South Africa has been engaged in a protected struggle to decolonise and Africanise its
education system to make it more inclusive. In this essay I will explaining why I think the
country is not on the right track in our quest to decolonise and africanise the education
system, at least at a level of education policy and reform. I will be taking into considerations
the many challenges that continue to confront our countries education system.
What is meant by ‘decolonising’ and ‘Africanising’ the education system? Decolonisation is
the removal of the colonial and apartheid regimes, which were responsible for the oppressive
and marginalizing divisions in the country. The calls for school decolonization are appeals to
empower students, teachers, and parents so that the educational system can be resurrected to
serve all people equally (Msila, 2020). During the '#FeesMustFall' movement, it was argued
that South Africa's education system is failing pupils because significant discrepancies
remained, prompting student activists to demand that education and the curriculum be
decolonized. The campaign focused on problems such as English's hegemony as the language
of teaching and public education's failure to equip students for postsecondary education
(Lebeloane 2017 as cited by Mahabeer, 2020). Recent debates on decolonisation have
focused on higher education with little focus on the school level. A key point of departure for
decolonising the curriculum, however, is in school classrooms as these formal sites of
education are ideally positioned to bring about social change. Unfortunately, in many South
African schools, the curriculum has so far not changed in response to these challenges, and as
a result, learners are still being moulded for a Westernized way of life, according to
decolonial critique (Mahabeer, 2020).
Before we look into decolonising the education system we need to look back at the education
pre-1994. According to Naicker (2000) the education system that was in place during
apartheid emphasized separateness above common citizenship and nationhood, and fostered
race, class, gender, and ethnic differences. Apartheid was a governance system that enforced
racial segregation and institutionalized White supremacy in South Africa (Biko, 2002; Lodge,
1983; Marks & Trapido, 1987; Mothlabi, 1985 as cited by Ndimande, 2016). It established
and enforced racial groups - Blacks, Coloreds, Indians, and Whites - that were tiered
according to their social status. White supremacy and privilege were preserved as a result of
this racial classification, while Blacks, Indians, and Coloured people were classified as
second-class citizens. This had a crucial role in the development and perpetuation of deepseated social inequalities within communities (Ndimande, 2016).
Education had a significant influence in the creation of socioeconomic inequality and poverty
in Black communities during the apartheid era. The Bantu Education system was introduced
in the White-only parliament by Hendrik Frensch Verwoerd, Minister of Native Affairs in
1950 and Prime Minister in 1958. To maintain apartheid ideology, Verwoerd believed that
Africans should be educated to be subservient (Ndimande, 2016).
The post-apartheid government enacted a democratic Constitution in 1996 with the goal of
addressing the country's long-standing social imbalances. It brought about social, political,
and economic reforms, as well as modifications to the educational system (Ndimande, 2016).
Because education is so important the government passed the South African Schools Act
(SASA) in 1996, which aimed to eliminate all types of discriminatory education and meet the
needs of schools that had been disadvantaged by apartheid. The idea was to build a
democratic and uniform educational system (Nkomo, 1990; Samoff, 2001 as cited by
Ndimande, 2016),
It is worth mentioning, however, that the South African educational system has undergone
plenty of curriculum modifications since 1994, all of which were implemented by the
government in response to the social inequities and transformations created by colonialism
and reinforced by apartheid (Mahabeer, 2020). The need for a more inclusive education
system led to the introduction and changes of three new curriculums. This reform was
required in order to create a more standard educational system for all South Africans, which
would be overseen by a single Department of Education (Zwelandile, 2016).
Curriculum 2005 was the name of the first post-apartheid national curriculum framework,
which signified the year in which the new curriculum was to be introduced in all school
grades (Le Grange 2000 as cited by). The curriculum was a major shift from apartheid's
curriculum and its post-apartheid modifications in several ways. The most recent iteration of
the curriculum which is the Curriculum Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) which was
produced in 2011 and phased into schools in 2012. CAPS saw the removal of Outcome Based
Education (OBE), following repeated criticisms of this educational technique (Jansen, 1998
as cited by Ontong & Le Grange, 2018).
The question raised now is whether we are on the right road in our efforts to decolonize and
Africanize education, at least at the policy and reform level, given the numerous problems
that the country's education system has faced since 1994? No. The south African education
system is still far from being decolonised. The curricula at South African schools have not yet
been decolonized, and as a result, learners are still being prepared to live in a world that is not
Western by nature. In South African schools, the school curriculum does nothing to address
decolonization for equality and social justice (Lebeloane, 2017). This is further evidenced by
the establishment of Curriculum 2005, Outcomes-Based Education (OBE), National
Curriculum Statements (NCS), Revised National Curriculum Statements (RNCS), and CAPS,
all of which did little to address the issue of decolonization. Finally, it is pointless to
Africanize and decolonize higher education institutions if nothing is done at the elementary
school level (Lebeloane, 2017).
The curriculum in South African schools has not yet been thoughtfully considered, nor has
the concept of decolonisation been fully embraced, and the curriculum continues to promote
Westernized, Eurocentric, and colonial ways of knowing that ignore learners' indigenous
knowledge and languages. It's not that schools and universities haven't evolved in the
postcolonial period; it's that they haven't truly incorporated indigenous peoples' knowledge
and interests (Smith and Smith 2018 as cited by Mahabeer).
With the implementation of these various changes other obstacles arose quickly, as they did
in many other countries where programs for educational equality were introduced. One major
challenge that continues to hinder the process of decolonisation in the South Africa schools is
inequality. Post-1994, township schools that served Black children were racially segregated
and lacked educational resources, this was largely because they were in disadvantaged
neighbourhoods (Jansen & Amsterdam, 2006; Ndimande, 2006; Vally & Dalamba, 1999 as
cited by Ndimande, 2016). The issue of funding became a major problem mainly because the
government's strategy of paying all public schools equally proved to be unfair and biased
against historically Black schools. During apartheid, these schools were severely
underfunded, whereas historically White schools had a plenty of resources, and these
disparities persisted (Ndimande, 2016). This is still a problem even today. Funding and lack
of resources is not only challenge that is facing South Africa’s education system.
Looking at these challenges faced, how then can we decolonise the school’s curriculum?
According to Lebeloane (2017), the process of decolonising the curriculum can be aided by
drawing from the work of Smith (1999) who identified the following elements of
decolonization, namely, deconstruction and reconstruction, self-determination and social
justice, ethics, language, internationalization of indigenous experiences, history and critique
(Lebeloane, 2017).
A few of these elements will be explained. In this sense, deconstruction and reconstruction
refers to the process of reworking a distorted school curriculum to better suit the people for
whom it is intended. Deconstructing colonial and, in certain cases, corrupted school
curriculum and recreating it are examples of this (Lebeloane, 2017). For example, it will be
critical to teach African students about geographical features and to use examples from the
African continent rather than those from other continents such as Europe during a geography
class. That means that instead of teaching them about the Alps mountains and Rhine river in
Europe, it will be more necessary to teach them about the Atlas Mountains in Morocco, West
Africa, and the Zambezi River in Zambia, Southern Africa, which they can relate to because
both are in Africa (Rodney, 2009 as cited by Lebeloane, 2017). It is critical to deconstruct
distorted information and reconstruct it so that there is a balance of knowledge to the benefit
of learners as part of decolonizing the curriculum for equity and social justice (Lebeloane,
2017). It's critical to explain who owned the land where diamonds and gold were discovered,
as well as what happened to those people and their part of the profits made from the minerals,
during a history lesson (Lebeloane, 2017).
A decolonized curriculum should be developed in Africa and by Africans, whose ethics foster
African youth's confidence and pride while simultaneously instilling a culture of rational use
of material and social resources for equality and social justice. Decolonizing the school
curriculum is crucial because it will address and explain to young pupils in schools the
concepts of class, gender, ethnicity, ethnocide, inequality, and racism that govern
colonialism. The interpretation and implementation of economics, education, law, and
science from a Western perspective will be addressed by interpreting and implementing from
an African one. Botho and Ubuntu will be kept and supported. This includes preserving and
promoting culture, dignity, and language. The people's identity, which includes their
conventions and values, will not be lost.
To conclude, although the South African education system has improved post-apartheid there
is still a long way to go. As a third world and developing country, South Africa still faces lots
of challenges such as poverty, racism, sexism inequality etc. these all also affect the county’s
education system. These challenges make it difficult for the process of decolonisation to
happen. The decolonisation of the education system will lead to people who were previously
marginalized under apartheid choosing to embrace and recognize their own cultures, tell their
own stories, study books written by Africans, and run institutions based on African values
rather than Eurocentric (Du Plessis, 2021). Schools and universities are microcosms of
society, and their decolonisation will kick off a far bigger shift that will eventually touch the
entire country (Le Grange as cited in Du Plessis, 2021).
References
Du Plessis, P. (2021). Decolonisation of education in South Africa: Challenges to decolonise
the university curriculum. South African Journal of Higher Education, 35(1), 54-69.
Lebeloane, L. D. M. (2017). Decolonizing the school curriculum for equity and social justice
in South Africa. Koers, 82(3), 1-10.
Mahabeer, P. (2020). Decolonising the school curriculum in South Africa: black women
teachers’ perspectives. Third World Thematic: A TWQ Journal, 5(1-2), 97-119.
Msila, V. (Ed.). (2020). Developing Teaching and Learning in Africa: Decolonising
Perspectives. African Sun Media.
Naicker, S. M. (2000). From apartheid education to inclusive education: The challenges of
transformation. International education summit for a democratic society, 26-28.
Ndimande, B. S. (2016). Pedagogy of poverty: School choice and inequalities in postapartheid South Africa. Global Education Review, 3(2).
Ontong, K., & le Grange, L. (2018). Towards an integrated school geography curriculum: the
role of place-based education. Alternation Journal, (21), 12-36
Zwelandile, n. V. (2016). Complementarity of curriculum design and development process
and curriculum implementation in the south African education system: teachers ‘experiences
in the Libode education mega-district (doctoral dissertation, Walter Sisulu university).