Education in Post-apartheid South Africa: some lessons from Zimbabwe¶
Anthony Lemon (1995). Education in Post-apartheid South Africa: some lessons from Zimbabwe. Comparative Education 31(1). Taylor & Francis (Carfax).
| Type | journal article |
| Scope | Wider apartheid literature |
| Method | mixed |
| Period studied | 1923–1994 |
| Regions | South Africa, Zimbabwe, Rhodesia, Harare |
| Themes | education human capital, transition post apartheid, comparative theory, inequality poverty unemployment, demography urbanisation |
| Citation key | lemon1995 |
Argument¶
Lemon compares the conservative education reforms of 'Zimbabwe-Rhodesia' (1978-80) with de Klerk's school models after 1990, and with post-independence Zimbabwe. He argues that both reform packages entrenched a privileged set of schools within a formally non-racial system, so class barriers replaced racial ones. A case study of nine Harare secondary schools shows that resource inequalities persisted after independence, even under a professedly socialist government. He concludes that South Africa's post-apartheid government must redistribute within a fixed budget, rethink what the state can provide equally, and devise ways to fund the rest so that inequalities of opportunity are minimised.
Evidence and method¶
Secondary literature on Rhodesian and Zimbabwean education (Atkinson, Chikombah and others), SAIRR Survey of Race Relations 1992-3, official education statistics, personal communications, and a survey of nine Harare secondary schools by Paul Chatterton (levies, classroom and teacher ratios, O and A level pass rates).
Place in the debates¶
- Non-racial meritocracy vs class entrenchment in education reform (see Education, Bantu Education and skills). Sides with critics of the 1979 Act. Argues that fee-based, property-linked school categories and South Africa's models B and C replace race with class.
- Do additional school resources raise academic achievement? (see Education, Bantu Education and skills). Tentative: pass-rate differences across Harare schools were small, so resources may matter little above a threshold. Calls for more detailed research and notes resources may affect personal development.
- Growth vs redistribution as the route to better Black education (see Education, Bantu Education and skills). Argues South Africa's education spending is already high, so improvement must come from redistribution and renewed economic growth rather than larger budgets.
Findings¶
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The Rhodesian and de Klerk-era reforms were similar in aims, including entrenching privileged schools while letting class replace race. (p. 12)
clearly include the entrenchment of a privileged set of schools within an overtly non-racial system, allowing class distinctions to replace those of race.
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Model B admissions were minimal: few Black pupils entered formerly White schools by 1991. (p. 5)
only 6,059 Blacks had been admitted nation-wide, an average of only 30 per school
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Model C was effectively imposed on White state schools in 1992, making levies compulsory and amounting to semi-privatisation. (p. 6)
The change to model C, as to community schools in 'Zimbabwe-Rhodesia', amounts to semi-privatisation and is producing substantial variations in standards.
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South Africa's education budget share leaves little room for a Zimbabwe-style expansion. (p. 6)
education was already responsible for 22.8% of total budgetary expenditure in 1991/2 in South Africa and the four 'independent' homelands
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Zimbabwe's rapid secondary expansion came at the cost of quality, with O level pass rates falling sharply. (p. 6)
secondary school enrolment rose from 66,215 in 1979 to 670,615 in 1989 and the number of secondary schools rose from 177 to 1,506
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Harare's former group A schools remained far less crowded than high-density schools, and levies widened the gap. (p. 8)
classroom:pupil ratios of between 1:79 and 1:90, compared with between 1:30 and 1:38 in the former group A schools surveyed
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Large racial per-capita spending gaps persisted into the early 1990s despite equalisation efforts. (p. 12)
the ratio between Black expenditure per capita on Whites and Blacks remained 3.6:1 in 1991/2
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Projected growth in Black enrolment will constrain per-capita spending. (p. 12)
the number of Black pupils will rise from 8.1 million in 1991 to 9.3 million in 1995 and 13.9 million or 84% of all school pupils, by the year 2000
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Farm schools offer the worst provision, with state spending below two-thirds of average Black per-capita spending. (p. 13)
The state contribution to these schools was equivalent to less than two-thirds of average Black per capita spending in 1990/1991
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Equalising per-capita spending would only bring the average close to Black township school levels. (p. 13)
if expenditures per capita were to be equalised across all schools, the average would be little greater than the present figure for Black township schools
Evidence ledger¶
Sources used¶
| Source | Kind | Period | How used |
|---|---|---|---|
| Survey of Race Relations in South Africa 1992-3 | secondary literature compilation | 1990-1992 | Supplies figures on children outside the school system, first-year primary drop-out rates, and state spending on farm schools relative to average Black per capita spending. |
| Annual Report of the Secretary for Education and Culture for the Year Ending 31st December 1989 (CSO, 1990) | official statistical series | 1979-1989 | Provides the figures for the growth of secondary school enrolment and the number of secondary schools after independence. |
| Additional Report Accompanying the Annual Report of the Secretary for Education and Culture for 1987 (Chanakira, 1988) | official statistical series | 1987 | Used for the proportion of primary leavers entering secondary school in 1987. |
| Atkinson (1982) data on racial composition of Zimbabwean schools, third term 1980 | secondary literature compilation | 1980 | Supplies the percentage of Black children in group A, private and community schools to show the limited effect of the 1979 Act. |
| Atkinson (1988) on public expenditure on education in Zimbabwe | secondary literature compilation | 1978-1981 | Gives the rise in education's share of the national budget after independence. |
| Bot (1991) on admission of Black pupils to model B schools | newspapers periodicals | 1991 | Source for the number of Black pupils admitted to model B schools by January 1991. |
| Business Day, Johannesburg, 15 March 1990 | newspapers periodicals | 1990 | Quotes F.W. de Klerk, as Minister of National Education, on providing better education with fewer resources. |
| Survey of nine secondary schools in Harare (carried out by Paul Chatterton) | author survey or fieldwork | c. 1991 | Gives data on levies, catchment areas, class sizes, teacher:pupil ratios and GCE pass rates used to show persisting inequalities in Zimbabwean schools. |
| Personal communications from F. Chung (Minister of Education, Zimbabwe) and L. Ota (University of Zimbabwe) | interviews oral history | 1991 | Supports the claims that levies exclude domestic servants' children and that vocational O-level alternatives were precluded by parental demand. |
| Education and Manpower Development, 10 (RIEP, 1989) | official statistical series | 1989 (projections to 2000) | Source for projected growth in Black pupil numbers to 2000. |
| Report of an investigation into the Possibilities for Educational Development in Rhodesia-Zimbabwe after a Political Settlement (Atkinson et al., 1978) | commission or official report | 1978 | Cited as an unofficial report that probably influenced the 1979 Education Act. |
| 1979 Education Act (Zimbabwe-Rhodesia) and 1981 and 1987 amendments/Education Acts | legislation gazette | 1979-1987 | The class structure of schools under the Acts is compared with South African models A, B and C. |
| Education Renewal Strategy (South African Department of National Education, 1992) | commission or official report | 1992 | Cited as the government's own policy strategy in the redistribution debate. |
| National Education Policy Investigation (NEPI, 1993) and Natal-KwaZulu Education Working Group Report (1992) | commission or official report | 1992-1993 | Cited as examples of emerging policy planning, not as data for the argument. |
New data¶
A small survey of nine secondary schools in Harare (levies, catchment areas, class and teacher:pupil ratios, A- and O-level pass rates), collected by Paul Chatterton.
Inference¶
Quantification: Descriptive tables.
Comparative case study: an analogy between the Zimbabwe-Rhodesian reforms of 1978-80 and South African reforms of 1990-93, plus a small survey of nine Harare secondary schools after independence. Lessons are drawn by qualitative extrapolation and policy argument.
Key claims¶
| Claim | Basis | Strength |
|---|---|---|
| The 1979 Zimbabwe-Rhodesian Education Act kept elite schools largely closed to Black pupils through fees and zoning, and the South African model B/C reforms parallel it. (p. 103) | Atkinson (1982) on Black enrolment percentages, the Act's provisions, and Bot (1991) on model B admissions. | Partial data |
| Model C semi-privatisation in South Africa will replace racial barriers with class barriers and generate varying school standards. (p. 106) | Description of policy changes in February 1992 and levy increases; no systematic data on outcomes. | Asserted |
| In Harare, parental levies and school resources diverge widely between former group A and group B schools, and independence did not remove the inequalities. (p. 107) | Author's survey of nine schools (Table I levies, class-size ratios, teacher qualifications). | Partial data |
| Differences in academic pass rates across the Harare schools are surprisingly small, suggesting extra resources beyond a threshold may not raise achievement. (p. 107) | Tables II and III of GCE A- and O-level pass rates for nine schools; the author calls the finding tentative. | Partial data |
| Zimbabwe's rapid post-independence expansion of secondary education lowered quality (O-level pass rates) and forced retreats on fees and transition rates. (p. 105) | CSO (1990) enrolment and school counts, Chanakira (1988) and Chikombah (1988) transition rates, 1990 O-level failure statistic. | Partial data |
| South Africa must redistribute rather than increase education spending; per capita equalisation would leave the average near the present Black township level, constrained by projected pupil growth and immobile school plant. (p. 113) | Budget share (22.8% in 1991/2), per capita expenditure ratio of 3.6:1, SAIRR farm school spending, RIEP projections. | Partial data |
| Black pupils in white commercial farming areas receive the worst provision of any group in South Africa. (p. 113) | Graaff & Gordon (1992) and SAIRR (1993) figure that state contributions were under two-thirds of average Black per capita spending. | Partial data |
The author's caveats¶
The author says the pass-rate analysis was less conclusive than expected and that the finding needs much more detailed research with more schools and detailed grades rather than simple pass rates. He also notes that the effect of resources on personal development is hard to measure.
Gaps in the evidence¶
The argument relies on a small cross-section of nine Harare schools and on secondary sources for most Zimbabwean and South African figures, with no longitudinal or pupil-level data to test the claimed shift from race to class. The South African part would need school-level admissions, levy and enrolment data by model type from departmental records, which existed in 1995 and could be analysed now. Comparative claims about the fiscal feasibility of redistribution would be better tested with actual education budget series and teacher deployment data.
Replicability: Data poorly documented.