The quality of education is pivotal for the production of human capital and this cannot be compromised by failing to refocus on the quality of education offered in schools. The inputs in the system such as trained and motivated teachers, buildings and classrooms including sanitation, clean water, instructional material such as textbooks, as well as strong leadership with vision to steer the winds of change are important in providing the desired outcomes. The chapters in this volume are broadly divided into three subsections as follows: learner related issues, (farm and rural schools, poverty and schooling, school violence, and students rights); teacher related issues,(teacher morale and motivation, teachers for all schools, management needs of school principals); and administrative/policy related issues (inclusive education, and school community relations). The social demand for better schools, effective principals, qualified and committed teachers and better opportunities for all place a huge challenge to provinces and the state to protect the rights of all citizens. This volume sets out the challenges facing the education system in South Africa, such as poor school infrastructure, poor learning conditions, and a lack of learning materials and provides recommendations on how some of these can be overcome.

This book deals with current developments in black education in South Africa since the introduction of Bantu education in the beginning of the 1990s. During the period under discussion, improvements have been made in black education. These improvements are partly due to the significant political changes currently taking place in South Africa that are supposed to mark the end of apartheid. Despite these developments, much remains to be done in order to remedy the effects of Bantu education. In particular, providing quality education in black schools will require innovative solutions. Proper planning, developing new teaching strategies, establishing practical educational goals, and identifying and using available resources must be controlled and harnessed to a new social order. Collaboration and coordination of all professionals, particularly blacks, will be a necessity. The process of change requires black participation in finding solutions to their educational problems; this is one of the major challenges facing post-apartheid South Africa. It is evident that there are more challenges that the post-apartheid era will present. This book is aimed at providing tentative alternative solutions to black education.

While South Africa has made significant improvements in basic and tertiary education enrollment, the country still suffers from significant challenges in the quality of educational achievement by almost any international metric. The paper finds that money is clearly not the main issue since the South Africa’s education budget is comparable to OECD countries as a percent of GDP and exceeds that of most peer sub-Saharan African countries in per capita terms. The main explanatory factors are complex and multifaceted, and are associated with insufficient subject knowledge of some teachers, history, race, language, geographic location, and socio-economic status. Low educational achievement contributes to low productivity growth, and high levels of poverty, unemployment, and inequality. Drawing on the literature, the paper sketches some policy considerations to guide the debate on what works and what does not.

The main thesis of this book is that, given that South African education faces major challenges, the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) constellation of states offers — thus far overlooked — a valuable tertium comparationis, a source of international comparative perspectives, to inform the domestic scholarly discourse on education. This book first investigates the national contexts and development of education in the BRICS countries, arguing that this grouping represents a valuable but yet overlooked field for illuminating South African education issues with international perspectives. The book consists of chapters arguing for and illustrating this thesis from a variety of angles. Common to all chapters is that authors used the comparative method in education, that is comparing the national education system, in their education societal context interrelationships, of the BRICS countries. The chapters focus on a number of critical issues in South African education, including the language of learning and teaching issue, the alignment of the world of education with the world of work, early childhood education, and the development of world-class universities. Regarding the last, for example, China has been the terrain of the most intensive national projects of establishing world-class universities, with Project 985, Project 211, and the “Double First Class University” project. The chapters demonstrate what South Africa, in approaching her education issues, can learn from the experience of the BRICS countries.

South Africa's democratic government inherited a divided and unequal system of education. Under apartheid, South Africa had nineteen different educational departments separated by race, language, geography and ideology. This education system prepared learners in different ways for the positions they were expected to occupy in social, economic and political life under apartheid and was funded and resourced in ways that favoured white people and disadvantaged black people who remain in the working class. The newly elected democratic government in 1994 laid a foundation for a single national education system. Twenty-five years after the dawn of democracy, education is still in a parlous state in many communities in South Africa, but it is in the rural areas mainly in the former homelands that learners are most disadvantaged. Contributors are: Olufemi Timothy Adigun, Oluwatoyin Ayodele Ajani, Alan Bhekisisa Buthelezi, Joyce Phikisile Dhlamini, Bongani Thulani Gamede, Samantha Govender, Lawrence Kehinde, Nontobeko Prudence Khumalo, Primrose Ntombenhle Khumalo, Azwidohwi Philip Kutame, Manthekeleng Linake, Sive Makeleni, Nkhensani Maluleke, Bothwell Manyonga, Mncedisi Christian Maphalala, Takalani Mashau, Hlengiwe Romualda Mhlongo, Rachel Gugu Mkhasibe, Dumisani Wilfred Mncube, Nicholus Tumelo Mollo, Ramashego Shila Mphahlele, Fikile Mthethwa, Grace Matodzi Muremela, Edmore Mutekwe, Nokuthula Hierson Ndaba, Clever Ndebele, Thandiwe Nonkululeko Ngema, Phiwokuhle Ngubane, Sindile Ngubane, Dumisani Nzima, Livhuwani Peter Ramabulana, and Maria Tsakeni.

This open access edited volume is a comparative effort to discern the short-term educational impact of the covid-19 pandemic on students, teachers and systems in Brazil, Chile, Finland, Japan, Mexico, Norway, Portugal, Russia, Singapore, Spain, South Africa, the United Kingdom and the United States. One of the first academic comparative studies of the educational impact of the pandemic, the book explains how the interruption of in person instruction and the variable efficacy of alternative forms of education caused learning loss and disengagement with learning, especially for disadvantaged students. Other direct and indirect impacts of the pandemic diminished the ability of families to support children and youth in their education. For students, as well as for teachers and school staff, these included the economic shocks experienced by families, in some cases leading to food insecurity and in many more causing stress and anxiety and impacting mental health. Opportunity to learn was also diminished by the shocks and trauma experienced by those with a close relative infected by the virus, and by the constrains on learning resulting from students having to learn at home, where the demands of schoolwork had to be negotiated with other family necessities, often sharing limited space. Furthermore, the prolonged stress caused by the uncertainty over the resolution of the pandemic and resulting from the knowledge that anyone could be infected and potentially lose their lives, created a traumatic context for many that undermined the necessary focus and dedication to schoolwork. These individual effects were reinforced by community effects, particularly for students and teachers living in communities where the multifaceted negative impacts resulting from the pandemic were pervasive. This is an open access book.