From Bantu to Broken: Educational Inequity and the Persistent Achievement Gap in South African Education (2015)

Undergraduate: Griffin Lerner

Faculty Advisor: Patrick Akos
Department: History

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With its 1994 transition from the overtly racist apartheid regime to a democratic political system, South African leaders promised to ¿¿¿redress imbalances generated by historical inequalities.¿¿¿ The Bantu Education Act, passed in 1953, allocated fewer resources and educational opportunities to black Africans as compared to whites and the achievement gap molded by apartheid legislation endures today. While enrollment between black and white students is nearly equal today, student outcomes are considerably dissimilar. Persistent poverty, poor quality schooling, low student achievement, and a lack of a ¿¿¿culture of learning¿¿¿ contributes to a marked lack of success among black students, as white completion rates are over 50 percent higher than African rates. In a country still recovering the scars of apartheid, the road to a truly equitable South Africa is paved with uncertainty. If South Africa is to achieve the dream of a racial democracy envisioned by its first black President, Nelson Mandela, it will need to embark upon a radical restructuring of educational opportunity for its greatest resource, the next generation of South Africa¿¿¿s leaders in its educational system today. In a country where 90% of the population is nonwhite, South Africa can ill afford ignoring the achievement gap plaguing the vast majority of its student population.