Education: Keystone of Apartheid

Literature › Works

Walton R. Johnson (1982). Education: Keystone of Apartheid. Anthropology & Education Quarterly, Vol. 13, No. 3 (African Education and Social Stratification). Blackwell Publishing on behalf of the American Anthropological Association.

Type	journal article
Scope	Wider apartheid literature
Method	mixed
Period studied	1806–1981
Regions	South Africa, Cape Colony, Transkei (Umtata)
Themes	origins segregation, education human capital, inequality poverty unemployment, politics ideology elections, bantustans removals influx, business and state, resistance social movements, labour markets wages
Citation key	johnson1982

Argument

Johnson argues that education is the keystone of apartheid: it is deliberately manipulated as an instrument of social engineering to sustain a racially and ethnically based stratification system. Structurally, it limits African access through unequal spending, scarce places, fees and poor quality. In content, it socialises whites and Africans into an apartheid 'social charter' built on the myth of superior European civilization. The argument runs through a historical survey from the Cape to Bantu Education, a contrast of white and African schooling, and a case study of Umtata (a survey of 100 whites in 1978) showing that 'independence' for Transkei left education's stratifying function unchanged. He concludes that both the structure and content of education must be radically transformed for a non-racial democratic society, and he is sceptical of business- and government-led reforms.

Evidence and method

Secondary literature (Wilson and Thompson, Behr and Macmillan, Horrell's Race Relations Institute reports, Kaplan Area Handbook, Auerbach, Robertson and Whitten, Herbstein), official yearbooks and commission reports (Eiselen, Interdepartmental Committee 1936, Rickert), press (Daily Dispatch, Sunday Times, NYT) and the author's own 1978 social survey of 100 randomly stratified Umtata white respondents.

Place in the debates

• Role of schooling in reproducing racial stratification (social control/reproduction vs. human capital view) (see Education, Bantu Education and skills). Sides with a social-control and socialisation view: education is a mechanism of stratification and legitimation, not a neutral route to mobility; also argues that economic-growth rationales for reform do not change this.
• Liberal vs revisionist on apartheid and growth/business reform (see Education, Bantu Education and skills). Sceptical of the liberal expectation that business needs for skilled labour will erode apartheid; sees business training programmes and constructive engagement as 'neo-apartheid' adapting the 'floating colour-bar' to white needs.
• Effectiveness of separate development / homeland 'independence' (see Education, Bantu Education and skills). Argues Transkei independence was cosmetic; white schools were leased back to the Cape authorities and African education was still administered by Pretoria-seconded white officials.

Findings

• State spending per pupil was grossly unequal from Union, with the gap widening over time. (p. 8)

  In 1976-1977 the corresponding figures were R654 for white pupils and R48.5 for African pupils (Gordon et al. 1979:399).

• By Union, white-to-African per capita education spending was already hugely unequal, after Britain withdrew support for African education. (p. 5)

  by the time of Union in 1910, the ratio of government expenditures for white and African education, per capita of population, was R333 to R1 (Malherbe 1977:572).

• Under the 1922 formula African education was tied to a fixed sum plus revenue from an African-only tax, and per-pupil spending on whites was about ten times higher. (p. 5)

  Between 1922 and 1945 a new formula allocated African education a fixed sum of only R680,000 per year, plus one-fifth of the revenue collected from a special "general" tax paid only by Africans.

• Mission societies, not the state, bore most of the cost of African schooling until Bantu Education. (p. 5)

  When the Union was formed, 90 percent of the costs of African education was borne by missions.

• Bantu Education centralised control and reverted financing to the 1922 basis, lowering standards, in line with Verwoerd's stated aim of limiting Africans to certain forms of labour. (p. 7)

  Bantu Education centralized African education under the national government and made it illegal for anyone to establish schools for Africans without the government's permission.

• Attrition in African schooling was severe, with very few reaching secondary level. (p. 8)

  Only one-fourth of those beginning school complete the entire primary program, and only one-tenth of the primary graduates enter secondary school.

• Lack of schooling left most African workers functionally illiterate and confined to low-paid work, especially in rural areas. (p. 9)

  The 1979 Rickert Commission report found that 40 percent of the African male workforce in urban areas did not have educational qualifications sufficient to give them functional literacy

• Whites dominate educational attainment far out of proportion to their population share. (p. 10)

  although whites constitute 16 percent of the population, they produce 75 percent of all pupils obtaining a senior certificate and 82 percent of those who qualify for university admission.

• Africans bore substantial private costs for schooling while earning very little relative to whites. (p. 9)

  In 1967, the Institute of Race Relations estimated that it cost Africans R17.25 per year to maintain a child in a lower primary school, R28 in a higher primary school, R48 in a secondary school, and R65 in a high school

• Transkei 'independence' left education's stratifying role unchanged; Umtata white schools stayed under Cape control and the Umtata survey showed whites linking desegregated schooling to the end of apartheid. (p. 16)

  While ownership of all provincial schools passed to the new government, white schools were leased back to the Cape Provincial authorities at nominal rentals.

• Reforms by business and government are judged not to change education's stratifying role; the author likens them to a 'floating colour-bar'. (p. 20)

  We are witnessing how the "floating colour-bar" adapts to white economic and political needs, leaving the hierarchical social structure unchanged.

Evidence ledger

Sources used

Source	Kind	Period	How used
Author's social survey of Umtata whites, early 1978 (100 respondents, random stratified, questionnaires)	author survey or fieldwork	early 1978	Shows white residents' attitudes to desegregated schooling and links them to apartheid myths and the preservation of status.
Daily Dispatch articles on Umtata and Transkei education (6/9/76; 10/15/76; 12/16/77; 1/27/78; 4/13/77; 8/16/78; 10/6/78)	newspapers periodicals	1976-1978	Documents the segregated, leased-back white schools, the white schools' achievements, unfree and non-compulsory African schooling, the syllabus and exam arrangements, and the African education secretary's speech.
Sunday Times, 1/29/78, 'The Broederbond Grip on Education'	newspapers periodicals	1978	Supports the claim that Broederbond members control education policy.
Other press items: Economist 6/21/80; New York Times 9/24/80 and 11/12/80; Sunday Tribune 12/11/77; Africa Report Sept-Oct 1980	newspapers periodicals	1977-1980	Used for the Rickert Commission literacy findings, the 1980 boycott deaths, planned training centres, compulsory education plans, population projections and Oppenheimer's statement.
Interdepartmental Committee on Native Education, 1936 report	commission or official report	1936	Shows that 70 percent of African children of school age were not at school and that facilities were overcrowded and understaffed.
Eiselen Commission on Native Education (terms of reference and report), 1949-51	commission or official report	1949-1951	Shows the premise of separate Bantu education and that African testimony against it was ignored, leading to the Bantu Education Act.
Rickert Commission report, 1979 (reported in Economist 6/21/80)	commission or official report	1979	Indicates the share of the African male workforce lacking functional literacy.
Education and the South African Economy (Education Panel, 1961), published 1966	commission or official report	1960-1966	Source for 1960 per capita expenditure on white and African pupils and for the 1960s reform recommendations.
Horrell, Bantu Education to 1968 (SAIRR), statistics on enrolment, costs, farm schooling, teachers	secondary literature compilation	1960-1968	Supplies enrolment shares (post-primary and senior secondary), African school costs, farm-school attendance, parental fund-raising and teacher qualification trends.
SAIRR Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1977 and 1978 (Gordon et al.)	secondary literature compilation	1976-1978	Supplies 1976-77 per capita expenditure figures, TEACH/LEARN fund totals, and reform demands and concessions after Soweto.
Behr and Macmillan, Education in South Africa (1966), expenditure and mission school statistics	secondary literature compilation	1910-1945	Source for the 1922-45 African education funding formula, white-to-African per pupil spending ratios, and the number of mission versus state schools in 1926.
Malherbe, Education in South Africa, Vol. II (1977), Union-era expenditure ratio	secondary literature compilation	1910	Gives the 1910 ratio of per capita government expenditure on white versus African education.
Area Handbook for the Republic of South Africa (Kaplan et al. 1971)	secondary literature compilation	c. 1971	Source for school structure and finance, drop-out rates among African pupils, and curricular emphasis on tribal environment.
South Africa 1974: Official Yearbook of the Republic of South Africa	official statistical series	1973-74	Describes the compulsory, free white schooling, curriculum structure, National Education policy principles and separate development aims.
Manifesto for Christian National Education (Feb 1948), via Robertson and Whitten 1978 and Hirson 1979	other	1948	Establishes the ideological premises of native education as trusteeship, non-equality and segregation.
School syllabuses, textbooks and exam questions (via Robertson and Whitten 1978; 'Rebusoajoang' 1979; Hunter 1966; Herbstein 1979; Auerbach 1965)	secondary literature compilation	1950s-1979	Illustrates how curricular content socializes white and African pupils into the apartheid 'social charter'.
Barclays National Bank, Economic Conditions in the Republic of Transkei (1977)	company records or reports	1977-78	Source for the white population of Umtata in 1978 (about 6,000, roughly one-third settlers and two-thirds sojourners).
Historical and ethnological works on Umtata and Transkei (Brownlee 1923; Hammond-Tooke n.d.; Campion 1976; Du Toit 1975)	secondary literature compilation	1876-1975	Establishes the history of white settlement and administration in Umtata and the 1951 separate development statement.
Legislation: Cape Education Act 1866; Bantu Education Act 1953; National Education Policy Act 1967; Educational Services Act 1967	legislation gazette	1866-1967	Shows the legal centralization of white and African education and the legal basis of segregated provision.
Wilson and Thompson, Oxford History of South Africa (1969, 1975)	secondary literature compilation	17th-20th c.	Supplies historical data on Cape mission schooling and the effects of the 1866 Cape Education Act.

New data

A 1978 questionnaire survey of 100 randomly stratified white residents of Umtata, Transkei, on views about desegregated education; only a few percentages and quotations are reported.

Inference

Quantification: Descriptive tables.

Historical narrative and structural analysis of education policy, with a sociological framework (stratification, myth and social charter). It draws on secondary statistics on per capita expenditure, enrolment and attrition, curricular and textbook quotations, and a single Umtata case study combining press reports with a small survey. It is interpretive and offers no formal tests.

Key claims

Claim	Basis	Strength
Government spending per pupil was grossly unequal and the disparity widened over time, with white spending more than 10 times African spending. (p. 220)	Per capita expenditure figures from Education and the South African Economy (1966) and the SAIRR Survey 1978, plus Behr and Macmillan and Malherbe for the earlier period.	Partial data
Structural limits on African schooling (few places, high attrition, parental costs) restrict African skills and lock Africans into low-paid positions. (p. 220)	Horrell 1968 and Kaplan et al. 1971 on enrolment and drop-out; Horrell on private costs; Rickert Commission via Economist for literacy.	Partial data
Bantu Education and the Eiselen Commission were deliberately designed to centralize African education and prepare Africans for subordinate roles, over African objections. (p. 219)	Eiselen Commission terms of reference and Horrell's account; Verwoerd's statement via Birley; CNE Manifesto text.	Illustrative or anecdotal
School curricula and textbooks socialize both white and African children into the myth of European civilization, legitimating apartheid stratification. (p. 223)	Quotations from syllabi and textbooks via Auerbach, Robertson and Whitten, Hunter, Herbstein, and 'Rebusoajoang'.	Illustrative or anecdotal
The Broederbond controls education policy and personnel, which advances the socialization objectives of the National Party. (p. 225)	A single Sunday Times article (1/29/78) plus Herbstein on publishing houses.	Illustrative or anecdotal
In Transkei/Umtata, 'separate development' and nominal independence left the structure and content of education unchanged, with white schools privileged and African schooling still unfree and limited. (p. 228)	Daily Dispatch reports 1976-78 and the author's Umtata fieldwork.	Illustrative or anecdotal
White residents of Umtata resist desegregated schooling because of apartheid myths and fears of losing status, and see changing education as changing apartheid. (p. 229)	Author's 1978 survey of 100 whites: 48 percent expected objection, 33 percent no objection; open-ended quotations.	Partial data

The author's caveats

The author notes that Auerbach/Dunning-style comparative arguments may overstate the point and that the Umtata survey is a small stratified sample of 100. He gives no further discussion of sampling, response or measurement limits, and rarely discusses the quality of the official statistics.

Gaps in the evidence

The argument relies mostly on secondary compilations (Horrell, SAIRR, Behr and Macmillan) rather than original departmental reports, Hansard or the Eiselen Commission report itself. Causal claims that curricula shaped attitudes are untested, since no comparison group, attitudinal baseline or pupil-level data are used. Archival records of the Department of Bantu Education and Department of Education and Training, enrolment returns, and Transkei education files existed then and are now available. A larger and fully described Umtata survey (sampling frame, question wording, African respondents) would also have strengthened the case study.

Replicability: Data poorly documented.