The legacy of Bantu Education remains in SA schools, say experts

Political analysts and unions in the education sector say the state of education in black communities has deteriorated since the advent of democracy in 1994. 

The analysts and unions made these remarks in the wake of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s address at the Bana Pele Early Childhood Development Leadership Summit on Monday, where he admitted past failures in education reform.

Ramaphosa said as an effort to correct the legacy of Bantu Education, 30 years ago, the government should have closed schools for two years to re-educate teachers and reform the system.

During apartheid, schools in black communities were severely underfunded and lacked resources, while schools for white South Africans received significantly more funding and resources. 

Writing in his weekly newsletter earlier this month, Ramaphosa said: "One of the most damaging effects of Bantu Education was the deliberate neglect of black children when it came to the provision of foundation years learning.

"One study published in 1992 found that during apartheid only 6% of black children had access to quality ECD programmes, compared to one third of all white children."

Since South Africa's first post-apartheid elections in 1994, the government has undertaken several curriculum reforms, including the introduction of Curriculum 2005 (C2005) in 1998, followed by the National Curriculum Statement (NCS) and its subsequent revisions, culminating in the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS). 

This, according to the analysts and unions, has proved to be uninspiring considering that schools have remained spaces where inequalities, violence, vandalism, harassment, stratification, and various crimes continue to exist. Outside the schooling spaces, unemployment, poverty, xenophobia, robbery, GBVs, and different forms of crime have characterised South African society. 

Political analyst and governance expert Sandile Swana said the position of education in the black community, in 30 years, has deteriorated.

Swana said parents, including politicians, were relying on private and former model C schools to benefit from the high-quality education that was established during the apartheid era. 

“Also, they have not been clever enough to ensure that the youth are exposed to suitable libraries, technology centres and laboratories. The parents, including the comrades themselves - the ANC and all the elite in parliament - are taking their children to former model C and private schools in order to benefit from the traditions of high-quality education that were established by white communities. They are running away from the consequences of the foolishness that they have been doing in the black schools, townships and villages,” said Swana.

He said the abolition of teacher training colleges had damaged the quality of teaching.

"They also fiddled with the basics as to what must be taught in class, and they came up with all kinds of complicated systems of education that have proved not to be effective,” said Swana. 

Asked to comment, Basic Education Elijah Mhlanga provided a report on the review of progress in the basic education sector to 2024, which stated that South Africa’s learners learn more and are better off now than they were 20 years ago.

But the report also emphasises that despite improvement trends which are steep by global standards, the schooling system still under-performs relative to schooling systems in other middle-income countries.

If improvements of the kind seen over the two decades preceding the pandemic can be sustained, the country’s indicators of learning outcomes could match those of successful middle-income countries as early as 2030, the report states.

Another political analyst, Professor Sethulego Matebesi, said while there have been concerted efforts to respond to the challenges of Bantu Education, historical injustices shape contemporary realities.

"There seems to be little interest in dealing with the inexorable situation where schools have become violent and an avenue for rampant corruption."

He said the government has to move beyond grand gestures and abstract visions and be pragmatic about educational policies and school governance. 

The National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of South Africa (Naptosa) said the government had failed to start with the basics and emphasised matric and post schooling, instead of fixing issues at junior primary and preschool levels.

“Had we fixed the bottom, the top would have sorted itself out. I think the priorities were not right. It is not about not enough energy and investment. It is about the priorities and this has seen a lot of people making use of Model C schools because they offered smaller classes,” said Naptosa's executive director Basil Manuel.

Sadtu general secretary Mugwenya Maluleke said the reason parents were taking their children to Model C schools was because there was adequate infrastructure. Maluleke said this was at the expense of black children. 

“The destruction of black communities was systemic and to address this ocean divide, requires financial resources coupled with mindset change across the board.,” he said. 

manyane.manyane@inl.co.za