The Segregation Of South Afric An Outcome Of Colonialism,...

The existing pattern of manipulated schooling in South Africa can be considered an outcome of colonialism, segregation and apartheid. In the early 1800s, the arrival of the British introduced the first system of education in Africa. The indigenous people of Africa were exposed to schooling under the provision of British missionaries. At this time, education was a means of spreading the British language, imposing their religion and just a general mechanism for social control. Their strategy was to ‘civilize’ the black Africans and ‘anglicize’ the white Afrikaners. And most of the school establishments were mixed, serving whites coloreds and Africans. However, the Afrikaners resisted European control in attempt to avoid becoming the lower†¦show more content†¦Education’s role can be molding a person for their prescribed field of work, and that is exactly what the whites conducted. They systematically programmed the Africans for work as cheap un skilled laborers and thus left the superior roles in society for themselves to fill. Clear ethnic and class stratification developed, and the government eventually adopted the view that Africans must fund their own education, which continued throughout the apartheid. Between 1910 and 1948, per capita expenditures on white education increased by 263% and African numbers in school plummeted to about 30% (Johnson 1982). Once again, limiting education was a tool to shape society for the benefit of one group – â€Å"the education of the White child prepares him for life in a dominant society and the education of the black child for a subordinate society†(Johnson 1982). And in 1948, the Afrikaner National Party rose to power by an election victory, attaining further governmental policy control. The aim of the National Party was to increase and rigidify the segregationism imposed in the few years previous, and thus began the apartheid in South Africa. To facilitate the separa tion of all ethnic groups the Bantu Education act was introduced in 1953. And in combination with the National Education Policy Act of 1967, which stripped the provinces of most of their control over white education and empowered the Minister of