History & Context

Apartheid: During the era of Apartheid (1948-1994), black people were evicted from properties that were in areas designated as "white only" and forced to move into segregated townships. Separate townships were established for each of the three designated non-white race groups – black people, "coloureds" (mixed race), and Indians – as per the Population Registration Act of 1950.

Education

Under that apartheid, white South African children received a quality schooling virtually for free, while their black counterparts had "Bantu education," known as an inferior education designed for black students to be laborers.

Education was viewed as a part of the overall apartheid system, which included the "homelands", urban restrictions, pass laws and job reservation. The role of black Africans was as labourers or servants only. Although South Africa's government is working to rectify the imbalances in education, the apartheid legacy remains.

Illiteracy rates are high at around 24% of adults over 15 years old, i.e., 6- to 8-million adults are not functionally literate. While 65% of whites over 20 years old and 40% of Indians have a high school or higher qualification, this figure is only 14% among blacks and 17% among the coloured population.

More about the diverse South African community

Info provided by: www.southafrica.info

Title Photo by: Heinz-Josef Lücking, CC BY-SA 3.0 de, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=33119153