Apartheid

226
was to ‘complement the apartheid model of society’ 518 , were forced onto the overcrowded
black schools. The ratio of pupils per teacher in black schools rose from 46 to 1 in 1955 to 58
to 1 in 1967. Some classes had over 100 children. Meanwhile, white pupils in state schools,
designed for them only, enjoyed superior education with small classes, better-educated and
better-paid teachers, science laboratories and swimming pools, things that black children
never knew. Furthermore, black pupils had to pay for their schoolbooks while Whites got
theirs free of charge. In 1976, 257,505 black children enrolled to start secondary school, but
schools were only able to take 38,000. 519 These were some of the reasons behind the Soweto
uprising of that year. Another reason will be treated in the next chapter.
The assault on the basic human right to education was carried out mainly through and
within the framework of the 1953 Bantu Education Act (No. 47), which divided the black
population into different tribal units, resulting in each unit being isolated from the other – yet
another strategy to prevent black national consciousness and ethnically-nationally organized
resistance from developing. The only exception to this pattern could be found in the few
private black schools, many of them church and mission schools, which increased in numbers
between 1935 and 1956. Yet, private school pupils’ enrolment dropped again from 1956,
mainly due to increasing poverty among Blacks, but also because several private schools for
Blacks were forcibly closed by the government. 520
The educational system in South Africa was based on baasskap, which means white
supremacy over all other races, implying non-White inferiority. 521 Dr. Hendrik F. Verwoerd,
the Minister of Native Affairs (and later Prime Minister), stated in the Bantu Education Bill of
1953 that racial relations could only be improved once each race knew what education they
deserved. Certain areas of education, such as mathematics and science were not open to nonwhite
students. Black Africans ‘should be educated for their opportunities in life’, because
there was no place for them ‘above the level of certain forms of labour’. In other words,
Blacks deserved inferior education because they were ‘culturally inferior’ and Whites more
advanced education since they were allegedly ‘more advanced culturally’. 522
This, and the authorities’ demands for more Afrikaans in the schools, sparked mass
resistance in 1976 in township schools, in which two organizations launched boycotts, which
by the 1980s had spread throughout the country with the slogan, Liberation before Education’.
By 1985, 650,000 students were not receiving any education. Leaders in charge of the
boycotts were arrested, harassed and some even killed. The leaders of the large black
resistance movements, on the other hand, were unhappy with the outbreak and outcome of the
student revolt. They were mainly concerned with the future development of negotiations. In
response to their concern, parents and leaders of black resistance movements established a
National Education Crisis Committee (NECC), with the slogan ‘Education for Liberation’. 523
Teachers were paid by the committee and new curricula were made in response to student
needs (such as English and history). However, the government did not implement any
measures to change the educational system, resulting in many students staying out of school
altogether. This was further reflected on by Mandela, when he told the people of Soweto:
The crisis in education that exists in South Africa demands special
attention. The education crisis in Black schools is a political crisis. It
arises out of the fact that our people have no vote and therefore cannot
make the government of the day responsive to their needs. Apartheid
518 Ibid: 114
519 Bonner & Segal 1998: 78f
520 Fedderke J.W., et al. 1998: 3f; Lester 1996: 113f.
521 Mandela 3 1990 (1978): 65
522 Commey: South Africa: The Triumph of the African Spirit, 2003
523 Lester 1996: 199