Apartheid

education is inferior and a crime against humanity. 524
227
Fedderke et al. also conclude that widely divergent features and opportunities provided
by white and black schools were mainly due to race rather than class. 525 To improve the
situation in post-apartheid South Africa, the government in 2002 set a five-year deadline for
traditionally white universities to make progress towards accelerating racial integration.
Afrikaans universities were always closed to non-Europeans during white rule, whereas
Englsh universities had accepted a few black students prior to 1958, when mixed-race classes
were made illegal there, too. Overall improvement in student performance only became
visible in late 2001, when nearly 62 per cent of South Africa’s pupils passed matriculation
exams, and 15 per cent qualified for university studies. In the first three years after apartheid,
pass levels had remained around 40 per cent.
In summary, schools and universities in South Africa today remain among the most
divided sectors of post-apartheid society, and the country is plagued by continued resentment
and anger over this, highlighted by recurrent protests by black students demanding better
facilities and lower fees. After over 300 years of racist segregation in education, sandwiched
between political and economic constraints, huge disparities between Whites and Blacks still
remain: ‘After the demise of political apartheid, it is economic apartheid, it seems, that
threatens most the huge potential of the African child.’ In education, as elsewhere, the gap
between South African Whites and Blacks appears to be finally narrowing, but only slowly,
and a radical improvement in this regard cannot be expected to take place unless there are
radical changes in the economic situation. 526
7.3. Denial of the Right to Education versus State-Sponsored Religious
Instructions for Genocide
Repressed education in the West Bank, Gaza, and east Jerusalem include destruction
of schools, long-term closures of schools, and prohibition of make-up classes and even of
home studies. On several occasions, the Israeli army raided schools, destroying property and
even turning the schools into military posts. Perhaps the Israeli government had intentions
similar to the South African National Party’s in mind, giving students ‘only what they
deserve’, as Palestinian schools were shut down by military orders at different times and
locations, for being ‘centers for violent protest’ or as an Israeli military spokesman described
them: ‘hot-beds of anti-Israeli protest.’ In any case, the Israeli authorities apparently felt that,
by allowing Palestinian students to attend schools and universities, civil unrest was more
likely to occur. The justification for these spontaneous closures was therefore ‘security
reasons’.
However, the closures of schools are really intended to penalize the entire population,
especially as was the case in 1988, when primary and secondary schools were closed for nine
months, and universities closed for eleven months. 527 Bir Zeit University was declared a
‘closed military area’ by the occupation authorities and remained closed for four and a half
years. 528 Due to all this, more than 300,000 students received no primary or secondary
education, and another 18,000 were barred from higher education. In South Africa, 650,000
students did not receive any education in 1985, a higher number in absolute terms, but lower
in terms relative to the sizes of the Palestinian and South African populations.
More than 50 per cent of the Palestinian population eligible for school were not
524 3
Mandela 1990 (1978): 219
525
Fedderke et al. 1998: 10
526
Commey 2003; Boyle: S.Africa’s Once Segregated Schools Seen Improving, 2001; N.N.: S.Africa to Revamp
Apartheid-Era Education, December 9, 2002; Madela 2002 (1965): 32
527
Al Haq 1988: 296
528
Ashrawi 1995: 42