Access to Schooling in a Post-Apartheid South Africa ...

Access to Schooling in a Post-Apartheid South Africa: Linking Concepts to Context Author(s): Aslam Fataar Source: International Review of Education / Internationale Zeitschrift für Erziehungswissenschaft / Revue Internationale de l'Education, Vol. 43, No. 4 (1997), pp. 331-348 Published by: Springer Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3444833 Accessed: 24-07-2017 14:45 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

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ACCESS TO SCHOOLING IN A POST-APARTHEID SOUTH AFRICA: LINKING CONCEPTS TO CONTEXT ASLAM FATAAR

Abstract - This paper focuses on the policy issue of expanding schooling in a postapartheid South Africa. The Project of placing about two million children of schoolgoing age in school is viewed as central to the rebuilding of South Africa. The paper argues that this project should be located within the peculiar history of this country's educational underdevelopment. Challenging the constraining influence of the New Right context should be central in conceptualising the provision of expanded school access. Access policy should be based on a notion of educational development that

is linked to the overall socioeconomic development of this society. The view is

promoted in this paper that a policy of quantitative expansion of schooling should not ignore the quality of such schooling.

Zusammenfassung - Dieser Artikel behandelt die Politik bezuiglich der Ausweitung der Ausbildung in Siidafrika nach der Apartheid. Das Projekt, ungefahr 2 Millionen Kinder im Schulalter in Schulen unterzubringen, wird als zentrale Aufgabe der Umstrukturierung Sidafrikas angesehen. Es wird argumentiert, daB diese Aufgabe im Hinblick auf die spezielle Geschichte der bildungspolitischen Unterentwicklung des Landes gel6st werden muB. Zentrale Aufgabe bei der Konzeptualisierung eines breiteren Schulzuganges muB die Begegnung mit dem einschrankenden EinfluB des New right-Kontextes sein. Die Zugangspolitik muB die Bildungsentwicklung unter dem Aspekt der sozio-6konomischen Entwicklung des Landes konzeptualisieren. Der Autor vertritt die Meinung, daB die quantitative Erweiterung der Ausbildung die Qualitit nicht vemachlassigen darf. Resume - Cet article est axe sur la question des politiques en matiere d'extension de la scolarite dans l'Afrique du Sud post-apartheid. Le projet de scolariser environ deux millions d'enfants d'age scolaire est considere comme essentiel a la reconstruction de l'Afrique du Sud. L'article etablit que ce projet devrait etre plac6 dans le contexte de l'histoire particuliere du sous-developpement educatif du pays. Defiant l'influence contraignante de la nouvelle legislation, ce contexte doit constituer un element central dans la conceptualisation precedant la mise en place d'un acces elargi a la scolarite. Les politiques en matiere d'acces a l'education doivent se fonder sur une notion de developpement educatif qui doit etre rattachee au developpement socioeconomique global de la societe. L'article defend le point de vue selon lequel une politique en faveur de l'extension quantitative de la scolarisation ne doit pas s'effectuer aux depens de la qualite de cette scolarite. Resumen - Este trabajo se concentra en el resultado de la politica referente a la expansi6n de la escolaridad en una Sudafrica post-apartheid. El proyecto de colocar unos

dos millones de nifios en edad escolar en las escuelas se considera como un tema

central en la reconstrucci6n de Sudafrica. El trabajo argumenta que este proyecto deberna situarse dentro de la historia peculiar del subdesarrollo educacional de este pais. El enfrentamiento de la influencia restringente que ejerce la Nueva Derecha deberia ser un aspecto decisivo el delineamiento destinado a proveer un acceso escolar International Review of Education - Internationale Zeitschrift fur Erziehungswissenschaft -

Revue Internationale de l'Education 43(4): 331-348, 1997.

? 1997 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.


332

ampliado. La politica de acceso deberia basarse en una nocion del desarrollo educacional enlazado al desarrollo socioecon6mico general de esta sociedad. En este trabajo se favorece la opini6n de que la politica de expansi6n cuantitativa de la escolaridad no deberia ignorar la calidad de la misma.

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The black majority in South Africa, some 35 million citizens, look to the new political dispensation to deliver living conditions based on universally accepted norms of human rights. With the shift in state power from the apartheid state to a legitimate democratic state which is committed to delivering these basic needs, it is presumed that state policy will be directed at overturning the apartheid-created development distortions. During the months following the historic April 1994 elections, most ministries in the Government of National Unity (GNU) have been developing policies and publishing discussion documents for the reconstruction of South Africa. A reconstruction ethos has rapidly acquired broad-based societal consensus, although its substantive meaning is fiercely contested. While the White Paper on the Reconstruction and Development Programme (RDP) lays down general parameters for reconstruction and development (Ministry in the Office of the State President 1994), ministries have been elaborating RDP policy in respect of their specific areas. An example is the policy process embarked on by the Ministry for Welfare and Population Development. The Green Paper published by this ministry initiated a process of broad consultation to determine how the RDP should synchronise with population development policy (Ministry of Welfare and Population Development 1995). A policy-generating process also took place in education. A draft White Paper was published in September 1994, on which hundreds of oral and written


333

submissions were made. The final White Paper, subtitled, "Education and Training in a Democratic South Africa: First Steps to Develop a New System", was published in February 1995. Similar to the Population White Paper, the White Paper on Education and Training (WPET) is founded on the RDP philosophy. In his prefatory message, Education Minister S.M.E. Bengu states that: "This policy document describes the process of transformation in education and training which will bring into being a system serving all our people,

our new democracy and our Reconstruction and Development Programme" (Ministry of Education 1995). The WPET underscores the necessity of launching a multi-dimensional educational reconstruction programme that marks a radical departure from the ethos of apartheid education. State education policy in the pursuit of such reconstruction is now to be based on the values of equality, non-sexism, nonracism and redress.

This paper does not provide an analysis of the WPET, but focuses on the broader debate on one of the central aspects that the WPET addresses at length.

That is, the provision of access to schooling for all children of school-going

age in South Africa. The WPET prioritises access to schooling as one of

two specific policy initiatives central to a new schooling system. The other priority area is the organisation, governance and funding of schools. The main argument posited with regard to the expansion of schooling is that the reconstruction of education and indeed the reconstruction of South Africa after apartheid can only find proper expression if the state commits itself, notwith-

standing the demands of other necessary facets of education, to placing all South Africa's children of school-going age in school within the next few years.

The way in which plans for greater access should be conceptualised is open to question, particularly in the light of the economic context, which limits the amount of funding available for educational reconstruction. Placing all children in school becomes a major challenge, therefore, especially when the issue of the quality of such schooling is taken into account. If this latter aspect is neglected, the expansion of schooling is in danger of contributing to existing

forms of inequality. Moreover, an emphasis on quantitative expansion alone could divert attention from the often inadequate quality of existing schools. In the first section of this paper, I consider the efficacy of attempts to extend

free and compulsory access to schooling in South Africa, by locating the issue of access within the context of educational change in the transition. This would

serve to point to the extent and nature of educational change possible in the next few years. The second section provides a cursory picture of present-day schooling provision, located historically, which allows for a quantification and depiction of the complexities of the problem. The third section focuses on the conceptual underpinnings of policy on access, concentrating on clarifying the relationship between concepts such as equality, quality and quantity. A discussion of the WPET's position on access forms part of this section. The view is advanced in this paper that the quest to put all South Africa's


334

children into school, given the financial constraints and the peculiar historical development of schooling, ought to be based on a clear long-term development strategy to reconstruct all aspects of society. Educational change as part of this broader societal reconstruction should prioritise the expansion of schooling, while not ignoring the quality of existing schooling.

Educational change in the transition This section raises the issue of the type of social change achievable at the present time. The conceptualisation of educational change generally, and access to schooling in particular, should be take into account the contemporary context, and financial viability. This context is the outcome of the current

hegemonic discourse, shaped by the international and national policy context. The present context, characterised by the GNU and the new Constitution, has been described as transitional. It was brought about by a negotiated political settlement which on the surface sought to accommodate fears of redundancy held by the apartheid bureaucracy and its politicians. More accurately, political compromise and forced coalition government were the outcome of an indecisive balance of political forces which neither favoured the apartheid state nor the broad liberation movement. "Transition" is reflective of an inter-

regnum in which the "new" era, with a broad vision of social reconstruction and equality, is continually impeded by the ghost of the old structures of power and domination.

The emphasis on "transition" also points to existing attitudes towards possibilities of change in the 1990s. Prior to the De Klerk reforms of 1990, protest aimed at the overthrow of the apartheid state dominated South African politics.

A triumphalist discourse, based on notions of socialism and social transformation, prevailed in the broad liberation movement. Thus, in the minds of many people, an image was created of a post-apartheid state which would deliver radical change and social improvement based on the redistribution of

wealth.

During the 1990s, characterised by the politics of negotiation and policymaking in anticipation of governing, and with the liberation forces in disarray,

a shift to a reformist discourse became prevalent. This shift signalled limitations in the view of social change. The complexities involved in the changing climate can be detected in key policy developments during the 1990s. For example, the GNU's white paper on the RDP is regarded as a radical departure or more appropriately, a conservative shift, from the ANC's pre-election RDP document. In underscoring this point, Adelzadeh and Padayachee suggest with some overstatement that the "RDP WP represents a very significant com-

promise to the neo-liberal 'trickle down' economic policy preferences of the

old regime" (Adelzadeh and Padayachee 1994). The context of transition in South Africa and its implications for educational change should be located within both an international context of New


335

Rightism., and the North/South development debate. Such a location allows one to discern certain trends in the nature of the educational policies that might

be favoured. These are determined by development priorities prescribed by the Structural Adjustment Policies of institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. Kallaway warned in an article written in 1988 that the apartheid state's edu-

cational reform is not merely political tinkering, but that it needs to be seen as part of a broader, more insiduous pattern of educational conservatism emerging in the international arena (Kallaway 1988). In countries such as the USA, and especially the United Kingdom under Thatcher, the role of the state in the public arena began to decrease. Privatisation, i.e. selling off state-owned

public enterprises, and a declining commitment to social welfarism, were the main strategies employed by the New Right to reconstitute the world in

service of global capitalism in crisis. The objective was "to reorder and recreate a new social division of labour that would allow the rate of profit to increase" (Navarro 1982). With considerable success, the New Right set out to limit the state's financial commitment to social security, health care and education.

The South African state initiated a period of general reform in the early 1980s. This saw the introduction of new "liberalised" labour relations, a major

urbanisation strategy, privatisation and the deregulation of the market (Kallaway 1988). A process of selling off parastatals began. Examples was the semi-privatisation of the railway and the postal service in the late 1980s. Similarly to what was happening in the United Kingdom in the late 1970s and 1980s, the apartheid state had now increasingly begun to absolve itself from taking full responsibility in the provision of health care, welfare service,

and education. New Right measures in South Africa meant that only those who were wealthy enough could afford quality social services. These reform measures were consonant with both capital's desire to create new conditions for profit-making, and the New Right's objective of removing the state from providing for the social welfare needs of the black majority. Similar to developments in British education, a key feature of education in South Africa was the increase in subsidisation of private schools in the 1980s, and the move towards the "semi-privatisation" of white schools in the 1990s. Another key feature was the vocationalisation of the curriculum in the pursuit of black skilled labour. With more money allocated to the quantitative expansion of black schooling, less money was available for white schooling. Well-resourced white schools with parent communities that could afford to pay school fees were thus enabled by state policy to preserve a privileged schooling system. At present there are about 250,000 black students at these Model C schools. They come from the small but growing black middle

class. Meanwhile, the majority of black children continue to attend schools of poor quality, while about two million children of school-going age are not

in school.

Thus, as in Britain, a dual system of schooling is evolving. A privileged


336

schooling sector serves a minority, and a poor-quality schooling sector serves the majority of children. The large number of South African children not in school is a major difference. British efforts after the Second World War to provide secondary schooling for all children were successfully attained on the basis of a broad social welfare consensus. Massive public spending was used to rebuild a war-tor country. Debates about educational priorities had already begun to take place before and during the war, and educational reconstruction was seen as a major part of post-war social reconstruction. Providing access to schooling for all children was thus achieved in a reconstructionist context (Silver 1980). In contrast, in South Africa in the late 1990s, dominated by a New Right context, with debates about the substantive meaning

of the RDP raging, the nature and extent of educational change could be severely limited. Part of the New Right discourse concerns the relationship between the North and South, between the developed and developing nations. The relationship is dominated by the North which, through its monetary lending and aid agencies, prescribes to the South economic and educational development priorities. South Africa, with its small relatively sophisticated industrial sector

on the one hand, and massive poverty and underdevelopment on the other, falls into the developing nations category. South Africa will increasingly be lured, in attempts to secure funding for development, into entering loan and

aid arrangements with developed countries and international monetary agencies. As the recently acquired link with Japan demonstrates, the Northern

countries only provide aid if their country stands to benefit. Similarly, evidence from Africa shows that the IMF and World Bank will only extend loans if countries agree to comply with strict stabilisation and Structural Adjustment measures. These include currency devaluation, public expenditure cuts, removal of state subsidies, and restraints on wages and public

sector employment (Graham-Brown 1991). Countries that run into problems with debt repayment usually approach the IMF and World Bank for assistance. The South African state has, given its problems with debt, indicated that it is strongly considering such an approach. Clearly, stabilisation and Structural Adjustment Policies determined in the North and in the interest of the North,

have massive implications for future development in South Africa. The debtor countries' economic development becomes externally determined by the repayment of loans, rather than by their own development priorities. These countries' economies are oriented towards debt recovery. Non-compliance with the latter jeopardises the securing of further loans and financial alleviation. Graham-Brown points out that the consequent emphasis on "recovery, efficiency and adjustment [has] shifted the emphasis away from broader issues of development, particularly the concern to promote equity and

social well-being" (Graham-Brown 1991). Despite its hesitancy to use World Bank and IMF loans, South Africa has adopted a number of economic policies consonant with Structural Adjustment. These are reflected in the 1994/95 budget and an RDP which is strictly based


337

on fiscal discipline, the dropping of protectionist measures for locally produced goods, an emphasis on growth and export, a commitment to substantial trimming of the public sector, rationalisation and cutbacks in vital

sectors such as health and education. These steps have been taken under pressure to attain economic viability in a new global context. The constrictions imposed by a New Right context and the logic of the hegemonic Structural Adjustment discourse have major implications for education. Such a discourse plays a leading role in determining the education budget, both in terms of its size in relation to other social sectors, and financial priorities within the education budget. In relation to the former, evidence

shows that the amount allocated to education in the developing countries has been decreasing in the 1980s (Graham-Brown 1991). The World Bank recommends that education be allocated 17 percent from a country's entire

budget. At present the South African education budget stands at 20.2% (Budget Analysis Project 1995). For the foreseeable future, the education budget will not increase. On the contrary, when international trends become manifest in South Africa, the education allocation will in all probability be subjected to a marked decrease in the next decade. Financial priorities internal to the education budget are generally determined by considerations of which sectors are more cost-effective. The world monetary institutions, for example, currently favour primary education over tertiary education. In fact the 1995/96 South African budget shows that primary education has received extra funding at the expense of tertiary edu-

cation. In view of arguments for more appropriate education linked to economic demand, technical education is also favoured (Budget Analysis Project 1995). Thus, the hegemonic discourse appears to have exercised considerable influence in determining new educational priorities. Consequently, it can be argued that the New Right and Structural Adjustment discourse delin-

eate the terrain of educational change in the transition. Recognition of the above trend does not necessarily imply the ultimate dominance of the New Right discourse. Educational change committed to

social equality which challenges this New Right position needs to be conceptualised within the context of transition outlined here. Bowles, theorising about education in South Africa, asks whether education can contribute to the creation of a just and egalitarian society free from the domination of wealthy white males (Bowles 1993). He is concerned whether education may contribute to social reconstruction or to new forms of inequality. Bowles suggests that the deeply entrenched nature of the existing inequities and the embeddedness of power relations in South Africa's social fabric require "a suitably modest conception of the transformative powers of education" (Bowles 1993). This points to a long-standing theoretical dilemma within the sociology of education - the relationship between education and social change. The position I favour is one which locates educational change within an overall long-term development strategy. Education is thus understood as a part of, and not a panacea for, broader social change.


338

Wolpe (1991) refers to the inevitability of making educational choices, given the "limited resources to meet not only education needs but other basic needs such as housing, health and welfare services". Regarding the desire to place all children in school, the choices revolve around issues such as affordability and implementation. More importantly, access involves a quantitative expansion of schooling which is conceptually connected to the qualitative dimension of schooling. The argument made in this section is that the issue of access should be conceptualised within the constraints of the context of transition, but that the hegemonic discourse's prescriptions regarding educational development priorities should be challenged.

Unequal access to and in South African schooling Historical background The existing pattern of provision of schooling in South Africa is the outcome of a history of colonialism, segregation and apartheid. Its origins can be traced back to the first colonial conquest by the Dutch East India Company in the mid-seventeenth century. In 1815, the British took over the Cape Colony. Schooling for the indigenous people was provided under the Dutch but more expansively under the British through various missionary establishments. Education under the British was meant to spread the British language and culture amongst blacks and serve as a means of social control (Christie 1986). From the earliest times, education was configured along race, class and geographical lines. Generally, the best available education was provided for

the landed urban white classes while rural whites (generally Afrikaners)

provided mainly religious schooling for their children. This continued after the establishment of two Afrikaner independent states in the north of South Africa. A powerful educational philosophy, Christian National Education, based on Afrikaner exclusivity, began to emerge. It was this philosophy which undergirded apartheid education when the Afrikaner-dominated National Party

came to power in 1948. The provision of missionary schooling before the introduction of mass schooling for Africans in 1948 was negligible. Only a few Africans went to mission schools, while the majority received no schooling. Missionary schooling focused on basic reading, writing and industrial skills, Many missionary-trained Africans became priests, court interpreters, clerks and teachers.

They became the purveyors of modernity in carrying "civilisation" to the traditional people. More insiduously, they contributed to the destruction of traditional modes of life and thus to the alienation of Africans from their

land.

The development of mass schooling in South Africa, akin to patterns in the historical development of European schooling, has its antecedents in industrialisation. Radical scholarship on the history of South African education is


339

agreed that the nature, extent and provision of schooling are driven by a complex interplay of political, economic and social factors. Their political economy analyses posit that the specific configurations of differentiated, segregated schooling were the result of a dialectical relationship between class and race in relation to the nature of industrialisation (Kallaway 1984; Christie and Collins 1984; Molteno 1984; Cross and Chisholm 1991). South African industrialisation was based on the exploitation of minerals which, for economic viability, had to rely on the cheapest forms of labour.

Imported white workers did the skilled labour, while blacks and poor Afrikaners competed for semi-skilled jobs. Black migrant labour, which provided the backbone for profitability, supplied the cheap unskilled labour. Their families stayed far from mining towns in pre-capitalist environments, which indirectly subsidised the mining industries. Because of this, the state and capital were not required to provide an urban infrastructure consisting of schools, clinics and housing. Under colonial rule, state power always remained in the hands of whites. Only whites had the franchise, along with a qualified franchise held by a negligible number of blacks and coloureds, which was later removed. Only whites could be voted into power. Thus, state power was used to resolve conflicts thrown up by industrialisation, always to the advantage of whites. An example of this is the state's elaborate attempts to address the Poor White problem. In the early 1900s, urbanisation occurred at a rapid and chaotic pace. Poor Afrikaners, who were also pushed off the land by British agrarian capital,

came to the mining towns where they had to compete for jobs with blacks.

State power, driven by an alliance between the white labour classes and Afrikaner Nationalists, implemented a job colour bar which favoured whites for certain types of skilled labour. The entire socio-political and economic structure of society was configured along these lines.

The provision of schooling also occurred along similar lines. White

schooling was expanded rapidly, while schooling for Africans, Coloureds and Indians grew incrementally. African schooling was the most neglected sector. Missionary schooling remained the dominant form of schooling for Africans. From the 1920s, this type of schooling began to experience major crises. As the demand for schooling increased, missionary societies became increasingly unable to fund schools adequately. Intermittant student unrest because of inferior school conditions characterised missionary schools until the 1940s. The missionary school system as a whole, despite isolated successes, began to collapse.

Apartheid education The introduction of apartheid education, that is, the provision of a system of

mass schooling for Africans, came in reaction to an interplay of social, economic and political factors. By the 1930s, industrialisation had moved into a manufacturing phase which demanded new forms of labour. The chaotic


340

urbanisation of Africans posed a major threat. By the 1940s, a violent youth sub-culture had emerged in black townships. Many of these young people became politicised. Urban schooling for Africans was proposed as a means of controlling youth. Education also had to respond to the demand by the changing economy for semi-skilled labour. Mission schools were inadequate for the purposes of social control and the production of appropriate labour. White politics, underpinned by radical right-wing Afrikaner nationalism, began to dominate white politics. The National Party came to power in 1948

on the basis of an alliance of white agricultural interests, an emerging

Afrikaner manufacturing class, and,the poor white labouring class and was led by the Afrikaner petty bourgeoisie. The aim of the new ruling party was to consolidate and rigidify the segregationism which had emerged in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The policies of apartheid introduced a systematic

attempt at separate development for separate ethnic groups. A central feature of grand apartheid was the setting up of bantustans for separate ethnic groups.

The introduction of Bantu Education in 1953 was aimed at subjugating Africans psycho-ideologically to the designs of apartheid (Molteno 1984). Unterhalter provides a corrective to previous radical scholarship on Bantu Education (Unterhalter 1991). Her main criticism levelled at these scholars is that they provide an undifferentiated moralistic account of Bantu Education

which focuses on its features and inequalities. This, she contends, prevents an understanding of the nature and contours of the development of Bantu Education. She provides an analysis which links the changing nature of Bantu

Education to "the changing form of its relation to apartheid policies"

(Unterhalter 1991). This enables her to theorise about the reasons for the rapid quantitative expansion of African schooling in the 1970s and 1980s. The apartheid state's provision of mass schooling for Africans under Bantu Education underwent a number of significant shifts between the 1950s and 1990. These shifts influenced the extent of the quantitative expansion of schooling for Africans. Unterhalter posits that Bantu Education was driven by two factors: firstly, by its authoritarian, unequal and repressive nature, and secondly, by a fluid discourse of reformism (Unterhalter 1991). She argues that state reform was informed by changing state strategies, which in turn were

shaped by broader socio-economic and political processes. The first two

decades of Bantu Education, the 1960s and 1970s, saw an incremental increase in African enrolments in tandem with the separate development notion of

grand apartheid. The 1970s and 1980s, however, saw massive increases in African enrolments as a response to the need to achieve economic growth and political stability. State reform generally and in education aimed at "the modernisation of apartheid" (Nasson and samuel 1990) in order to mediate new economic realities and popular political demands for the scrapping of apartheid. Tables 1 and 2' depict the growth in African schooling and funding from

the 1950s to the late 1980s. The quantitative expansion of schooling for Africans is by no means an indicator of the outcomes of that schooling.


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Table 1. African pupils enrolled in Bantu Education schools, 1953-1988 (thousands).

Primary Secondary Total 1953

1955

1960 1965 1970 1975 1980 1985 1988

852.0

970.2

882.7

1,005.2

1,452.3 47.6 1,499.9 1,833.0 65.6 1,898.6 2,615.4 122.5 2,737.9 3,378.9 318.5 3,697.4 4,063.9 774.0 4,837.9 4,820.1 1,192.9 6,012.9 5,365.6 1,662.0 7,027.6

Source:

Table

30.7

35.0

Unterhalter

2.

Spending

1991:

on

37,

African

citing

earli

education,

Total expenditure Expenditure at constant 1975 value of the Rand

1953 16.0 32.8 1955 15.8 36.0 1960 19.5 8.8 1965 24.9 46.6 1970 66.3 86.2 1975 160.2 160.2 1980 553.0 302.8

1985 1,816.0 533.6 1988 4,096.0 n/a

Source:

Unterhalter

1991:

48,

Expanded provision study focusing on

of school literacy ment in the quality of scho reason given by these auth in black schools in the 197 a consequence of resistance cation during the period.

A

picture

of

present

school

Educational planning for th equality and equity has to The new dispensation inher Nineteen subsystems cater disparities exist amongst t

generally

well-endowed.


342

African education is by far worst off. Most of the our-of-school children are African. In the various schooling subsystems there thus exists a racial hier-

archy of unequal provision to which in-school children are subjected. Disparities in provision are illustrated in Table 3, while Table 4 illustrates the literacy rates of different racial groups.

According to Hofmeyer and Buckland (1992), regional inequalities are very striking. Seventy percent of all African children are schooled in the former Homelands and rural areas. These form the most disadvantaged schooling

sector; with 24% of African schooling taking place in massively underresourced farm schools. It is those underprivileged provinces which include former Homelands and self-governing territories that will have to be prioritised in the provision of schooling. It is thus apparent that African schooling faces severe quantitative and qualitative problems (Hofmeyer and Buckland 1992). Tables 5 and 6 show the numbers of children in school and out of

school. Table 6 excludes statistics on the four former Homelands: Transkei,

Boputhatswana, Venda and Ciskei. Hartshore (1992) places the total number of children between the ages of seven and 15 not in school at two million. Most of these children are in the former Homelands (Krige et al. 1995). Thus, if the out-of-school figure for all the other areas is 445,555, as shown in Table 3. Comparative education statistics 1989. White Indian Coloured African education education education education

(DET)

Pupil-teacher ratios 1:19 1:22 1:23 1:41 Under-qualified teachers (less than std. 10 plus a

3-year teacher's certificate 0% 2% 45% 52% Per capita expenditure

including capital expenditure R3,082.00 R2,227.01 R1,359.78 Std. 10 pass rate 96% 93.6% 72.7% 40.7%

Source: Hofmeyer and Buckland 1992: 22, citing earlier references

Table 4. Literacy rates. Race

Black 30% Coloured 60% Indian 82% White 97%

Source: RSA 1991 Census.


343

Table 5. Total enrolment by province. Province

Eastern

Total

Cape

Western

Northern

enrolment

1,959,781

Cape

Cape

727,431

178,476

North West 800,405 Northern Transvaal 1,620,874 Eastern Transvaal 763,634

Gauteng

Orange

Free

1,199,514

State

KwaZulu-Natal Total

690,296

2,137,260

10,077,671

Source: HSRC 1991.

Table 6. Number of children out of school by province.* Province African White Coloured Indian

Eastern Cape 20,694 646 3,589 49 Western Cape 4,070 1,917 12,737 125 Northern Cape 5,795 357 5,208 12

North West 31,796 909 647 40 Northern Transvaal 94,730 493 53 23 Eastern Transvaal 57,617 977 137 62

Gauteng 35,294 6,256 1,820 590 Orange Free State 33,743 1,263 996 2

KwaZulu-Natal 161,815 1,702 651 3,233

Total 445,555 14,521 25,839 4,137 Excluding former TBVC states. Source: Krige et al. 1995.

Table 6, it can be deduced that about 1.5 mi age are out of school in the former Homelands.

to provide access would be most acute in the and North-West provinces, where former Ho Education Atlas of South Africa, a key publ based on a geographic computer mapping tec

of out-of-school children is not limited to forme

in many other rural areas (Krige et al. 1995). On the other hand, the Western Cape out o (Table 6). The Western Cape Education Minis 6000 classrooms are at present under-utilise outside African residential areas and are no

children.


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Given this picture, it can be concluded that South Africa faces a massive task in its attempt to implement a programme to provide universal access to schooling. The expansion of schooling is most likely to occur in historically under-resourced areas, i.e. black rural and former Homeland areas. However, quantitative expansion, divorced from the notion of quality, will tend to reinforce existing inequalities in presently disadvantaged schools.

Balancing "quantity" and "quality" in access to schooling This section goes on to provide an argument for universalising access to schooling within the context of the hegemonic New Right and Structural Adjustment, on the one hand, and the legacy of educational development in South Africa, on the other. A commitment to social equality and redress compels us to think creatively about ways to challenge hegemonic policy trends. Within a restrictive financial environment it is crucial to conceptualise

the universalising of access in a manner which will contribute to a better education system. A project which endeavoured to place all the world's children in school was firmly entrenched as a major international concern at the end of the 1940s

through the United Nations. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948, Art. 26), and the later Declaration of the Rights of the child (1959) call for access to free and compulsory education for all. Expanded access to schooling grew rapidly in the developing countries during the 1950s and 1960s. However, after this period, as a result of rapid population growth and stagnant economies, the growth of schooling slowed down. In fact, GrahamBrown (1991) notes that "the prospects for achieving primary education for all by the year 2000 ... seem remote." In South Africa, the demand for the provision of free and compulsory schooling was prominent in the Freedom Charter adopted by the Congress Alliance in 1955. This demand was part of the general vision advanced by the oppressed people of South Africa in reaction to the implementation of apartheid policies. The Freedom Charter states that "The doors of learning and culture shall be opened! Education shall be free, compulsory, universal and equal for all children" (Wolpe 1991). This demand found resonance in the mass student and worker uprisings of 1980s. In the context of the emer-

gence of the People's Education discourse propagated by the liberation movement which gained currency as the antithesis of apartheid education, the National Education Co-ordinating Committee pronounced in a declaration adopted in 1989, that "Education is a basic human right. Schooling should be free and compulsory for all children" (NECC 1989).The struggle for liberation from apartheid thus placed the demand for the provision of universal access to schooling firmly on the agenda. South Africa's negotiated Interim Constitution underscores the above positions, stating in Chapter 1, clause 32, that "every person shall have the right


345

to basic education" (Constitution of the Republic of South Africa of 1993, as amended in 1994). The WPET published in February 1995 elaborates on this clause thus: "The government is committed to the goal of providing access to general education for all children from a reception year up to Grade 9 (Standard 7), funded fully by the state at an acceptable level of quality, and to achieve this goal in the shortest possible time" (Ministry of Education 1995). The WPET commits the state to providing ten years of compulsory general education made up of a pre-school "reception year" and nine years of basic

education. According to the WPET, access to schooling is firmly located within the ambit of the general commitment by the state to redressing "imbal-

ances generated through historical inequalities." The WPET advances an affirmative action philosophy as a means of addressing racial inequalities in education. In this regard, the WPET state that "to achieve equity, it may be necessary to pursue policies that treat different groups of people in somewhat

different ways" (Ministry of Education 1995). Conceptual elaboration in the WPET is carefully crafted in relation to the magnitude of the project, given the historical backlogs and the constraining financial environment. The WPET commits the state to the provision of equitable access, to the provision of schooling of a minimum level of quality to all children. It states that the attainment of equitable access necessarily prioritises the expansion of capacity. In other words, given the challenge of placing two million children in school, quantitative expansion has to be given priority. In order to meet this priority, the WPET commits the state to building

schools and classrooms, training teachers and providing textbooks and stationery. The WPET proposes that quantitative expansion be phased in over a number of years.

Although the WPET concentrates mostly on the quantitative provision of

schooling, its stated commitment to equitable access is elaborated in the section on quality. This declares that "access without quality improvement in basic general education is a recipe for disappointment" (Ministry of Education 1995). To ensure that this dimension is given prominence, the WPET argues for the promotion of well-prepared teachers, efficiency and sustainability, and

democratic governance. It also envisages that an emphasis on quality will lead to the optimal usage of financial and other resources.

The ability of countries to provide schooling for all depends on their economic condition. The developing countries that are unable to stimulate economic growth and alleviate conditions of poverty would more than likely

not be able to address their citizens' schooling needs. The provision of

schooling in the South depends on the ability of those countries to develop an overall long-term development strategy in which educational development and schooling provision form a central part. The disjuncture between the rhetorical commitment to universalising access

and achievement in practice is borne out by the World Declaration on Education for All adopted at the World Conference on Education for All held


346

in Jomtien, Thailand in 1990. The very fact that such a conference was held points to the stunted growth in the provision of schooling all over the developing world. Thus, international experience shows that the commitment to providing schooling displayed in policy documents, white papers, legislation

etc., can only be regarded as the expression of an ideal vision. In order to address the backlogs, the Declaration on Education for All asserts that "What is needed now is an 'expanded vision' that surpasses resource levels, institutional structures, curricula, and conventional delivery systems while building on the best of current practices" (cited in Graham-Brown 1991). What the Declaration points to is that in order to meet the demand for expanded access, we require new and radically different conceptual and operational

frameworks.

What emerges as central to the project of universalising access to schooling in a post-apartheid context is the challenge of placing two million out-ofschool children of school-going age in school. Given this imperative, how does quantitative expansion avoid falling into the provision of poor quality schooling? It is vital that the notion of quantity should be given a fuller definition. It should move beyond the "bums on seats" understanding of placing all children in schools. Quantitative schooling provision should incorporate the provision of good teachers, commitment to educationally sound teacher/pupil and classroom/pupil ratios, and provision of adequate learning materials. The precise form of these provisions should be the subject of major policy debate. This debate must take on board the view that the type of schooling provided should create a necessary enabling environment for quality learning to take place. The idea of a phased implementation as stated in the WPET is consonant with a broader definition of the quantitative expansion of schooling.

Conclusion

This paper has argued that the conceptualisation of access to schooling has to be located in the historical, political and economic context. The historical context establishes the extent and nature of the problem of access to schooling,

positing that priority needs to be given to rural and former Homeland areas.

The rapid quantitative expansion of schooling in the 1970s and 1980s was without a concomitant improvement in quality. Thus, the challenge is not only

to expand schooling but also to address the low standards of existing schooling

for Africans and Coloureds. The discussion on the political and economic context alerts us to the hegemonic discourse emanating form the North which seeks to impose developmental and educational priorities on countries in the South. The most direct impact on education is the prescription of financial restrictions. The quantitative and qualitative dimensions of access to schooling need to challenge this constraining context.


347

Acknowledgement I would like to express my gratitude to Prof. Peter Kallaway and Dr Glenda Kruss for valuable comments on an earlier draft of this paper.

Note

1. South Africa does not have a reliable statistical information system. The Central Statistical service acknowledges that the statistical information it acquired during the apartheid years is not accurate. A very important national statistical survey has been conducted during 1996 to provide the required information for development planning.

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