This article reviews policy and practice in the post-apartheid era to provide new insight into the crisis unfolding in public schools. Travelling to and from school is also a concern, given the difficulty of social distancing on crowded public and learner transport. Children may have a low risk of suffering from COVID-19, but protecting the teachers and administration staff in crowded schools will be hard. Image courtesy of Codi. As one history recounted, “While white schooling was free, compulsory and expanding, black education was sorely neglected. ‘E-learning was for the middle and upper classes leaving behind the working class to fend for themselves’, writes Ayanda, in Khayelitsha township. Similarly, the shocking levels of social inequality in South Africa is hardly in issue since South Africa ranks amongst one of the most unequal societies on earth (Southall, 2016). Unlike much of the developing world, South Nor is it just young people who are at risk due to the return to school. resources for higher education. Equality in education has also levelled out income inequality. educational inequalities in post-apartheid South Africa, and an HIV/AIDS epidemic. The poverty rate for Africans is 38 times higher than that of whites. In Education – as in many sectors of life in South Africa – there are no simple solutions. Although some schools managed to distribute printed resources, many have been reportedly left without any resources or support. Laura Jardine Paterson is the head of communications at Codi in Lebanon. The bifurcation of the musical arts education sector in South Africa into its public and private dimensions reproduces inequality along lines of class, race and geography. […] These structures control access to quality education, employment and health care. The South African education system, characterized by crumbling infrastructure, overcrowded classrooms and relatively poor educational outcomes, is perpetuating inequality and as a result failing too many of its children, with the poor hardest hit according to a new report published by Amnesty International today. This inequality could not be more prevalent than in our education system. Given this, the concluding section teases out possible education policy responses. Meanwhile, in the affluent suburb of Newlands, Natalie reports that her children are ‘playing board games which will improve their math skills … their computer skills are improving from using Google classroom, they are learning to touch type, and they have kept up with practicing their musical instruments. Its impact is strongly felt by everyone across all sectors within and beyond South Africa. The same colliding crises that put poorer residents at risk in the crisis also hamper attempts at recovery. But Motsepe was not talking during quarantine. A study carried out by the Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality (SACMEQ) in 2007 showed that South African Grade 6 teachers with high disciplinary knowledge in mathematics are largely employed in top performing schools. ‘Education in South Africa is in crisis,’ declared Tshepo Motsepe, General Secretary of Equal Education, a social movement campaigning for ‘quality and equality in South African schools’. How can we disrupt educational inequality? Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, Southern and Eastern Africa Consortium for Monitoring Educational Quality, Cyclone Idai: Tough Press Laws Hinder Reporting From Mozambique, The list: Free courses online to help your job prospects in 2021, Brackenfell High School is a symptom of South Africa’s biggest disease: racism, South Africa: What's Behind Violence in South Africa – a Sociologist's Perspective | Great Today News, 5 Essential Tips for Remote Working Productivity during the COVID19 pandemic, He went from unemployed to e-hailing entrepreneur in the pandemic, The List: Korean content everyone needs to watch. We use cookies on this site to understand how you use our content, and to give you the best browsing experience. He was speaking in 2017, a year after the government had promised to ensure that all schools in South Africa had access to water and sanitation, a promise that they had broken. This may not even be the worst case scenario: an Amnesty International team reporting on Gauteng and the Eastern Cape recently witnessed class sizes of up to 70. They affect the basic human needs of survival and welfare. If people’s parents are out of work, reflects Noxy, in Delft, ‘how are they going to feed their families and to pay school fees at the same time?’ While there have been some social security interventions, such as the grant increases, some have argued that they were not good enough and will not effectively alleviate the problems caused by the lockdown. Of the top 200 schools in the country, 185 are former white-only schools and all 185 charge significant fees, keeping the majority of black learners locked out of these quality schools. Low growth and rising unemployment have contributed to the persistence of inequality. But … (Photo: Amnesty International) Titled Broken and Unequal: The State of Education in South Africa… This raises the question: what prospects do these youth face post-school with the poor quality education received for years? One reason for the racial disparities in South Africa’s education system is the racial disparity in poverty. Public schools in poorer areas will continue to struggle to deliver high quality education and will also find social distancing all but impossible, with overcrowded classrooms and too few teachers. This inequality manifests in … However, as Motsepe’s quote suggests, those returning to school would not be returning to a level playing field. January 30, 2020. Since Lockdown was announced seven weeks ago, there has been much talk of an education crisis in the country, as young people on the economic margins have struggled without the resources to learn from home. A lot has changed for the better in South Africa's education system - but inequality remains a thorn in the country's side. When all the spaces and services that poorer citizens can access are marked by the city’s rampant inequality, there is no level foundation on which to build a better tomorrow. Staff Writer 9 April 2019. What is clear is that current school goers in disadvantaged areas are victims of their circumstances, having only committed the crime of being poor. South Africa’s education system has another problem: teachers not turning up . This means that children from poor households are forced to attend no-fee paying schools that are under-resourced and dysfunctional. 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