at
the centre of the community with the intention of providing a holistic teach-
ing and learning experience.
Teacher Training, Community and Rurality
With respect to teacher education, Islam (2012: 19–29) draws on an evalua-

tion experience of a teacher education preparation project in a rural school in
SA and explains the need to focus on teacher education with strong connec-
tions to the local context including broader socio-political and cultural per-
spectives. He relies on Lave and Wenger (1991) and Wenger (1998) theory of
Communities of Practice (CoP) which emphasises the social process of learn-
ing which is shaped, re-shaped and mediated by members of a community
within the larger socio-cultural environment. The data was collected using
participatory evaluation and analysed using the abductive and constant com-
parison method. Some of the results indicate that the perception of rural
schools being poverty-stricken was challenged by the sense of community and
care displayed by in-teachers. Pre-service teachers also involved themselves in
after-school activities thereby broadening their view on teaching and learning
in a rural context. Some pre-service teachers were motivated to teach in rural
schools while others were shocked at the inequality between the urban and
rural setting. Whilst one pre-service teacher stated: “I discovered a very good
teacher in myself. I am confident that I can bring a positive change and hope in
the lives of the students affected by poverty, gender violence and HIV and AIDS”
another stated: “I am discouraged to see that rural schools do not have electricity,
drinking water and sanitation. I cannot teach in this situation.” Finally, pre-
service teachers were of the view that a discourse on rural education was absent
in the “…existing dominant curriculum and practices” Islam (2012: 25).
Striking in this statement is the perceived lack of awareness by university
departments on the inequalities between urban and rural schools.
In developing a model for understanding student teacher learning in a rural
project, Pennefather (2016: 216–229) focuses on three interconnected and
complementary aspects: situated learning, rurality and early professional
learning against the challenges presented by the unequal and diverse nature of
the SA schooling system. The question was whether a supervised teaching
practice in a rural context could contribute to the development of student

teachers’ professional learning and their preparation to teach in a range of
contexts. A case study method within an interpretive paradigm was used
focusing on meanings, descriptions and multiple realities of student learning
based on data sources, interviews, focus groups, questionnaires and document
analysis with students enrolled on the Postgraduate Certificate in Education
(PGCE) (Pennefather 2016: 219). The results indicate one danger where stu-
dent’s existing views of rural education could be reinforced or for them to
reproduce examples of poor teaching. Be that as it may, such a study has the
potential to explain challenges and opportunities student and novice teachers
face in rural contexts as well as to understand the enabling conditions under
which these opportunities can be exploited.
In their study of what it means to be a teacher in a rural school, Pillay and
Saloojee (2012: 43–52) use data techniques from life history and collage com-
positions with one teacher where they focused on his daily lived experience
and the social realities of working in a context of rural education. The results
indicate that the lives of teachers in rural schools cannot be studied and
explained in simplistic terms, that personal history in intertwined with teacher
identity, that endurance and improvisation are required by teachers and that:
“…a teacher’s capacity to disrupt and challenge stereotypical meanings of
rural schooling involves ongoing dialogue with the self, with teachers, with
learners and the wider community” Pillay and Saloojee (2012: 43).
Continuous Professional Development and In-Service Training
Continuous professional development (CPD) or in-service training of educa-

tors is the state’s key instrument in improving school performance. Yet, Taylor
and Shindler (2016: 12) are of the view that not much has been achieved with
CPD and that in-service training “…does not appear to have any significant
effect on student performance.” and that internal supervision by the principal or
another teacher is more effective (Raudenbush et al. 1993). They conclude
that the priority is to evaluate individual programmes and build a knowledge
base that guides effective policy, programme design and classroom practice.
As a consequence of aligning its teacher education policies with interna-
tional requirements, teacher education, initial professional education of teach-
ers and CPD has attracted unprecedented attention as seen in the policy
documents (a) National Policy Framework for Teacher Education (NPFTED),
and (b) the Integrated Strategic Planning Framework for Teacher Education
and Development in South Africa (Diko 2013). Relying on secondary data
such as the report titled “Trends in Teacher Education 2008–2009” (2010)

and the National Teacher Education Audit, Diko (2013) found that whilst a
number of teachers have upgraded their qualifications mainly through the
distance mode (a) there was a reduction in the number of students who
enrolled on teacher education programmes, (b) a shortage of qualified teach-
ers in Mathematics, and (c) initial teacher education providers were concen-
trated in the richest provinces. Furthermore, while disaggregated data assisted
in identifying areas of specialization, concerns remain around (a) regulating
CPD for delivery at the provincial, regional and district levels, (b) the regula-
tion of CPD by the South African Council for Educators, (c) ownership of
research by universities and the inclusion of international collaboration to
inform policy formulation and implementation, (d) the majority of founda-
tion phase teachers are White females, and (e) early childhood development is
not given the same value as general education and training. HIV/AIDS con-
tinues to impact negatively on teacher supply.
Research Paradigm
Not only is there an absence of rural education in the teacher education cur-
riculum, Moletsane (2012: 1–8) argues that a lack of social change is due in
large part to the dominance of research paradigms that ignore the voices of the
most marginalised and the intended beneficiaries of the interventions.
Framing the study within critical theory, Moletsane (2012: 1–8) reflects on
the nature of rurality, maps the issues that face rural communities, explores
the limitations of dominant research paradigms and their impact on social
change. Some deficits identified in research paradigms are that the researcher
and researched are separated as “us” and “them” which leads to unequal power
relations. The tendency is to focus on what is lacking rather than what is not
in rural communities. For example, either the learner’s background (rural) or
school/teacher performance are used to explain poor performance when the
reasons are far more complex. A significant resource is the resilience and
strength displayed by learners in rural communities that need to be harnessed
“… in developing interventions to effect social change in these communities.”,
which in the end must inform policy and transformation. In this regard, the
studied must themselves study themselves and the researcher must become
participants by studying rural schools from the perspective of all those who
inhabit such spaces. Another resource is the use of participatory visual meth-
odologies (e.g. writing, drawing, visual mapping, participatory video and
photography) as they foster research aimed at social change, engage partici-
pants as active agents of change (especially at the grass-roots) and produce

interventions informed by strength (Moletsane 2012: 5).
In summary, the research highlights a lack of recognition of the margin-
alised in the manner in which research paradigms are conceptualised in that
they ignore the voices of those it studies and the intended beneficiaries. In this
regard, the researcher and the studied must engage in a transparent and equal
manner where the “…studied must themselves study themselves…” and the
researcher becomes fully immersed in the lives of those he researchers. Such a
practice, as indicated in the discussion, would lean towards methods born of
critical theory, social processes of learning, mediation, participatory visual
methodologies, situated learning and the daily lived experience. Such meth-
ods are useful in so far as they foster research aimed at social change, engage
participants as active agents of change at the grass-roots and produce inter-
ventions informed by strength. Information on student learning based on
data sources, interviews, focus groups, questionnaires and document analysis
serve to capture both the qualitative and quantitative experience. Early profes-
sional development of teachers and pre-service teaching are essential.
Charting Inequalities in Student Outcomes
In South Africa, basic education consists of nine years of schooling. It is com-

pulsory for all children aged between 7 and 15 years of age from Grade 1 to
Grade 9. The figures on enrolment indicate that universal access to education
has been achieved with 98.8% participation rate for those learners who fall
within the compulsory age group (7–15 years of age). The participation rate
for 7–13 year olds is 99.3% and 90.3% for 14–18 year olds (Taylor and
Shindler 2016: 9). However, the situation for learners 16–18 year-olds who
are no longer subject to compulsory education is a cause for concern. In 2013,
86.1% of 16–18 year olds were attending an educational institution – an
increase of 3.1% from 82.9% in 2002 (Taylor and Shindler 2016: 9).
Mathematics, Science and Literacy
The 2008 SACMEQ scores for Mathematics at Grade 6 show that SA is out-
performed by eight surrounding countries whose Gross Democratic Product
is much lower than SA clearly illustrating that poorer countries with lower
resources than SA achieve higher quality (Taylor and Shindler 2016: 9).
Twenty percent of the richest schools are outperformed by Kenya and
Mauritius and the scores for the rest of the schools fall below those of the
SACMEQ all-country means (Taylor and Shindler 2016: 10). The 2007
SACMEQ scores show that SA came tenth out of 15 countries for reading
and eight for mathematics. The SACMEQ 2010 test scores do show an
improvement (Taylor and Shindler 2016: 10; Spaull 2013a, b). The TIMSS
2011 tests indicate an increase from 285 in 2002 to 352 in 2011 in
Mathematics and from 268 to 332 in science (Reddy et al. 2015). However,
SA still lags behind other countries at a similar stage of development (Taylor
and Shindler 2016: 10).
Several government led policies, programmes, interventions and strategies
to improve the state of mathematics and science in schools have been in place
since 1994. In the 2008/2009 financial year, the private sector spent approxi-
mately R2 billion (1.4% of the total spend) to support these initiatives (Reddy
and Juan 2013: 41). The Dinaledi project is one such example.
Reddy and Juan (2013) analyse school mathematics through an analysis of
the performance of learners by drawing on empirical studies such as TIMSS,
ANA and SACMEQ. The results indicate that (a) in TIMSS 2011, the aver-
age performance in Dinaledi schools is around one grade higher [(392) (SE
10.8)] than public schools [(348) (SE 2.5)]; (b) constant curriculum changes
cause confusion and anxiety for teachers; (c) high levels of training of teachers
have not yielded expected outcomes; (d) a lack of suitably qualified mathe-
matics and science teachers; (e) the requirement that students at the Further
Education and Training phase participate in mathematics literacy or mathe-
matics; (f ) teachers lacking subject knowledge; (g) the 2002 NEIMS data
shows that 79.3% of schools did not have libraries, 60.2% did not have labo-
ratories and 67.9% did not have computer labs; (h) improving teacher quali-
fications for mathematics literacy; (i) from 2008 to 2012, there was an increase
in participation in mathematics literacy at Grade 10 from 47% to 56%; (j)
the national mathematics mean scores are low; (k) the national average math-
ematics achievement score at different grades across the schooling system has
not shown any improvement, except for 2011; (l) the performance of students
is dependent on their socio-economic backgrounds which requires a disag-
gregation of the performance scores into relevant groupings; (m) the emphasis
for a school level analysis; (n) few top performing students are globally com-
petitive; (o) from 2002 to 2011, the national average mathematics and science
score for public schools increased by 63 points and 60 points, respectively,
indicating an improvement by one and a half grade level over two cycles of
TIMSS; (p) from 1995 to 2002, the South African score distribution for both
mathematics and science, from the 5th to 95th percentile, was one of the wid-
est for all countries participating in TIMSS – reflecting the wide disparity in
society and schools; (q) the achievement scores at the lowest levels (5th per-
centile) come from learners from low-income households, the most disadvan-
taged schools, African schools and quintile 1, 2 and 3 non-fee paying schools,
thereby indicating that disaggregation of mean scores by different categories is
essential for analysis and interventions; (r) learners from African schools
showed great improvements in achievement in TIMSS from 2002 to 2011 (s)
there is an inequitable performance at provincial level; and (t) the school must
be a unit of analysis as it substitutes for a lack of cultural capital and home
support.
In a study carried out by Reddy and van der Berg as cited in Reddy and
Juan (2013: 51) on school performance in mathematics for the period
1998–2003 based on an examination of the database, it was found that some
schools consistently produced high quality mathematics passes over a six year
period (established schools), some schools showed potential to produce high
quality mathematics passes (emergent schools) and some schools consistently
produced low results. Table 22.4 below provides a breakdown for two prov-
inces, that is, Gauteng and Free State.
The figures clearly illustrate a wide disparity among the former White and
Black schools. Reddy and Juan (2013) concludes that enduring quality and
predictability are required to produce high quality mathematics passes and
that a greater focus should be on what happens inside classrooms and schools
for any intervention to be effective. Despite a great deal of resources spent on
teacher training, the nature, quality and outcomes are questionable and aspects
like work-ethics, work values and cultures are not necessarily accounted for.
The result of PIRLS 2006 and 2011 indicate that achievement of Grades 4
and 5 students fall below the international norm, despite being tested in
eleven official languages, and speakers of African languages achieve the lowest
scores. Further, South African students were one or two years older than their
international counterparts (Heugh 2013: 11). Despite reports produced after
an evaluation of the ‘The Status of the Language of Learning and Teaching
(LoLT) in South African Public Schools’ and the ‘Colloquium on Language
in the Schooling System’ in 2010, Heugh (2013) is of the view that no new
and substantive language policy was put into place. In other words, there
appear to be no attempts to address the issue of language in the school cur-
riculum with respect to linguistic diversity and multilingualism.
A study conducted by Sosibo (2016) using a questionnaire and interviews
and triangulated with students’ academic records on the effect of language on
African student teachers’ excellence in mathematics taught through the
medium of English as a second language revealed that (a) linguistic capital
facilitated an understanding and excellence in mathematics; (b) some saw no
Table 22.4 Established, emergent and low performing schools in Gauteng and Free State
Gauteng Free State
Number of Established Emergent Low Number of Established Emergent Low
Ex-department schools base base performer schools base base performer
Black 262 3 45 214 228 11 47 170
White 168 119 35 14 42 22 8 12
Reddy and Juan (2013: 15)
Republic of South Africa: An Enduring Tale of Two Unequal Systems
981
relationship between linguistic capital and mathematics; (c) competence in

mathematics was attributed to intrinsic attributes such as human agency; and
(d) human agency can lead to success in mathematics regardless of a pre-
disposition to the cultural-linguistic capital of English. The implications of
the results are that African students who learn Mathematics through English
as a second language have the ability to excel if intrinsically motivated.
In conclusion, international tests such as SACMEQ, TIMSS and PIRLS
are an important measure of South Africa’s performance in mathematics, sci-
ence and literacy both regionally and globally. Whilst the results do not look
promising, indications are that SA would be closer to the TIMSS centrepoint
by 2023 (Reddy and Juan 2013: 53). The distinction made between high
performing and poor performing schools in mathematics and science serves to
steer policy and interventions potentially in the right direction. The study
conducted by Sosibo (2016) is a positive signal on how human agency can
transcend barriers and limitations to the successful study of mathematics by
African learners for whom English is a second language.
Rural Education
According to the Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) 2004–2005

annual report, between 60% and 70% of school age learners in Africa are
enrolled in rural schools. In SA, more than 14 million people live in rural
contexts (SA National Statistical Office 2014) as cited in Pennefather (2016).
As already indicated, the inequalities that find its roots in apartheid manifest
in what is called a bimodal schooling system where infrastructure, resourcing
and results from national and international benchmarking tests are distinctly
unequal for the former White and Black schools (Spaull 2012 as cited in
Pennefather 2016). The African Learning Barometer indicates that only about
half of sub-Saharan Africa’s 128 million school-aged children attending school
are likely to acquire the basic skills needed for them to live healthy and pro-
ductive lives. There are continuing disparities in learning between urban and
rural schools with rural children being the most disadvantage when it comes
to access and quality education (Agbor 2012: 1–2).
The challenges of social justice, poor and/or absent infrastructure and poor
quality emerge in most of the research conducted. Most of the studies are
framed in the discourse of human rights. Many view that education as a
human right remains elusive for most South Africans, especially Africans
Hlalele (2012: 111–118).
Resources, Poor Quality and Breaking the Cycle of Poverty
In a case study conducted by Mentz et al. (2012: 70–78) on the empower-

ment of Information Technology (IT) teachers in Black rural schools in the
North West province, involving only two Grade 10 teachers in a Black rural
school, and a qualitative comparative study involving semi-structured inter-
views, it was found that teachers experience problems around access to inter-
net, lack of technical support and learners not having computers at home. In
some cases there is a lack or absence of electricity, shortage of text-books and
insufficient software. The recommendations are that continuous support is
required from the Department of Basic Education, as once off provision is
inadequate and partnerships need to be forged between Department of Basic
Education, the provincial Departments of Education (DoE), the school and
the teacher.
Moreover, Ebersohn and Ferreira (2012: 30–42) found that although simi-
larities existed in the way in which teachers promoted resilience, rural schools
took longer to implement strategies to garner and sustain support. As part of
a longitudinal intervention study called (STAR) which stands for Supportive
Teachers, Assets and Resilience, the results indicate that the variables of space,
place, time and agency hampered resilience initiatives but through relation-
ships teachers were able to prioritise needs and be aware of available resources.
With the reconfiguring of place and agency teachers were able to negotiate the
challenges of these variables.
Balfour (2012: 9–18) uses the generative theory of rurality as education
research and considers the three variables of forces, agencies and resources. He
draws on data from the Rural Teacher Education Project (RTEP) to indicate
the insights elicited such as “…consisting of three mutually affecting and dynamic
variables, can be used successfully to account for the extent to which the context in
(rural) education can be effective, transformative or dysfunctional depending on
how teachers regulate the relationship between space, place and time; and second,
data from RTEP might be read in terms of the provisions made in such a
theory.”
Far-reaching questions emerged on a study conducted by De Lange et al.
(2012: 79–80) on a farm school which explored children’s views of family life
in a rural area. Data was obtained using drawing as a visual participatory
methodology with 16 primary school children, aged between 6 and 10. The
questions that emerge seek to understand the rural environment as a either a
deficient space or one that is full of possibilities for the development of chil-
dren. “What can be done in terms of resources to break the cycle of poverty? How
can the DBE provide quality teachers (including multi-grade teaching), encourage
a culture of learning and complete homework. The position of the school as a centre
for community development where children and families are enabled to acquire
appropriate knowledge, skills and values for making a goodlife.” Research indi-
cates that rural children are heterogeneous and have the capacity to navigate
their localities in complex and autonomous ways (Morojele and Muthukrishna
2012: 90–100). Twelve children, 6 were male and 6 were female, from three
different rural villages in Lesotho took part in individual and focus group
interviews which were preceded by participatory research techniques such as
family drawings, route mapping and diamond ranking that engaged children
in dialogue and discussion. The results indicate that children “…actively define
and re-define the varied places, power-laden spaces and social relations embedded
in a journey.”
Social Justice, Community and Culture
A study framed in a distributive paradigm that looks at social justice as a

proper distribution of social benefits and burdens among members of society
acknowledges diversity as an inherent feature of education and existence, that
rural education needs to embrace difference, shape demands and model social
benefits in accordance with the reality of a particular setting (Hlalele 2012:
111–118). The implication being that social justice should be perceived as a
humanizing process – a response to human diversity in terms of ability, socio-
economic circumstances, choice and rights.
Since AIDS is a huge threat in rural communities, Khau (2012: 61–69)
studied the need and impact of sexuality education and HIV and AIDS edu-
cation in rural classrooms. The focus was on how eight women teachers expe-
rienced teaching sexuality and HIV and AIDS. Focus group interviews and
thematic inductive analysis reveal that there are obstacles to such teaching in
the form of cultural, traditional and societal taboos on sexuality teaching to
young ‘innocent’ kids, the focus of sexuality teaching with respect to safety
and the teacher’s fear of addressing issues of sexual pleasure. Furthermore,
there is no link between traditional and formal schooling. In the end, the cur-
riculum needs to consider the interplay between “…gender dynamics and cul-
tural politics”, with the involvement of parents and traditional leaders as
resources.
Whilst it may appear that rural learners are backward or inferior,
Mahlomaholo (2012: 101–110) found that there were equal numbers of early
school leavers from the rural and urban parts of the North-West province who
left early for similar reasons. The implication is that rural learners are not
backward or inferior but that they are excluded from curriculum practices
that do not address their circumstances directly. The study is framed on Yosso’s
(2005) theory on community cultural wealth, which seeks to establish the
level to which schooling provided in rural schools is relevant, meaningful and
rooted in learner’s experiences Mahlomaholo (2012: 102). From a study com-
missioned by the North-West Education Department (Mahlomaholo et al.
2010), 15,695 out of 53,000 English second language learners who started
school in Grade 1 in 1998 but did not reach Grade 12 in 2009 were traced
with a focus on two districts which were the most rural and two urban schools.
Focus group interviews which were tape recorded, transcribed and translated
only from the Setswana texts into English were subjected to critical discourse
analysis and interpreted at the level of discursive practice and social structures
(Van Dijk 2009: 104). Whilst there are no differences between urban and
rural students, problems experienced in these rural schools range from poor
infra-structure, under-resourced schools, absence of transport, modes of
teaching that depart from the learner-centered approach, teacher and learner
fatigue, teachers required to reach a number of grades in one class, absence of
parents, parents who cannot assist with homework and teachers lack of sub-
ject content knowledge and teaching methodology. A positive feature is the
resilience of rural learners, which, Mahlomaholo (2012: 108) views as cultural
wealth which can be capitalised on through the creation of sustainable learn-
ing environments.
In summary, there is growing and credible research on the nature of educa-
tion in rural schools, the factors that contribute to inequalities, how and why
they lag behind and the role of various stakeholders. Longitudinal and explor-
ative studies, distributive and generative paradigms, linked to social justice
and distribution of benefits indicate that for the most part, children in rural
schools, mainly African, are excluded from the curriculum and the broader
project of schooling. Challenges revolve around poor quality of teaching to
poor infra-structure, a notable feature being that rural learners are resilient.
Justifiably, recommendations are made on teacher education linked to socio-
political and cultural perspectives, the inclusion of rural education in the cur-
riculum for teacher education and challenging stereotypes of rural education.
Moletsane (2012: 1–8) makes the important observation of “…the dominance
of research paradigms that ignore the voices of the most marginalised and the
intended beneficiaries of the interventions”, as a factor that must be guarded
against.
Conclusion and Discussion

The substantive, detailed and specific empirical data on racial inequalities in
education points to a deeply divided and unequal education system based on
race, class and an inescapable legacy of historical exclusion making even the
most progressive policies almost impossible to implement. These conclusions
are a continuation of those drawn in the previous chapter. However, there are
some gains with respect to universal access. Not surprisingly then, there is an
emerging set of research in the research tradition, from oligarchy to democ-
racy, that focuses on social justice and policy reform and a special emphasis on
rural education. In a sense, the 1976 revolution led by students for a better
education has come full circle finding its fullest expression in the concept of
bimodality of student performance and forcing policy makers and stakehold-
ers to interrogate the continuing contradictions and inequalities inherent in a
system whose main focus is redress. Whilst the concept of bimodality was not
recurrent in the previous chapter, it has come to occupy a central role in the
current research, extending the notion of inequality from mere exclusion to
explain the absence or lack of social cohesion in the schooling system. The
culture of learning among Black schools which collapsed in the apartheid
period, from 1948 to 1994, continues to haunt Black schools and quality or
the lack thereof has come to be a defining reason for poor performance of
learners in predominantly Black schools, especially in Mathematics and
Science. An unacceptable and unproductive pattern of behaviour among
Black learners is the high rate of grade repetition and drop-out. Family back-
ground and the low level of parental education and involvement are contribu-
tory factors. As a consequence, the low return to schooling find many Blacks
trapped in a cycle of poverty thereby perpetuating inter-generational poverty.
For those learners who are fortunate enough to migrate to the former better
performing White and Indian schools the chances of success does improve.
Whilst the research traditions are rich on the nature of the inequalities, there
is very little substantive data, at a systems level, on the way forward. Ultimately,
it must be acknowledged that the cleavage between policy and its implemen-
tation is at a point of no return, especially for poor Black learners.
Given the systemic nature of the pervasive inequalities, the general survey,
the national survey, the income survey, the community survey, the household
survey, the labour force survey, the quarterly labour force survey, census data
and statistics on living standards and development, data from the Education
Management Information Systems, reports from the Department of Education
and case studies serve as useful tools in gathering data on performance and its
association with learners’ socio-economic background. By far, these studies

yield rich data which should be beneficial for policy-makers. Results from
assessments such as the NSC, ANA, PIRLS, TIMSS and SACMEQ consis-
tently point towards poor performance among Black learners even when com-
pared with learners from the poorest countries. These results are consistent
with those produced by sophisticated methods such as the ordinary least
square regressions for analysis and regressing test scores on various SES mea-
sures, survey regression, hierarchical linear models and multinomial regres-
sion models. It is noted that these quantitative methods of analysis dominated
the research and its findings in the previous chapter.
Various theories of development incorporating notions of community
frame much of the qualitative research pointing towards the need for a trans-
formative rather than a quantitative approach towards understanding inequal-
ities. These include the cultural capital theory, theory on community cultural
wealth, communities of practice, social learning theory, theory of the ecology
of human development, Epstein’s theory of school and partnership, inequality
theory, generative theory of rurality and the distributive paradigm.
Methodologies are informed by notions of voice, agency and human rights
such as the visual participatory methodology, focus group interviews, lan-
guage study and ethnographic study. A key feature of these methods is the
focus on human rights as noted in the pedagogies described as humanizing,
critical, empowering, transformative and democratic. Democratic participa-
tion is seen to serve a human rights and citizenship discourse. This being the
case, language and its texts form the bedrock of meaningful dialogue that
must encourage students to engage in curricular creating modes of knowledge
that are just. The inclusion of new forms of theory such as “community cul-
tural wealth” and “ecology theory” expand on the conclusions drawn in the
previous chapter paving the way for policy makers to make more informed
decisions.
Moletsane (2012: 1–8) makes the significant contribution that in a context
of the strong versus the weak one needs to guard against research paradigms
that: “… ignore the voices of the most marginalised and intended beneficiaries.”
This being the case, research methods that consider, regard, respect and
acknowledge the “other” are essential noting some concerns that racial inte-
gration in schools is a myth and that schools have been incapable of promot-
ing human rights, critical thinking and a sense of citizenship. Social justice
becomes more prominent when looking at rural schools which are poorly
resourced with poorly qualified teachers and which take longer to implement
strategies. The call for a humanizing research methodology contributes to and
reinforces the need for social justice as understood and sometimes “not
known” by the marginalised.
The dominant research traditions focus largely on the failure of the system
to promote social cohesion and redress, which were similarly noted in the
previous review. In the main, the research tends to focus on the deficit model
rather than what can be harnessed in the context of severe poverty and
inequalities. The critical research traditions can be summed up as follows:
(a) Despite the progressive policies and massive resource shifts, systemic and
historical inequalities endure resulting in differential returns to schooling
with Whites continuing to be privileged over Blacks as evidenced by the
statistical data drawn from surveys and the census. That efficiency rather
than allocation of resources is a causal factor cannot be ignored. The
emancipatory project of democracy post-1994 has not benefited its
intended beneficiaries.
(b) To measure success on the basis of a single schooling system is misleading
since, in reality, there are two schooling systems. These are the former
White largely functional schools and those who have the means to access
it and the former Black largely dysfunctional schools and those who can-
not escape them. The apartheid continuity thus prevails over the school-
ing system within the context of racial, social, cultural, geographic, class
and language differences.
(c) Grade repetition and drop-out continue to be correlated with race and
income even though there has been improvement for Africans in school-
ing over time. White men and White women continue to spend more
time in school than African men and women noting that returns to
schooling increases on completion of secondary schooling and is the
highest after post-secondary schooling. By Grade 10, over 50% of African
males and over 40% of African females have repeated at least one Grade
and it is much higher among the lower quintiles. Fifty percent (50%) of
learners enrolled in Grade 1 complete Grade 12. Social issues such as
HIV-AIDS, sexual abuse, pregnancy, lack of or weak parental involve-
ment and child headed households cannot be ignored. Repeating a grade
is not necessarily a solution and other solutions need to be sought.
Research has also proposed different ways of estimating drop-out with
specific reference to the use of age-specific and grade-specific ratios.
(d) Invariably, quality or the lack thereof occupies a central place in all of the
research undertaken. Key issues relate to efficiency of the system and the
school in converting inputs into outputs, resourcing rural schools, teacher
development, school management development, compensating for a lack
of parental involvement and weak socio-economic background. There is

the continued emphasis on building Mathematics and Science education
among African learners.
(e) The emergence of research on social justice and policy reform are in direct
response to the continuing inequalities noting that the social divisions in
society are so great that attempts at social cohesion and redress are almost
futile. This then challenges the critical role of education in a racially
divided society whose main Constitutional mandate is redress. The cur-
riculum and the focus on different types of pedagogies then becomes the
site of contestation for concerns on citizenship, democracy, transforma-
tion and empowerment.
(f ) A major challenge is the quality of schooling in rural communities that
constitute 60–70% of school age learners in Africa. Perhaps, the western
model of education as applied in developed societies has limitations with
respect to values, culture and ethos when applied to rural contexts in the
developing and under-developed societies. There is thus a definite need
for a re-conceptualisation of applicable models of education in rural con-
texts and the associated tools used to measure success.
In many ways, the conclusions drawn in the current chapter are similar to
those drawn in the previous chapter. First, progressive policies and massive
resource shifts have not led to greater social cohesion. Second, a bimodal sys-
tem of education differentiated along the lines of Whites and Blacks contin-
ues, if not in law then in practice. Third, efficiency, quality, repetition and
drop-out rates continue to be highly correlated with race and income. Fourth,
there is the continued reliance on statistical data drawn from surveys and
census. Newer research continues the focus on the phenomenon of the “two
schooling systems” and the danger in measuring success on the basis of a sin-
gle schooling system. There is also growing research on social problems that
affect schooling in poor communities, social justice and policy reform.
A major challenge is the quality of schooling in rural communities that
constitute 60–70% of school age learners in Africa. Perhaps, the western
model of education as applied in developed societies has limitations with
respect to values, culture and ethos when applied to rural contexts in the
developing and under-developed societies. There is thus a definite need for a
re-conceptualisation of applicable models of education in rural contexts and
the associated tools used to measure success. The challenge around education,
race and equity is an all pervasive systemic national issue that affects almost
90% of the population. All of the research undertaken in the previous and
current review consistently point towards the enduring inequalities in educa-
tion between Black and White learners: from the problematic implementa-
tion of policy to the widening gap between the centre and the periphery, all of
which is embedded within a global neo-liberal economic system.
Some of the research undertaken provides useful suggestions such as teacher
development, placing the curricular on par with citizenship education, adopt-
ing humanizing pedagogies, getting universities to include rurality in their
teacher education programmes, including social issues in the curriculum,
repositioning the school as the centre for community development and forc-
ing provincial and national departments to review its policy and
implementation.
In light of the above, the role of national research agenda must focus on the
(re)-development and (re)-implementation of educational policy. Specific to
this agenda must be a focus on how inequalities in education can be reduced
noting that the number of social grant beneficiaries exceed the number of
employed people. The first key challenge would be to identify research
paradigms and research questions that go beyond stating the obvious inequal-
ities and yield suggestions on improvement. Alongside the large quantitative
data-sets that provide valuable statistics on academic (under) performance,
current research has provided useful suggestions on redress, even if it is at the
micro-level. The embedded nature of learner experience within an impover-
ished context is critical. The current research traditions, especially the ones on
social justice, policy reform and rural education provide suggestions on “how”
inequalities can be addressed. This tradition needs to be further developed.
Finally, seven factors are critical for any assessment of performance. First,
the unit of analysis must be the school, as a sub-system, within the provincial
and national systems. Second, the impact of the development and implemen-
tation of policy must account for the bimodal nature of SA education. Third,
the imperatives of policy implementation, must, when the situation demands,
be closely regulated and accounted for, especially by the recipients. A lassez
faire approach cannot be allowed. Fourth, in a developing society, whose
economy is currently unsustainable, the role of “whole” communities with
respect to any form of education and development cannot be ignored. Fifth,
in cases where there is widespread poverty and struggles around adaption to
newer forms of learning, as in SA, inter-generational studies have the poten-
tial to provide useful insights on how previously marginalized people over-
come inequality. Sixth, international and national studies such as TIMSS and
SACMEQ II are also valuable sources of information measuring educational
outcomes at an earlier level, but must be treated cautiously. Seventh, qualita-
tive studies that seek the real nature and cause of inequalities need to be devel-
oped as evidenced by some of the research undertaken.
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Republic of South Africa An Enduring Tale of Two Unequal System

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22

Republic of South Africa: An Enduring Tale

© The Author(s) 2019 931

­ ersistence of many of the issues raised in the previous chapter. Continued

The Educational System of the Country

The Apartheid Period

Prior to the advent of inclusive democracy in 1994, SA had a highly frag-

Resistance to Apartheid Education

The Immediate Post-apartheid Period: 1994–2010

compensated for granting fee exemptions, and have a strong disincentive to

responsibility of the Department to act on the results, to provide training and

Two Decades After Democracy: The Period 2010–2017

Measuring Educational Quality (SACMEQ4), TIMSS5 and PIRLS,6 have

Evidence is therefore mounting to suggest that whatever interventions,

 ain Migration Patterns and Composition and Size

As indicated in the previous chapter, there is no documented research on the

Despite this substantial pattern of migration, South African schools can

 evelopments in Terms of Relevant Educational

Discussion on policy developments within the education system is similarly

The Apartheid Period

Resistance to Apartheid Period

The Immediate Post-apartheid Period 1994–2010

indigenous form of Outcomes-Based Education (OBE) which departed fun-

The Period After Two Decades of Democracy: 2011–2017

The Department of Education was split into the Department of Higher

Policy Statement11 (2012, CAPS, Department of Basic Education). This is the

Taylor and Shindler (2016),15 also in a commissioned report, recognise that

Gustafsson (2017) at the University of Stellenbosch16 has analysed the leg-

(a) Twelve years of compulsory schooling by 2030 (currently only 9 are

(e) A second year of pre-school for all children; and

(a) A report titled “Identifying binding constraints in education”, prepared by

Each of these reports draws certain conclusions and makes recommenda-

Thirdly, more suitable curriculum documents, and training associated with

Despite the progressive schooling policies and the Constitutional mandate

additional grades compared to African and Coloured groups (Branson and

Pedagogy, Democracy and Democratic Citizenship

In advancing the concept of democratic citizenship, the Department of Basic

88–111) analyse citizenship and education in SA through different phases

t­ransformative agents and pedagogy is encouraged to accommodate social

Policy Development: State Versus Resistance Movements

Policy and Its Failures

democratic country that had inherited a racially segregated and dysfunctional

The Need for Re-thinking Policy

One of the challenges facing effective policy-making and decision making is

taining to education in SA that inform or could inform policy making. He

Whilst Taylor and Shindler (2016),21 also in a commissioned report, recognise

Curriculum and Social Justice

remain contradictory and contested and cannot be separated from conflicting

Different Types of Pedagogies for the Sub-Altern

Communication and dialogue as embedded in different types of pedagogies

rationale for revising commonly held assumptions on social justice education,

The Impact of the Removal of Race-Based Policies

Given the stark inequalities in the SA schooling system, it comes as no sur-

Two Schooling Systems

Why Two Schooling Systems?

Adopting development theory as a framework, Harber and Mncube (2011)

ity schooling persists as a result of extreme poverty. Unequal access to quality

Two Schooling Systems, Race, Class and Culture

An ethnographic study of language study conducted in a public school in Cape

“…demonstrable ability of such analysis to integrate language variation, cultural

Racial (De) Segregation: Causes and Consequences

Table 22.1 Returns to one additional year of schooling by race

Table 22.2 Returns to one additional year of schooling by gender

ersistence of many of the issues raised in the previous chapter. Continued

The Educational System of the Country

The Apartheid Period

Resistance to Apartheid Education

The Immediate Post-apartheid Period: 1994–2010

Two Decades After Democracy: The Period 2010–2017

ain Migration Patterns and Composition and Size

evelopments in Terms of Relevant Educational

The Apartheid Period

Resistance to Apartheid Period

The Immediate Post-apartheid Period 1994–2010

The Period After Two Decades of Democracy: 2011–2017

Pedagogy, Democracy and Democratic Citizenship

transformative agents and pedagogy is encouraged to accommodate social

Policy Development: State Versus Resistance Movements

Policy and Its Failures

The Need for Re-thinking Policy

Curriculum and Social Justice

Different Types of Pedagogies for the Sub-Altern

The Impact of the Removal of Race-Based Policies

Two Schooling Systems

Why Two Schooling Systems?

Two Schooling Systems, Race, Class and Culture

Racial (De) Segregation: Causes and Consequences

The Labour Market and Inequality in Education

(De) Segregation and School Resources

Quality, Access and Performance

Teacher Training and Pedagogy

Teacher Training, Community and Rurality

Continuous Professional Development and In-Service Training

Charting Inequalities in Student Outcomes

Mathematics, Science and Literacy

Resources, Poor Quality and Breaking the Cycle of Poverty

Social Justice, Community and Culture

Conclusion and Discussion