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Education inequality a reflection of society

by Zahid Jadwat

Inequality in the education sector is a reflection of inequality in the broader South African society. [Picture: The Borgen Project]

 

In Wealth of Nations, the 18th century Scottish economist and philosopher Adam Smith observed that, “Wherever there is great property there is great inequality”. He went further, “For one very rich man, there must be at least five hundred poor, and the affluence of the few supposes the indigence of the many”.

Three centuries later, it is as if Smith’s words speak directly to the status quo of post-apartheid South African society. From Primrose, Johannesburg – which notoriously made it to the front page of TIME – to the legislative capital of Cape Town, inequality is alive and thriving.

For now, it might be easy for the country’s wealthiest to ignore the disparities while secured in their walled suburban villas. But millions reel from the stark inequality that pervades every aspect of life in South Africa.

Overwhelming statistics paint a clear picture of the inequality that thrives in the democratic dispensation, but perhaps the most recent example of this could be found in the education sector.

 

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Look at the stats

While the public education system merely scraped a pass rate above 80% in 2022, private IEB institutions boasted a near 100% pass mark that same year. Experts compellingly attribute the chasm between achievements to the difference in quality of education between either cohort.

Jane Borman, a researcher at Equal Education concurs. “We want all children in South Africa to have the same resources and the equal access to opportunity to complete their education,” she said.

“Looking at the discrepancy of the results is just such a clear indicator that that is not what is happening in our private and public schooling system when you look at it together.”.

As much as Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga and her band of officials would have us believe the education system is showing improvement and “on an upward trajectory”, as she recently put it, the reality is different.

 

Consider that one South African child was ‘fortunate’ enough to have his parents gift him a luxury vehicle – before his matric results even came out – while another makes the 16 km trek to and from school, with a high chance of remaining trapped in a system that is inadequate to growth.

 

Perhaps a more apt description comes from a 2020 report by Amnesty International: the South African education system is “characterised by crumbling infrastructure, overcrowded classrooms and relatively poor educational outcomes”. Unsurprisingly, the report found the system to be “perpetuating inequality and as a result failing too many of its children”.

Out of 100 learners that start school, around 50 will make it to matric, 40-50 will pass matric, and only 14 will go to university. Let that sink in.


If Smith’s words – and the searing statistics – weren’t enough to bring the message home, consider then that one South African child was ‘fortunate’ enough to have his parents gift him a luxury vehicle – before his matric results even came out – while another makes the 16 km trek to and from school, with a high chance of remaining trapped in a system that is inadequate to growth.

 

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Perpetuated inequality

Borman continues: “The Basic Education system doesn’t operate in a vacuum; it both feeds into what we see in the rest of society and society feeds into the Basic Education system. Learners are leaving the system unable to find employment. They are entering into a society that, again, does not provide them the adequate support to give them an opportunity to reach their full potential.”

In the complex state of affairs in South Africa, such wide gaps between the haves-and-have-nots can fairly be attributed to an apartheid system that initiated and perpetuated inequity.

But the ‘democratic’ administration in Pretoria must also accept liability for allowing the wound to fester while remaining preoccupied with self-enrichment if any improvement is to ever begin.

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