EQUITY AND EDUCATIONAL TRANSFORMATION IN SOUTH AFRICA By T.E. SHALEEQUITY AND EDUCATIONAL TRANSFORMATION IN SOUTH AFRICA By T.E. SHALE ‘Submitted in fulfilment of the demands for the course FGO7S1, being part of the requirements for the degree: MAGISTER EDUCATIONIS (consisting of four three-hour papers and one script) inthe Department of Philosophy and History of Education FACULTY OF THE HUMANITIES at the UNIVERSITY OF THE FREE STATE BLOEMFONTEIN SUPERVISOR: Dr. D. Coetzee November 1999ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS My special thanks to Dr. Daniella Coetzee, my mentor and advisor, for her invaluable assistance in preparing the contents of this script. To her, | owe many ideas and the major orientation of the script. My debt to her is larger than merely academic. For her inspiration and encouragement over the period under her supervision | am deeply appreciative and grateful Hardly less influential has been Miss A. le Roux, who orientated me in Reformational Cosmology. A special kind of gratitude | owe to the now retired Professor O.A. Henning, who was the head of the department of Philosophy and History of Education at the University of the Free State. To him | say: “thank you for excellently playing {not only academic) a father figure throughout my period of study under your guidance’. May | also express my gratitude to the Administration and Library personnel of the University of the Free State for the warmth and friendliness | was privileged to receive from them throughout my registration period. Finally many thanks are due to Mrs. M Ferreira for her unfailing accuracy and unflagging patience in typing the manuscript, Ina special category stands my wife, Eliza, who has been my constant companion and arreliable source of inspiration throughout my academic journey. T.E, SHALEDECLARATION Thereby declare that this dissertation submitted in part fulfillment of the degree MAGISTER EDUCATIONIS is entirely my own work, except where references to other sources has been indicated. | further certify that this dissertation has not previously been submitted for a degree to this or any other institution. T.E. SHALE BLOEMFONTEIN November 1999~ PREFACE The government's commitment to transform the Public Service into a cohere representative, competent and democratic instrument for implementing government policies in meeting the needs of all South Africans, presents the educational enterprise with the challenge to change. Because of the processes of democratisation and transformation, virtually no existing institution, practice, standard, custom and norm are left unchallenged. As a result existing institutions and structures are being questioned and transformed. The focus is on the correction of so called wrongs and injustices of the past. This manifests in affirmative action on all areas of society with black empowerment as the ultimate goal. On the education terrain, it implies a search for ways and means of how to move to a transformed education system that will not only be fair and just to all South African children, but also redress the injustices of the past. This transition can lead to the advancement of the South African schooling system, if it takes place with consideration for acknowledged international experience and with the desire for quality, efficiency and excellence. However, should the proven international principles of merit, skill, efficiency and fairness be ignored, the deterioration of quality education, services, economic and other infra structure and a decline in the standard of living awaits all South Africans. It is in the light of this observation that this script critically examines the contemporary South African education system. An attempt is made to evaluate the application of affirmative action as a means to attain equity and redress in education. Other concepts related to affirmative action, equity, equality, development and transformation, are explored as the main feature of the education system in Chapters 2 and 3. Underlying the various options, suggestions and proposals made in the script is a set of major issues that are critical in the current South Africa. Issues such as the provision of schooling facilities and the effective delivery of education services are examined. There are also problematic issues like equality, quality in education and the relevance of present-day schooling. It is hoped that the contents of this script willserve as a contribution to help create a democratic, non-racial and just education system in the future. T.E. Shale November 1999— TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1 Statement of the Problem, Aims and Outline of the Study 41.4 Introduction and Statement of the Problem 9 4.2 Research Aims 13, 1.3 Research programme 13 44 Stating the Hypothesis 14 4.5 Methodology and Demarcation of the Research Area 14 1.6 Defining the Abbreviations 16 Chapter 2 Equity and Education 2.1 Introduction 18 2.2 The Concept “equity” 19 2.3. Equity and South Africa's Educational Past 20 2.3.1. Equity and Afrikaner Nationalism 20 2.3.2. The Act of Union and Education 24 2.3.3. Bantu Education 22 2.3.4 Higher Education System 25 2.3.5 Christian-National Education 27 2.4 Legislation and current position with regard to equity 28 2.5 — Relationship between equity, redress, redistribution and transformation 34 2.6 Conclusion 33 Chapter 3 Equality in Current South African Education 3.1 Introduction 34 3,2 The concept “equality” 35 3.2.1. Defining equality 35 3.2.2. Equality of educational opportunity 387 - 3.2.2.4 Equality of educational opportunity as equal right to education for everyone 3.222 Equality of educational opportunity as right to equal education 3.2.3 Equality and the South African educational past 3.2.4 Equality and Present South Africa 3.3 The relationship between equity and equality 3.4 Conclusion Chapter 4 Democracy and Power Relations in South African education 44 — Introduction 4.2 Democracy defined 43 Democratic Education in South Africa 4.3.1 Revolutionary Populism 4.3.2 ANationalist Ideology (Etnocentric Populism) 4.3.3. Democratic Participation and Education in South Africa 4.4 Freedom, Authority and related concepts in Education 4.4.1 Freedom and Authority 4.4.2 The complimentary nature of freedom and authority in education 45 Accountability and current South African Education 4.6 Conclusion Chapter 5 Spheres of Justice in Contemporary South African Education 5.1. Introduction 5.2 Spheres of Justice 5.2.1. Sphere Sovereignty and enkapsis 52.2. Structural analysis of societal relationships 5.2.3. Societal Relationships concerned with education 5.2.4. Legitimate Power 6.2.5 Abuse of Power 5.3 Implications for education 5.3.1. Structures of Domination 5.3.2 Ideology and its significance for education 38 39 40 46 48 49 50 61 52 52 54 55 87 87 58 59 60 62 63 63 64 65 66 67 67 67 688 5.4 Findings on Contemporary South African Education - 5.5 Authority and Outcome Based Education 5.6 Conclusion Chapter 6 Summary, Recommendations and Conclusion 6.1 Introduction 6.2 Summary and Findings of the Research 6.3. Recommendations 6.3.1 Moral purpose on the road to transformation 6.3.2. The potential of Educational Change in current South Africa 6.3.2.1 Educational Order 6.3.2.2 Educational Coherence 6.3.2.3 Cultural-historical aspect 6.3.2.4 Lingual aspect 6.3.2.5 Educational Power and Balance 6.4 Conclusion Bibliography 69 72 73 7 76 83 83, 84 85 85 86 87STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM, AIMS AND OUTLINE OF THE STUDY 4.4. INTRODUCTION AND STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM ‘The preamble to the South African Schools Act (No. 84,1996:5) reads as follows: Whereas the achievement of democracy in South Africa has consigned to history the past system of ‘education which was based on racial inequality and segregation; and whereas this country requires a new national system for schools which will redress past injustices in educational provision, provide an ‘education of progressively high quality for all learners end in so doing lay @ strong foundtion for the development of all our people's talents and capabiities, advance the democratic transformation of sociely, combat racism and sexism and all other forms of unfair discrimination and intolerance, contribute to the eradication of poverty and the economic well-being of society, protect and advance our diverse cultures and languages, uphold the rights of all leamers, parents and educators, and promote their acceptance of responsibility for the organizations, governance and funding of schools in partnership with the State; and whereas it is necessary to set uniform norms and standards for the ‘education of learners at schools and the orgenizetion, governance and funding of schools throughout the Republic of South Africa. At the heart of these deliberations, pointers are that the relationship between equity, equality, justice and accountability is an indispensable prerequisite for planners as well as day-to-day administrators and educationists for the effective functioning of the current South African education system. Although much has been done to attain this, it seems that the relation between education and these foundational principles need to be elaborated on. Especially the way in which these principles coherently lie together should be investigated (The New Teacher Journal 1998:3). The first national Ministry of Education White Paper (1995:15-16) informs us that Apartheid education was an oppressive political tool rooted in inequality Understandably, in the struggle against it, the elimination of inequality became the overriding, and unifying goal of the liberation movement. In broad terms,10 contemporary South African education has been driven by considerations of » equity and its associates, ‘redress’ and “redistribution” (Morrow 1989:10). There are many examples of this tendency, but three are predominant, namely: 1 The agreement of teacher: pupil ratios of 1:40 and 1:35 for primary and secondary schooling as national norms — to which provincial governments need to conform by the year 2000. 1 The prominence of ‘redress funding" in higher education 1 The dominant view about the governance of both the schooling system and the institution of higher education (Morrow 1989:10). The transformation of education as envisaged by the African National Congress (ANC) (1994b:60) reads as follows: We must develop an integrated system of educetion and training that provide equal opportunities to all inespective of race, colour, sex, class, language, age, religion, geographical location, poltical or other opinion. It must address the development of knowledge and skis that can be used to produce high- quality goods end services in such a way as to enable us fo develop our cultures, our society and our ‘economy. It further states that educetion must be directed to the full development of the individual and ‘community, and to strengthening respect for human rights and fundamental freecioms. It must promote understanding, tolerance and friendship among ail South Africans and must advance the principles contained in the Bill of Rights. ‘On the tools for the transformation of education the Reconstruction and Development Programme (ANC 1994b:60) states that " A new national human resources development strategy must be based on the principles of democracy, non-racism, non- sexism, equity and redress to avoid the pitfalls of the past’ This statement is supported in the White Paper (1995:3) by Professor Bengu's message that “... it is essential for us to build a system of education and training with which all our people can identify because it serves their needs and interests. Such a system must be founded on “equity” and non-discrimination, it must respect diversity, it must honour learning and strive for excellence, it must be owned and cared for by the communities and stakeholders it serves, and it must use all the resources available to it in the most effective manner possible”aa The Green Paper on Higher Education Transformation (1996:5) also states that the ministry regards the following as fundamental principles that should guide the process of transformation: equity and redress, democratization, development, quality, effectiveness and efficiency, academic freedom and institutional autonomy and public accountability. These principles establish the broad direction in which transformation should be steered. The Green Paper (1996:6) goes further to state that South Africa's transition from minority rule and apartheid to a democratically elected government requires that all existing practices, institutions and values are viewed anew, though in terms of their fitness for the new era. This implies that contemporary South African education should be reviewed in conjunction with the principles of equity, equality, justice and accountability, According to the South African Democratic Teachers Union's national assistant general secretary, Solly Mabusela (The New Teacher Journal 1998:19), “transformation basically relates to two issues — effective theory i.e. sound policy development and effective practice, ie. sound policy implementation’. The new constitutional arrangements in the country have stipulated that education is a provincial competence. This means that the national ministry of education needs to formulate the norms and policies, but these must then be implemented by the provincial education departments. Thulas Nxesi, SADTU general secretary (The New Teacher Journal 1998:4) believes that the norms and standards formulated by the national ministry are commendable - however, where the problem lies, is in the implementation. This view is hared by Dr. Mamphela Ramphele, a vice-chancellor of the University of Cape Town (Sunday Times 1997:25). She writes that attempts by the government to transform the grossly inequitable and inadequate school system in South Africa are characterised by failure to translate good policies into sound practice. It seems, then that the current situation in some provincial departments of education is desperately in need of control measures by the national ministry in order to implement its principles. The education system in South Africa, although attempting to transform, has currently encountered leadership problems, mismanagement and misuse of funds. According to Nxesi, SADTU general secretary (The New Teacher Journal 1998:4), in the Free State the MEC for Education (Mr. Dugwane) has been fired and the Head of Education (Professor Kawadi) has been suspended with a number of top officials. A new MEC for Education with unqualified leadership has been appointed. In the Northern12 - Province, the MEC for Education has been removed. In North West both the MEC for Education and the Head of Education have Head of Education has been appointed. In the Eastern Cape the Head of Education resigned as did three out of four deputy permanent secretaries. Further, the report of been removed. In KwaZulu-Natal a new the Presidential Review Commission was extremely critical of management capacity in general in the public sector, including that of education. Writing in his personal capacity, Professor Christie, Dean of Research at the University of the Western Cape is quoted in The New Teacher Journal (1998:7) as saying: The national matric pass rate was 54,7% in 1996 and dropped to 47,1% in 1997. The university exemption rate was 15,6% the year before. But the results are believable for other reasons too. Teachers no longer get better pay for improving their qualifications. The State and the unions seem to have alliod to try to drive highly qualified, experienced and therefore expensive teachers out of the system. The matric results seem valid for further reasons. South Africa came last out of 45 countries in the third international maths and science study. A tenth of our schools do not offer matric science. Books and stationery are not always available at schools. ‘Some schools are desperately in need of repair and are filthy all year. Against this background matric results accurately reflect the conditions in our schools. Western Cape incoming education MEC, Nick Koornhof (The Educator's Voice 1998:4) summarised this situation: “Apartheid deprived thousands of a decent education, but now it appears we are trying to change, and the quality of education at “good schools" was being compromised by the need to produce equality across the board’, This is an indication that some educational principles are applied, but not in conjunction with others, such as equity, justice, competence, development and accountability, Leadership problems, misuse of funds, corruption and mismanagement bring to mind the misuse of power. This is unlawful because it is not based on competent authority, Given the many problems our schools are facing, questions arise: What is the nature of educational principles? What is the relation between these principles? What is the relation between these principles and education? What implications do a balanced and integrated view hold for South African education?13, - 4.2 RESEARCH AIMS The broad aim of the research is therefore to determine what the implications of equity, equality, justice, accountability and other related concepts currently prescribed as principles in the new constitution are in contemporary South African education. From this aim the following objectives are formulated: 5 to clarify the nature of the relationship between equity, equality, competence and accountability with regard to education to clarify the implications of ‘development’ when viewed as a component of equity and educational transformation 3 to give an outline of equality in current South African Education to arrive at an analysis of the way in which democracy and power relations in South Airican education may be fostered 1) to research spheres of justice in contemporary South African education, 4.3 RESEARCH PROGRAMME In chapter two the concept “equity” will be placed within a theoretical framework. An elaboration on aspects such as redress, redistribution and transformation with regard to South African education will be made. Chapter three will focus on what equality entails in the context of education provision This will be applied to current South African education. In chapter four an analysis of the way in which democracy and power relations in South African education may be fostered, will be made Chapter five will research spheres of justice in contemporary South African education. in chapter six a summary and findings of the research will be made. Possible solutions or recommendations will be outlined. General recommendations based on a reformational anthropology and concluding statements will be made.14 1.4 STATING THE HYPOTHESIS ‘According to Steyn (1995:24) if the new South Africa is to survive as a developing country in a challenging and competitive environment, the striving for quality education is not negotiable — not only for the sake of the quality of life of the individual, but also for the sake of economic growth. High quality education, according to Sunter (1987: 40-41) is an important prerequisite for the development of South Africa into a ‘winning nation’. South African education will therefore stand or fall by its ability to meet the expectations of quality education. Factors contributing to quality education are sound educational principles (e.g. equality). The failure to view and apply quality in conjunction with other principles is a sure way of falling into chaos. For example, Morrow (1989:10) recalls that the policy of “rationalisation” (especially in Gauteng and the Western Cape Province) forced many thousands of teachers to ‘take the package”. This has dealt a serious blow to the reconstruction and development of education. It is widely reported that many of the teachers who have left the system are those with the most experience and we need to press the question of whether it was indeed rational for us to adopt a policy of “rationalisation” based on an arithmetical conception of educational equality, rather than to try to find a way of balancing equality and development, which would have required mutual compromises. Itis expected that this research will give greater clarity with regard to the way in which the educational principles, equity, equality, competence, justice, power, authority and accountability should be connected. This could be the case if the sphere of justice that apply to the school as a societal relationship is taken into cognisance. In principle this could eliminate the possibility of the Reconstruction and Development Programme from collapsing 4.5 METHODOLOGY AND DEMARCATION OF THE RESEARCH AREA The methods of investigation that will be followed to address the problems, are an extensive study and the structural-empirical method, which includes different forms of criticism.15 For the sake of clarity, an indication of how the research fits into the structure of education is to follow. Legal documents that prescribe the “tools” of the Reconstruction and Development Programme in education will be studied — with regard to not only education in the provinces — but education nationally. South African’s “unequal’ past with respect to education (put into place by The Bantu Education Act of 1953) will be investigated. Focus will also be placed on the present South African educational situation in the whole of the country, dating back from April 1894. An attempt to transform higher education and schools, and the role of stakeholders will also be discussed. Resolution No. 3 of 1996 (released by the Education Labour Relations Council) focuses on right-sizing of the public services, voluntary severance package, filling of vacancies and redeployment of educators who are in excess and remuneration adjustments. This document (1996:1) explains the phasing in of equity in the funding of education between provincial education departments and the decrease in others. In order to manage the process of attaining equity, excess educators in education departments or components thereof will have to be redeployed. Educators:learner ratios are to be phased in over a maximum period of five years commencing on 1 April 1995, according to post provisioning scales agreed to in the Provincial Chambers of the Council. These ratios have to be re-negotiated annually. Another indication of how this research fits into the structure of education as a discipline is the establishment and objectives of the South African Council for Educators. The mission of SACE (Registration Procedures of SACE 1997:1), established as per Government Gazette No. 16037 of 17 October 1994, states that the South African Council of Educators aims to enhance the status of the teaching profession, and to promote the development of educators and their professional conduct. All teachers will have to meet the minimum qualification standards stipulated by the South African Council for Educators. The implementation of the School Act 84 of 1996 in terms of the Bill of Rights on ‘education provides another area of this research. In terms of the Preamble (Act No. 84, 1996:2) South Africa has a long history of apartheid and other forms of unfair discrimination in education. In the past, there were different and unequal school andeducation systems based on ethnicity, race and colour. One of the basic aims of the Schools Act is to change this. discrimination that may still be present in the school system. The Schools Act promotes democratic practices in school education. An important aspect of the Act is the principle that there must be a partnership between all parties who have an interest in education, These are the state, parents, learners, educators, other members of the community in the vicinity of the school, special education bodies and the private sector. 16 1.6 DEFINING THE ABBREVIATIONS The following abbreviations were used in the script: ABET AE ANC AUT CBO CEM CHED COTEP cs DEC DNE ECD EMIS ERS ESS FEC GDP GEC GNP HEDCOM HSRC ICHED INSET ‘Adult Basic Education and Training Adult Education African National Congress University and Technikon Advisory Counci! Community-based organisation Council of Education Ministers (former) Committee of Heads of Education Departments Committee for Teacher Education Policy College/School Department of Education and Training/Culture Department of National Education Early Childhood Development Education Management Information System Education Renewal Strategy Education Support Services Further Education Certificate Gross Domestic Product General Education Certificate Gross National Product Heads of Education Departments Committee Human Science Research Council (former) interim Heads of Education Departments Committee In-service Education for Teachers It also aims to reverse the results of unfair7 _ LSEN Learners with special needs NCTE National Council for Teacher Education NGO Non-governmental Organisation NEFT National Education and Training Forum NicD National Institute for Curriculum Development NICE National Investigation into Community Education NOLA National Open Learning Agency NQF National Qualification Framework OAU Organization of African Unity RDP Reconstruction and Development Programme RSA Republic of South Africa SAQA South African Qualifications SGT (former) Self-governing Territories TBVC (former) Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda, Ciskei states VAT Value-added tax UN United Nations UNESCO United Nations Educational Scientific and Cultural Organisation UNICEF United Nations Children’s Fund A note on terminology: “Equity”, “Equality”, “Justice” and “Accountability”: This script will seek to explore the interrelatedness between morality and transformation. The focus will be on equity, with it's associate “redress’ and ‘redistribution’ in relation to development. The tension between ‘equity’ and “development” provides an interesting object of investigation. Enshrined within the concept of “equity” is justice equity, equality, fairness, equal opportunity, freedom from wrong, justifiability and redress. Morality in the sense of duty, implies being answerable, responsible and accountable.ee EQUITY AND EDUCATIONAL TRANSFORMATION 2.1 INTRODUCTION The field of education bristles with thorny issues and problems in any country. Any type of desirable development, however, hinges upon education. It is thus not surprising that the issues and problems of education concem everybody, and that these issues usually generate a lot of heat among the population (Akinpelu 1981:207) The implications for South Africa is that new policies are needed to reverse the trends which dominated the troubled history of education and training under white minority rule governments, especially during the apartheid era. New policies should be implemented to build a just and equitable system, which provides good quality education and training to all learners throughout the country. The past denial of equal citizenship and equal rights to all South Africans necessarily involved the denial of equal education rights (Department of National Education 1994:9) In view of the White Paper on Education and Training (Part 1, 1995:9) states that “Particular attention will be paid to the performance of the education and training system in the improvement of quality, equity, productivity (effectiveness) and efficiency”. This is a declaration of intent to undo the injustices and inequalities that were perpetrated in South Africa's past. Furthermore, the National Norms and Standards for School Funding, in terms of the South African Schools Act, 1996 (Act No. 84 1996:6) clarifies the point that: “Effecting redress and equity in school funding with a view to progressively improving the quality of school education, within a framework of greater efficiency in organising and providing education services, are matters of urgent priority for the Ministry of Education,” In addition, according to the The Green Paper on Higher Education Transformation ( 1996:20) a central issue in relation to the general expansion of the higher education system is ensuring equity of access, given the disparities in black and white participation rates. The notion of equity’ thus abounds in all tegal documents.19 At this point, itis important to note that a mere declaration of intent is not sufficient for its realisation. The intended educational transformation must be characterised by the capacity and ability {0 translate good policies info sound practice, Actually, transformation basically relates to two issues, namely sound policy development and effective practice. Although the present government has made attempts to transform the gross inequitable and inadequate school system, it seems that it has falled to accomplish its objectives. Given this observation and the background of difficulties currently experienced in the transformation process with regard to education, it is the Purpose of this chapter to explore the concept “equity” and investigate issues related to it. Challenges facing the current South African education system are so enormous that there is a need to stimulate ways of thinking about solutions to meet them, Of main concern are current fears and speculations that new structures of domination are beginning to surface. This state of mind is nurtured by the misapplication of principles Such as equity, redress, redistribution, transformation and affirmative action by the government (to the distaste of those who do not benef from the processes) 2.2 THE CONCEPT “EQUITY” Equity refers to “faimess and the application of the principles of justice”. Schoeman (1996:107) defines equity as “the fair and unbiased treatment of everyone under all circumstances, despite individual differences that may exist’. In the educational enterprise it would mean a fair and just distribution of resources through facilities and Post provisioning and funding, It should be noted that the principle of equily is closely related to the pursuit of equality in the sense that state resources have to be deployed fairly and justly in ensuring the redress of educational inequalities among the historically disadvantaged in South Africa (White Paper on Education, Govemment Gazette 1996:21). On the other hand, Woodbridge (1995:193) is of the opinion that historically, equity tends to be associated with faimess or justice, as distinct from equality, which tends to be associated with sameness In practical terms, so long as resources are limited or people's demands are unlimited, there will always be the question of criteria for distributing the resources and the all- important question of fairness and equity of the distributing system. Secada (1989:68- 69) as referred to in Woodbridge (1995:194) explains it this way: “Equity ... refers to our judgements about whether or not 2 given state of affairs is just .. Equity gauges20 the results of actions directly against standards of justice, and it is used to decide whether or not what is being done is just.” Secada (1989:69) further describes educational equity as follows: “Educational equity, therefore, should be construed as a check on the justice of specific actions that are carried out within the educational arena and the arrangements that result form those actions’ With these definitions in mind, it is necessary to evaluate the assertion that the Principle of equity is closely related to that of equality. As indicated earlier equity is associated with falmess and justice, while equality is linked with sameness. According to Bunting (1994:67), there is a strong view that equity or justice cannot exist in an unequal society. There will thus be equity in a society only if all the resources available to its higher education system, for instance, are distributed equally across all is subsystems and all its constituent institutions, A different view argues that equity can exist in a society in which resources and benefits are distributed unequally Provided that these inequalities are justifiable ones. Ramphele (1996:4-5) concurs with the second view by stating that in a particular educational situation, equity may Precisely require that individuals persons, even groups of persons, are treated unequally, What it means is that the principle of equity has to be carefully distinguished from that of equality in education. Equality requires the same treatment for all, while equity requires a fair and just treatment that may be unequal. For example, the distribution of resources to previously advantaged and disadvantaged Schools may be fair and just with respect to their various needs, but the amount of resources provided to each school may not be equal. Previously disadvantaged Schools may benefit more in the provision of such resources. It is now necessary to investigate the principle of equity and the way in which it was applied in the South African educational past. 2.3. EQUITY AND SOUTH AFRICA’S EDUCATIONAL PAST 2.3.1. Equity and Afrikaner ethno-nationalism South Africa's educational system in the past was highly compartmentalised with its Griving determination of the promotion of an exclusive sectional Afrikanervolk in the country. This exclusivity started in the bitter aftermath of the Second Anglo-Boer War 'n the resultant defeat of the ragged band of Afrikaners who had fought so bravely24 against such overwhelming odds, the greatest resentment was against Lord Milner's policy of anglicisation. As referred to in Schoeman (1995a:48) the existence of the Dutch-Afrikaans nation was threatened by British imperialism. The situation turned into a legitimate struggle of a part of the South African population who prized their Caristian faith and Dutch culture and therefore resisted the might of the British Empire and its policy of anglicisation. This ideal of national survival in the face of a powerful foe soon became an all-encompassing end that, before long, reached the proportions of an ideology in the negative sense of the word. The ideal of national survival Became the ultimate objective, and eventually a fully-fledged ideology of Aftikaner ethno-nationalism. It became "...the epitome of unsurpassed misapplication, of power, of political, social, cultural and economic injustice, exploitation, suppression and human alienation" (Schoeman 1995:48). 2.3.2: The act of union and education Brookes (1988:xxiv) points out that when the four self-governing colonies came tegether in 1910 to form the Union of South Africa, each had an established system of Sducation concerned mainly with primary and secondary education and teacher training. University education was in its infancy and vocational education was hardly known, The South African Act of 1909 laid down in clause 85(ii) (Behr and Ngumbentombi 1988:59) that education at primary and secondary level of the various facial groups would be under provincial control. According to Behr and Ngubentombi (1988:60), biack, coloured, indian and white children attended separate schools, but came under the same rules and regulations of the provincial authorities involved and were under the supervision of the same inspectors of education in the geographical areas concerned, Behr and Ngubentombi (1988:29) claims that a good picture of black education in South Africa just prior to the outbreak of World War Il can be obtained from a study of the Report of the Interdepartmental Committee on Native Education, appointed under Government Notice 978 of 12 June 1935 (UG29/1936). In all four provinces the Provincial councils were the legislative authorities with regard to black education, while the administration was in the hand of separate branches of their education departments. The Committee found that the system of financing black education was unsatisfactory. It pointed out that the Government contribution per pupil for the22 education of whites was ten times larger than that for the education of blacks, and over forty times as much per head of the white population. Blacks as teachers knew a litle more than their pupils. The Committee found that over 70% of black children of school age did not attend school, and that many who wished to go to school could not be accommodated because of lack of facilities. They witnessed the most appalling instances of overcrowding in some of the urban areas. The Committee found a marked disparity between the primary school standards of white and black pupils. A Std 6 certificate gained by a black pupil in his school did not designated the same level of general education as a Sid 6 certificate gained by a white Pupil in a school for whites. The black pupil in Std 6 was two standards behind white Pupils in Std 6 in average attainment, At the Junior Certificate and matriculation levels the standards were identical, as both black and whites wrote the same examination Papers. The Committee was appalled that the average school life of the black child Was less than three years and that the majority of pupils did not proceed beyond Std 4 (Behr and Ngubentombi 1988:29) 2.3.3 Bantu education The paragraph will focus on educational inequity from the accession of the National Party to power in 1948. According to Nkomo (1990:160), in that year the Nationalist government came into power with a political policy of apartheid or the enforced segregation of black and white people into different areas. in the education domain, segregated and inferior schooling was legislated for Africans (1953) Coloureds (1963) and indians (1965) providing an ideological comerstone for the social segregation, economic exploitation and political oppression of these groups, calibrated according to their location on the racially hierarchical social system. (Nkomo 1990:1). Implicit in this political arrangement is that South Africa operated different schooling systems to reproduce social stratification. As referred to in Unesco (1972:33) in 1945, in the House of Assembly, members who were prominent in the National Party declared that education is the key to the creation of the proper relationship between Europeans and non-Europeans in South Attica. As Teported in Unesco (1972:36), in January 1949, the Nationalist government, believing that schooling was an essential means in bringing about apartheid, set up a23 commission on Native Education under the chairmanship of Dr. W.W.M. Eiselen. The report (Unesco 1972:36) further states that the main proposals of this committee were embodied in the Bantu Education Act of 1953, and as amended in 1954, 1956, 1959 and 1961, This Act, which affected the African population, represented the first major application of the official Policy of apartheid to education. Essentially the Bantu Education Act of 1953 provided for the direct control of African schools by the Ministry of Bantu Affairs. This signified the state's intervention in the education domain. Alarmingly the state went “beyond its bounds of competence’ (Kalsbeek 1975:93), This means that victory of the National Party in 1948 heralded the state's bold intervention in the education sphere. In so doing, considerations for the cultural Protection of Afrikaners far exceeded their spheres of competence. As referred to in Kalsbeek (1975:92), other spheres must not exceed their competence in an effort to Tule other domains. “To do this is to act outside their sphere, beyond their rights. It is & form of tyranny’ (Walzer 1983:62). Thus an absolutised culture in this instance, Supersedes personal freedom. The educational enterprise is denied its sphere Sovereignty in its function. “Destiny” of the educational practice should be left in its own hands. Abraham Kuyper, as referred to in Kalsbeek (1975: 92), declared that God, the absolute Sovereign, has given each sphere within society its own peculiar laws of life by which that sphere is to live. The Bantu Education system presented entirely different methods and objectives for the different sections of the population. According to La Gama (1972:44) and Behr (1988:34) the separateness of education facilities for Africans, whites, coloureds and Asians was achieved not simply through schools, but by separate administrative Structures, segregated methods of finance, differences in syllabus and by different levels of achievement deliberately imposed to fit in with different expectations in employment, Separate development in educational matters suggests different treatment for the different population groups. In such a system there is therefore Sound to be inequitable pravision of educational resources. The broad aim of Bantu Education was to effectively prepare Africans for their future occupations as unskilled labourers. As referred to in La Gama (1972:46), Mr. J.N. le Roux, later to become Minister of Agriculture, asked: Who wil do the manual tabour if you give the Natives an academic education? | am in thorough agreement with the view that we should so conduct our schools that the Native who attends {hose schools will know that to a great extent he must be the labourer in the county.24 This statement fully expresses a desire to provide Africans the kind of education that is inferior to that of other sections of the population. The supply of inadequate educational facilities, inequitable distribution of funds, low quality education, high failure rate, unqualified and underqualified teachers and a high rate of drop-outs bear witness to this. ‘The inequalities, and their results, which existed then, manifested in many different forms. The worst of these was the enormously high dropout rate, or put simply, a general alienation from the schooling process among blacks. This state of affairs was attributed to lack of money, inadequate classrooms, gross overcrowding, double session schools, and the fixing of a number of “academic ceilings” for African children, beyond which they were not permitted to go (La Gama 1972:48). The first ceiling was standard 2, when pupils who were not "mature enough or gifted enough to derive further benefit from academic studies” were simply debarred from further schooling, In Std 6 there was another ceiling, which meant receiving either a continuation certificate oF @ school leaving certificate. To proceed to secondary school, the student needed a 50% pass in the Std 6 examination; those with an aggregate of between 40% and 49% were given a school-leaving certificate. Anything from 35% to 40%, meant that students could not continue, The Director of Education is quoted in La Gama (1972:48) as saying: “We eliminate them. They have reached the ceiling and can no longer benefit from schooling’. He added that the particular system was not used in white schools. Education was however, compulsory for white children between the ages of 7 and 16 years. Compulsory education meant that potential dropouts were Kept on at schoo! until they were 16 years of age. There was, however, no compulsory education for African children who also did not start school before the age of 8 years According to Behr and Ngubentombi (1988:35) post-primary courses of five years duration was provided for blacks. The first three years (form 3) were devoted to Preparing the pupil for the Junior Certificate examination — another ceiling, Here pupils who “just scraped through” as well as those who had failed the examination, were not allowed to continue because “they are unlikely to matriculate’ (Behr and Ngubentombi 1988:35). So part of the phenomenally high dropout rate in African schools was accounted for not by “dropouts’ only, but by deliberate weeding out, thus elimination Having been thus informed, it is here deduced that the educational system of South African past distributed its resources and benefits unequally, unjustly and unfaicly25 along racial lines. The principle of distributive justice and equity therefore benefited only a few of the total population of South Africa The inequitable distribution of educational resources in South Africa's past also manifested itself in the financing of schooling for the different sections of the Population. Schoeman (1995:76) informs us that historically, provision of education under the apartheid regime was racially discriminatory and socially unequal, Thus the funding of schooling was racially motivated. As stated by Nkomo (1990: 2-3), the state Spent, on the average, five times more on a white child than it did on a black child, The norms for allocating funds to the various population groups for education varied greatly. This is supported by La Gama (1988:50) when he states that, “education for white children Is a right, given to them free, with buildings, teachers, equipment, textbooks and writing materials’. On the contrary Africans contributed very large sums of money towards the cost of education in addition to the sums paid in taxation. They had to pay for all their own books, except lower primary school readers, for all Stationery, for handwork materials, school and examination fees, and of course, for uniforms, transport and lunches. Because the Bantu Education Fund did not have the money, African school boards and parents raised money to pay additional teachers’ salaries. School boards also had to raise half the cost of erecting schools for classes from higher primary upwards and had to pay for their maintenance, White parents did not have to pay to keep a child in high school — it was the African who paid. 2.3.4 Higher Education System The Fesources and benefits of higher education were also unfairly and unjustly distributed in South Africa's past. The fixing of a number of “academic ceilings” for African children determined how many matriculants entered the higher education system and benefited from it. Entering a university system was regarded as a rare commodity in the black communities, Talk would go around in the neighbourhood and family circles that the son or daughter to a certain family was very bright and was leaving for the university. There would be celebrations a day or so before he or she left, If they progressed well and graduated, they were highly respected in the townships. A graduate was a rare find. In addition to ‘ceilings’, even if an African Child had matriculated, lack of money, bursaries or student loans would prevent him/her from studying at a university. Access to higher education was therefore also skewed in favour of white people (Bunting 1994:67)26 As stated in Behr and Ngubentombi (1988:184), the ideal of separate universities for different racial groups had already been practised in South Africa during the period Prior to 1959. As early as 1948, when the National Party came to power. Dr. DF Malan, the then Prime Minister, made the following statement in Parliament “We do not want fo withhold higher education from the non-Europeans and we will take every possibly step to give both the natives and the coloured people university training as soon es we can, but in their own sphere; in other words separate institutions” (Behr 1988:192). The extension of the University Act (Act 45 of 1959), which became a law on 19 June 1959, led to the establishment, maintenance, management and control of university Colleges for blacks, coloureds and Indians by the state. Ultimately there were six historically black universities (Durban-Westvile, Medunsa, University of the North, Vista, University of the Western Cape, University of Zululand) and ten historically white Universities (University of the Orange Free State, University of Port Elizabeth, Potchefstroom University, Pretoria University, Rand Afrikaans University, Stellenbosch University, Rhodes, University of the Witwatersrand, University of Cape Town, University of Natal) Separate institutions for different racial groups thus led to the existence of equalities in the university system in South Africa. As referred to in the Green Paper on Higher Education (1996:2), Professor SME Bengu (Minister of Education), states that “while our higher education system has considerable capacity and internationally acknowledged areas of excellence, it is also fundamentally flawed by inequalities, imbalances and distortions deriving from its apartheid history and present structure” According to Bunting (1994:67) calculations (of access to higher education) based on 1991 census data suggest that about 60% of whites aged between 18 and 22 were registered in 1992 at a university or technikon or teacher training college, compared to only about 9% of Africans in this age-group. The list of inequalities (Bunting 199467) include enrolments and the “quality” of the intake into the historically white universities and the historically black universities. It is also important to note that the majority of Students at historically white universities enrolled for degrees specialising in fields which were supposed to be readily marketable; degrees which enabled graduates to enter well-paid professions. These are the fields of science and technology and of business and commerce27 Bunting (1994:68) further states that student enrolments at historically black universities (HBU's) tend to be in the fields of education (49% in 1990). Other imbalances noted are that the historically white universities (HWWU's) have higher Proportions than the HBU's of senior academic staff, and that research programmes on HWU's are more developed than those of the HBU's. Lastly the HBU's are tesourced (humanly and financially) at levels below those of the HWU's, 2.3.5 Christian-National Education ‘As pointed out by La Gama (1972:32), Christian-National Education was nurtured by a faith based on Calvinist fundamentalism and its emphasis on predestination and the waitings of the Old Testament. The Dutch Reformed Churches played a leading role as the spiritual rock upon which this faith was founded. The superiority of the Afrikaner nation was supposedly born of race and faith — the fundamental tenets of the white supremacists then. The church was probably the strongest binding factor that held the community together and enabled it to maintain the unity and determination, which was essential for survival. The thinking and argument behind the system of Christian-National Education needs to be understood within an historical context. This Section will try to evoke that context and explain the development of schooling policy in South Africa with regard to equity According to Morrow (1989:37), the Christian-National Education (CNE) movement arose out of a political struggle, and the idea that different ‘peoples’ should have their i" IS deeply embedded in CNE thinking about Schooling policy. Historians (Brookes 1968:xvi; Behr and Ngubentombi 1988:10) claim that the CNE which first appeared in the Netherlands in 1860, was seen in Afrikaner circles in South Africa as early as 1876 and was a means of restoring the influence of the church over the youth, as well as protecting them against domination by the English culture. It was initially linked to the protection of the Dutch heritage and the Dutch language, and was a reaction to the tendency for public schools to use English as the medium of instruction (Unesco 1972:34). Professor J. Chris Coetzee, Who was one of the major authors of the 1948 “beleia” is quoted in Morrow (1989:37) own distinctive “philosophies of educati as saying: “The new school system became in fact a state system, neutral, liberal and English in spirit and direction. The anglicisation and the neutralisation attacked the two fundamental principles of the Dutch colonist...”28 One can infer that the Afrikaner had to suffer the insult of an alien culture stamp being forced on to the education of his children in the persistent anglicisation process. It became the logical and compelling demand of his own nationalism, that his education should be in his own language and should form young lives for the Afrikaner community. Because the Afrikaner's origins and growth were so closely connected with tl ork, doctrine and activities of the church, it was evident that his education should be Christian. It is not surprising therefore that the foundation of the National Party education policy was the Philosophy of Christian-National Education, based on the dual principles of Calvinism and Afrikaner Nationalism (McGregor & Robin1992:20). The Christian-National Education policy of 1948 which purported to be a policy for white Afrikaans-speaking children, therefore had far-teaching consequences for the education of all children in South Africa (Enslin 1986-87:108). It led to Christian. National indoctrination of white English speaking pupils in state schools where Afrikaner nationalism was strongly emphasised, Inferior and segregated education for blacks (which should not prepare blacks for equal participation in economic and social life) was organised and administered by whites (Nkomo 1990:4-6; Enslin 1986- 87:107). Crucially, the policy as a whole, forms the basis of the education inequity \which remains a major theme under the general crisis that has gripped contemporary South Africa. In a nutshell, ethnocentric “logic” expected national education policy to be steered — in all respects — by the cultural interests of the Afrikaner nation. 24 LEGISLATION AND CURRENT POSITION WITH REGARD TO EQUITY ‘The rights in the Bill of Rights (1996:11) aimed at education, take into account: a equity; 0 practicability; and a. the need to redress the results of past racially discriminatory laws and practices Practically, it implies that it is a constitutional requirement on the part of the government to deploy the state's resources in the education field in accordance with the principle of equity. In addition, in the light of this country's history and its legacy of inequality, there must be special emphasis on the redress of educational inequalities23 where it is practically possible. On the whole, it means ‘the fair allocation, distribution and utlisation of all resources which are regarded as essential for the education Process, including physical facilities, financing, instructional material, environmental settings and personnel” (Dekker & Lemmer 1993:32). The Education White Paper 2 (1996:10) summarises this by stating that the school system must therefore be unified through a managed process of change, based on respect for constitutional rights and freedoms, redress, equity and an improvement in the quality of learning. Legislation intended to redress the imbalances ii higher education referred to in the Pervious section is embodied in the Green Paper on Higher Education Transformation According to this paper (1996:5), applying the principle of equity implies, on the one hand, a critical identification of existing inequalities, and on the other a programme of transformation with a view to redress, Such transformation includes not only abolishing all existing forms of unjust differentiation, but also measures of empowerment to bring about equal opportunity for individuals and institutions, The Principle of equity is also highlighted in the National Education Policy Investigation (NEPI) of 1993. According to this framework report (1993:11), the government should address the issue of equity by predominantly investing in the rural areas. The result Would be greater equity, but according to the analysts, also lower efficiency and lower economic growth. The South African School Act (1996:5) directly addresses school governance. The Preamble to this act states that: {his country requires @ new national system for schools which will redress past injustice in educational provision, provide an education of progressively high qually for all leamers and in 9 doing lay a strong foundation for the development of ail our people's talents and capabilies Equity and redress have thus been central to policy debates concerning school and educational governance in the new South Africa (Sayed and Carrim 1997-97: NEPI 1993, ANC 1994a; Department of Education 1995b). At one level, the issue of equity and redress has been intimately tied to enhancing participation. At another level, the 'ssue of equity and redress focuses on the financing of the education system30 Introducing legislation is, however not sufficient to bring about the necessary changes in education. Its implementation, as the current position with regard to equity indicates, is so problematic that the road to a settled education system will remain bumpy for quite some time, For instance, according to Resolution No. 6 of 1998 of the Free State provincial government there are procedures that provide for the nationalisation and redeployment of educators within educational institutions to achieve equity in educator staff provisioning in the said institutions in terms of approved policy on educator post provisioning. The result is that schools anxious not ‘o have teachers redeployed were packing their classes to capacity, which impacts negatively on teacher:pupil ratio and effective teaching. Principal Nontsikelelo Makupula of Fikizolo Primary School in Grahamstown is quoted in The New Teacher vJournel (1994'4) as saying that five of their 28 teachers for a student body of nearly 1000 would be redeployed. Last year the school had a teacher:pupil ratio of 1:40. With redeployment this ratio is expected to increase. 'tis common knowledge that apartheid education divided the people of South Africa and helped create the conditions for oppression and exploitation. The new government scrapped apartheid laws and our constitution guarantees the right to basic education. The government has, however, also accepted a macro-economic strategy called GEAR (the Growth, Employment and Redistribution Strategy) which results in cuts in education spending. According to the Educator's Voice (1998:14) the present Government is also paying back debts incurred by the previous regime. Yearly interest on this apartheid debt alone is almost R40 billion, Added to this we have problems, such as the high matric failure rate, retrenchment of teachers, lack of textbooks, high fees at schools and universities and conflicts in schools. Put together all these difficulties do not contribute to the attainment of equity and distributive justice in Current South African education. The Editorial in The New Teacher Journal (1999:2) comments, however, that the real crisis in our current education system is characterised by the breakdown in the culture of leaming and teaching, Hostility between pupils and teachers, apathy, drug abuse, sexual harassment of female pupils, gangsterism, and a sense of hopelessness arising from _ incompetence, mismanagement, corruption, misuse of funds and lack of accountability on the part of Gepartment and government officials have all worsened the ailing education system31 2.5 RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EQUITY, REDRESS, REDISTRIBUTION AND TRANSFORMATION Redress refers to remedy or rectifying a wrong or grievance. It is thus corrective by nature. As in “redress past injustice in education provision” (SASA Act no. 84, 1996:5), itis intended as a remedial measure with a healing quality. In “the need to redress the imbalances in societal institutions for more effective functioning in a multi racial democracy’ (Jordaan 1995:53) and “redress of education inequalities’ (Woodbridge 1995:194), the term “redress” is used to suggest “equalising”. In the words of Schoeman (1996:113), redress thus refers to “levelling the playing field’. Therefore, the meaning of redress depends on the context within which itis used. At this point, it is important to note that to activate a redress process, one would need a means to do so. If, for example, resources were unequally distributed in the past, one would need to redistribute the said resources equally in order to redress the inequalities, There is therefore a link between redress and redistribution Redistribution implies distributing again or differently in the allocation process. If the goal is progress towards equity in the financing of basic schooling, redistribution within the budget will have to be sought (NEPI 1993:143). Thus redress and redistribution are closely related to equity. They can be regarded as @ means to attain equity. In the Green Paper on Higher Education and Transformation (1996:5), redress, and therefore redistribution, is viewed as major mechanisms to attain equity in the higher education system and constitutes one of the most significant components of the ‘ransformation. In fact, the Ministry of Education regards, among others, equity, redress and redistribution as fundamental principles that should guide the process of transformation. Transformation presupposes progression, development, improvement, change and transition (Thus equity and its associates redress and redistribution are interrelated), In the first instance, transforming education implies changing it for the better, In our country, these changes in education must be in accordance with the values and Principles of The Constitution of The Republic of South Africa. Part of transforming the =ducation system is making it democratic. The democratisation of education includes the idea that stakeholders like parents, teachers, learners and members of the community should be able to participate in the activities of schools. Put simply, the32 duty to transform education means that all stakeholders have new rights and responsibilities (Department of Education 1997:10), In the second instance, according to Schoeman (1998:99), the idea of stakeholder participation derives from the slogan: “People's Education for People's power”, which indicates that the ultimate objective of people's education was not primarily of an educational nature, but demonstrates a tangible political purpose. Essentially it was meant to develop the political consciousness of the masses, starting with the destruction and transformation of all racial educational structures of the apartheid government. By nature this transformational process was revolutionary. The sole objective of this revolution was to place complete political power in the hands of the majority of the people of South Africa. However commendable all these definitions seem to be, an appropriate way of applying affirmative action remains elusive. There also seems to be confusion as to how equity relates to affirmative action, Schoeman (1986:108-109) is of the opinion that “legitimate calls for equity should never be confused with demands for affirmative 2etions’, the reason for this being that it is too often associated with the lowering of standards, and promotion of people beyond their levels of competence. To support this argument, a living example is that of the educational situation in the Free State Province. AS referred to in The New Teacher (1998:4) the first MEC for education, Mr Belot, was made to leave his office, because of leadership problems, misuse of funds, corruption and mismanagement. The second MEC, Mr. Dugwane, was also removed from office for the same reason, The current MEC for education is unqualified for the Position, and only knows the classroom situation as a pupil. This situation brings to mind the misuse of power. It is unlawful to make appointments which are not based on competence and authority. Coetzee en Le Roux (1998:10) maintain that a policy of affirmative action can be justified only as an indispensable aid in achieving equity. To Promote people beyond their level of competence, is therefore a disservice both to the individuals involved and to society (Ramphele 19:23). Kruger and De Klerk (1995:401-426) come to the conclusion that affirmative action can be justified on ethical grounds in the South African situation, Their conclusion is based on testing the principles of affirmative action against a number of ethical theories including justice, fairness, distribution on the basis of proportional equality of merit,33 equality of need and the theory of personal freedom. In conclusion, Jordan (1995:53) observes that any affirmative action policy which requires excellence in the absence of equity, or which fulfils the criteria of equity while excluding the possibility of excellence may cause untold misery for, and actually harm those who are supposed to benefit from affirmative action, Unless affirmative action entails critical conceptual analysis and wise planning, its application may be disastrous in the South African educational context. 2.6 CONCLUSION Against the background of the conclusion made by Kruger and De Klerk (1995:401. 426) on the ethical justifiabllty of affirmative action, it is imperative that the principle of equality be investigated. Any educational principle should be applied in conjunction with others such as justice, faimess and distribution on the basis of proportional equality of merit, equality, accountability, competence and authority. Given the history of domination in South Africa's educational past, it is imperative that an equity framework designed should allow for the formulation of appropriate strategies at appropriate levels to bring about greater equity. However, in the implementation of this principle, other principles such as equality, justice, competence and accountabilly should not be compromised. While it can be argued that the process of transformation in education is underpinned by legitimate values, the danger exists that new structures of domination will be created. This is unavoidable when educational institutions are forced to exceed their spheres of competence or when attempts are made to alienate the school from its authentic task and mission through centralised control (Schoeman 1996:113). The following section will address the contentious issue of equality in South African education as it has become one of the principles upon which a new educational dispensation is supposed to be anchored3B EQUALITY IN CURRENT SOUTH AFRICAN EDUCATION 3.1 INTRODUCTION A genuine Christian worldview witnesses God's creational order in reality. In Philosophising, our investigations bring us into contact with God's order of creation. Our thinking does not create this order. In God's revelation we observe the uniformity and interrelatedness of educational principles immanent in a pure education system. Accepting that God, the Absolute Sovereign, is the source of authority in all societal spheres, we embrace within the competence of each sphere, the principle of sphere sovereignity, in order to avoid relations of domination. It is with this belief and understanding that we tirelessly desire a lawful application of the principles of equity and equality in the educational sphere. In Genesis 1:27 as referred to in Van der Walt (1994:393) the fact has been emphasised that all men were created by God in His image. This underlies our conception of the equality of all human beings. Human existence is not an achievement of man, but is given to all by God and is therefore to be shared by all on an equal basis. It is in this light that in contemporary South African education the principles of equity, equality, justice, competence, authority and accountability can be applied The 1994 Draft White Paper on Education and Training (Government Gazette 1994:11) reflects four important issues that will determine every aspect of educational Policy in a multicultural non-racial and democratic South Africa in years to come. These are access, quality, equity and equality, Schoeman (1995:63) indicates that Gespite this explicit and unambigous designation of pointers for future South African policy on education, it remains doubtful whether all parties involved in the discussions that are taking place round the issue of education in current South Africa, interpret35 these basic ideas in exactly the same way. He also holds the opinion that in the current discourse on education in South Africa, supporters of the former “system" and those involved in the “struggle” against the erstwhile “establishment’, may - even at this stage experience difficulties in communicating rationally and meaningfully on the matter because of different and incompatible ideological positions that they adhere to. In the light of these “different positions’, it is the aim of this chapter to focus on what equality entails in the context of education provision. It will also seek to unfold contending positions on equality in education in the current debate on educational matters in South Africa. This would imply what Visagie (1995:61) refers to as educational theory and practice es determined by the struggle between two opposing Paradigms: establishmentarianism and transformationalism. In a way according to Steyn (1995:22), it is the search for a delicate balance between quality education and equality in education in South African education — especially within the current period of transition. 3.2 THE CONCEPT “EQUALITY” 3.2.1 Defining equality Equality refers to “the state of being equal”. However, it could mean parity, sameness, identity, uniformity, equivalence or similarity, depending on the context in which it is used. It may also infer to justice, faimess, fair deal, fair play, no discrimination or equal opportunity. What is evident is that the definition of the concept of equality suffers from ambiguity since it is subject to a wide variety of interpretations. All the same, many an author have made attempts to define it in the way that they conceptualise it. For instance, Akinpelu (1981:212) holds the view that we may talk of equality in terms of sameness. Two things are the same if one of them is a perfect Substitute for the other. This refers to a mathematical equality, as for example, 2 +2 = 4. The sign of equality in the expression indicates that the figure on the right is Perfectly the same as that on the left of the equation. Given the manifest diversity in the native abilities, talents, gifts, needs and interests of human beings, this is hardly applicable to human affairs. Two persons can hardly ever be equal in this sense. Not even identical twins can achieve this36 According to Crittenden (1973:200-201), if the ideal of equality requires that ali individuals should be treated as though they were the same, the result will be a gravely unequal state of affairs. In school, for example, to apply the same methods to slow or handicapped and bright students alike would only intensify the differences in educational achievement. On the other hand Akinpelu (1981:212) is of the opinion that equality by legal terms imply that everybody, high or low, is held to be equal before the law. In other words, all individuals in a given society are entitled to equality of treatment by law and its administration. However, in this sense, legal equality seems not to be enough. While the opportunity of equality of treatment by law may be afforded, a leamer from the poorest of the poor backgrounds may not benefit from such provision as compared to the one from a rich family in registering for admission at an educational institution Another ideal of equality is social equality, which refers to everyone being treated fairly. This implies the type of faimess that everybody should receive from society, of belonging to that society. In many respects this makes sense since it underlies the conception of human equality referred to in the introduction of this chapter. The notion of human equality thus suggests that every human being, independent of the quantity ‘or range of his/her personal endowments has the right to equal treatment for the development of whatever potential he/she has. This conception of equality is shared by Wiggers (in Smith 1994:78) when he states that the equality principle implies the equality of human beings as members of a community of a communicative society: an equality therefore, within the value structure that determines the kind of persons to whom justice is due. At least this implies that large social inequalities should not exist. which indicates as much as will be adequate to make them develop a feeli This principle of equality could also be perceived as not requiring that all people be treated in exactly the same way in every circumstance, but that people should not be treated differently unless sufficient grounds for such differences have been provided (Morrow, 1989:13). Crittenden (1973:203) supports this argument by adding that justification for unequal treatment is made in terms of the removal of unjust conditions, and the promotion of as high a quality of life as is possible for all. A good example is the implementation of an affirmative action principle to uplift the previously disadvantaged communities in a transforming society. It must also be mentioned thatte, 37 equality may not result in the idea of fair and humane treatment which is behind all talk of equality. For instance, as stated in Crittenden (1973:201), if equality as an ideal, Proposes that everyone should be made equal, then it requires gross inequalities of treatment. In education some system of handicapping would have to be devised so that brighter or keener students would be prevented from developing advanced skills. This would clearly involve a serious disregard for many other values, such as freedom and justice. It would indeed be an unjustifiable inequality of educational opportunity According to Chanon and Brown (1978:15), when equality is viewed as something more than a synonym “faimess’, “equity” or “justice”, there are at least two of its aspects which may be identified as: i) ~—_equality of outcomes, and ii) “equality of opportunity. Equality of outcomes would prevail if there were an equal distribution of income and other social rewards. Equality of opportunity, on the other hand, refers to the conditions of access to high incomes and social rewards, In other words a demand for equal opportunity is a search for faimess in the race for life's rewards. Both aspects are full of democratic undertones. In fact, a belief in equality is an element of the democratic credo (Dewey 1959: 37) ‘Thus, one may conclude that the concept one holds of “equality”, as referring primarily to equality of outcomes or to equality of opportunity, depends crucially upon the social, Political and economic ideology and the normative philosophy that one holds. For example a person committed to liberal, democratic values and a capitalist market economy might be expected to stress the equal opportunity to compete. While, a Person committed to socialist values might stress the need to treat individuals in such @ manner aS to produce the identical levels of total benefit. is furthermore important to note that equality may not result in the idea of fair and humane treatment which is behind all talk of equal educational opportunity. To site an example: traditional apartheid education equated equality of opportunity to separate but equal education. The ideas of equality and separateness are, however in educational terms, “mutually” exclusive (Schoeman 1996:112). Finally many authors treat equality of opportunities or resources as distinct from equality of outcomes, while ‘equality of content in education can be distinguished from equality of options.38 3.2.2 Equality of educational opportunity According to Squelsh (1996:32) equality in education is generally discussed in terms of equal educational opportunities which is itself a complex and sometimes confusing educational goal. As stated above the principle of equality could be interpreted in different ways. As a result authors also interpret “equality of educational opportunity” in many different ways. What is evident is that educationists and policymakers do not have a clear or settled idea of what is involved in this notion of “equal educational opportunity". For instance Akinpelu (1981:214) interprets the phrase “equality of educational opportunity” in two major ways. According to him, it can mean either (a) “equal right to education for everyone” or (b) “right to equal education’. The meaning in (@) is discussed in the next two paragraphs. This is followed by meaning (b). 3.2.2.4 Equality of educational opportunity as equal right to education for everyone According to Akinpelu (1981:216) this claim to equal right to education derives from a more fundamental equality ~ the social and political equality conferred by a common citizenship. If there is no owning ‘society or as in a caste system, it is useless talking about equal right to education. The slaves may be entitled as of right to a type of education, but it will not be the same right and the same type of education as the full citizens have. Sparta in ancient Greece was a good example; so also South Africa in the past, where the black, the “coloured” and the white population had different systems of education, which was regarded as “separate but equal”. Each colour group had a right to education that was made available to its own kith and kin, but there was no general right which all could exercise on the basis of being fellow citizens of the same country. This notion of “separate” but “equal’ education in South Africa as confirmed by Schoeman (1995:111) is a hallmark of the pro-establishment discourse on equality in education presently. This policy position, as embodied in policy statements of the then De Klerk government shortly before the 1994 elections (Department of National Education 1992:6), accommodated equality of opportunity in education to the fundamental principle of ‘separateness’. The principle of equal opportunity in education was attended by ideas like “open competition’ and ‘pure merit", which were39 to decide - on supposedly neutral grounds — the degree of success that was, eventually to be attained in the educational process 3.2.2.2 Equality of educational opportunity as right to equal education Akinpelu (1981:217) interprets the phrase “right to equal education” as a welcomed idea that everybody, simply by virtue of being a human being or a citizen should have as equal an education as anybody else. It involves inter alia making equal and adequate instructional materials, and the same environments for learning. This includes removing all possible barriers that could stand in the way of utilising the educational provisions that are made available. Walzer (1983:203), explains: We can think of educational equality as a form of welfare provision, where all children, conceived as future citizens, have the same need to know, and where the ideal of membership is best served if they are all taught the same things. It seems to make sense then, to conceptualise ‘right to equal education’ as an obligation on the part of the government of a given country, to provide education of equal quality to all its children as future citizens. Bunting (1991:33) contends that researchers in the field of comparative (or international education) take the notion of “equal educational opportunity” to be equivalent to that of “equal opportunity in education’. Other authors take it to be equivalent to the notion of “equal opportunity for education”. It is obvious that the use of different prepositions “in” and “for’ in the two phrases will bring about differences in meaning. The interpretations of Bunting (1991:33) bear witness to different functions of the propositions. He argues that a commitment to equal opportunity for education could be interpreted as a promise to offer some education or other to all the inhabitants of a country. Such a commitment would be satisfied even if the education provided to different groups or classes was of a widely different quality. On the other hand, a commitment fo equal opportunity in education could be interpreted as a claim that once pupils are in a formal education system, then they will be given equal opportunities. Such a commitment may be satisfied, it could be argued, even if education is not provided for all schoo!-are children40 It is of interest to observe James Moulder’s evaluation of Bunting’s argument. His version (1992:34) is that “equal educational opportunity” is a technical or theoretical term which gets ‘its sense or meaning" within a specific theory of distributive justice. At this point, it is important to note that there are many theories of distributive justice that can give sense and meaning to “equal educational opportunity” (EEO). Bunting considers the sophisticated “strong egalitarianism” and “fair competition” as theories that can give sense or meaning in EEO. As explained in Moulder (1992-49), the first theory of distributive justice he considers is “strong egalitarianism", which means that a government is committed to EEO if, but only if, it has a plan that will create a society in Which “all the society's goods are distributed equally between all its citizens’. His second theory is “fait” competition, which implies that a government is committed to EEO if, but only if, it has a plan that will create a society in which “each member of the society is able to participate in a fair competition for its scarce educational and employment goods’. This means to participate in a competition that is governed by the procedural principle of merit and the substantive principle of equal life-chances. Whichever theory or theories an author adopts, there is bound to be contrasting views on EEO because of its ambiguity and complexity. For instance, Moulder (1992:49) argues that “an index of need and achievement" which rides on axioms of equality, compensation and temporal bad luck, as well as on a specification of what must be corrected to achieve equal educational opportunity, yields a simpler theory of distributive justice than “strong egalitarianism” or “fair competition’. Despite the difference of interpretations in the discussion above, many an author's account on the matter indicates a growing awareness of inequalities in education. It would, however be unreasonable and unfair to expect that “all the society's goods are distributed equally between all its citizens". One cannot expect equal provisioning of education to a slow learner, a handicapped and a bright learner. 3.2.3 Equality and the South African educational past According to Behr and Ngubentombi (1988:13), almost from the day of Van Riebeeck’s arrival at the Cape in 1652 two sets of conflicting forces have been in continuous operation — one tending to draw the black and white races together, the other tending to keep them apart. This problem of integration or segregation concerns the relationship between the different racial groups in the various fields of human4t - endeavour. domestic, economic, educational, political, religious and social. In the field of education this tension surfaced as severe quantitative and qualitative inequalities of education provisioning to the different racial groups. The notion of equality significantly unfolded with the arrival of Sir George Grey as High Commissioner and Governor of the Cape in 1854. He almost immediately initiated a new policy of gradual political and economic integration of the White and the Black races (Behr and Ngubentombi 1988:13), The essence of the policy under British rule in South Aftica until 1910 was that the degree of civilisation rather than race should be the criterion by which a person was to be judged. This became enshrined in the famous dictum of Cecil John Rhodes: “Equal rights for every civilized man south of the Zambezi". However, The Voortrekkers were not prepared to countenance equality between Black and White, The Great Trek seemed to be a revolt against the British policy of placing White and Blacks on a footing of equality. The South African education system cannot be studied for any purpose without due regard to the pattern of the above mentioned conflicting forces which have helped to shape its history. This trend continued well into the general election of May 1948 when the Nationalist Party triumphed at the polls. Nkomo (1990:160) points out that the Nationalist government came into power with a political policy of apartheid, or enforced segregation of black and white people into different areas. In pursuance of apartheid, a new ideology was introduced into the black schooling system. Subsequent to The Eiselen commission report in 1951 (set up by the Nationalist government in January 1949), the Bantu Education Act was introduced giving wide powers to the Minister of Native Affairs, then Dr. H.F.Verwoerd. The move to Bantu Education was opposed by the English-speakers in general, and more particularly by the English-speaking missionaries who controlled and owned the black schools. The English-speaking churches opted for equality of opportunity in education (Nkomo 1990:161). This is an indication that the quest for equality in education has a long history in South African politics, ‘Schoeman (1995:110) states that ethnically defined dissimilarities between the various population groups in the country, and cultural differences ostensibly causing critical incompatibility between Western and African cultures, have been used since the early 1950's by ideologies of the apartheid government to justify compulsory inequality at all levels of education in South Africa. Swart as referred to in Schoeman (1995:110)42 points out that each cultural group in the country was to have its own schools, different educational authorities and systems, each with separate syllabuses, textbooks, examinations and the like. If indeed, the aim of a schooling process in any country is to educate and make the handicapped as well as the normal child economically active later in their lives, the financial spending or allocation to their different institutions would never be equal. But if differentiation in education provisioning is brought about by political perceptions in cultural differences and skin colour, there can be no justification for unequal treatment. It amounts to discrimination and therefore, a denial of the right to education. Schoeman (1995:110-111) goes further to say that through its policy of segregation and legalised discrimination, the apartheid regime sought to control all the peoples of the country in the interests of the Afrikaner nation. Schoeman (1995:111), quotes Dr. HF, Verwoerd: Jn future, education was to be used in such a manner, that the natives (Le. the indigenous peoples of the country) would be taught from childhood to accept the inevitable reality thet ‘equality with whites was not for them; that they would not be allowed to perform tasks above a certain level in areas reserved for white communities. The educational implications deriving from this attitude is that there would be no equal attainment for blacks and whites at the end of their schooling process. This state of affairs was accomplished by providing different, essentially unequal educational contents to the different racial groups. That is, the ‘natives’ had to be provided with an education that was inferior to that of whites. This could only happen if natives were denied access to the kind of education provided to whites, Consequently there were no equal educational opportunities for all inhabitants of the country. South Africans were thus seen to participate in a culture and a society plagued by many manifestations of ideological relations (Visagie 1995:6). Of paramount importance here was the apartheid ideology with its attendant hypemormative rationality fixed on race and cultural identity. Apartheid was not simply a political policy. It was also not simply a collection of segregational laws so that, as soon as the laws have been repealed, apartheid would also disappear. It was a stubborn ideology that caused people to view reality in a certain way. It was the foundation of the South43 African societal order and as such led toa physical condition of unequal distribution - of power and prosperity. Coetzee and Le Roux (1998:2) observe that an ideology establishes and perpetuates relations of domination throughout all sectors of human existence. Thus Bantu Education, initiated by Verwoerd, was to become the most powerful instrument in racial domination in South Africa's educational past. Bantu education was, in every respect ideological education. One quotation from the speech of the Minister of Native Affairs on the 17 September 1953 moving the second reading of the Bantu Education Act in the House of Assembly (Brookes, 1968:51) reads thus: .. ifthe Native in South Africa today in any kind of schoo! in existence is being taught to expect that he will ive his adult life under a policy of equal rights, he is making a big mistake. As a result of this policy the structure of the education system in South Africa was such that there were four separate but paralle! ministries of education for the four distinctive racial population groups. Thus, the promulgation of the Bantu Education Act 47of 1953 was followed by the adoption of Parliament of the Coloured Persons Education Act (Act 47 of 1963). In 1965 the Indians Education Act, (Act 61) was adopted. Following the adoption of the 1983 constitution of the RSA (Act 110), the administration of education for Coloureds, Indians and Whites was considered to be an “own affair’ and each had its own department of education. Due to this state of inequality in South African education the period between 1976 to 1980 was characterised by a series of disturbing events which resulted in unrest in Black schools following the Soweto school riots of 1976. The Soweto riots of 1976 demonstrated in tragically clear terms the burning hatred young blacks had for the unequal system of education imposed on them. The Nationalist Government's insistence upon Afrikaans as the medium of instruction was listed by the Institute of Race Relations in its evidence to the Cillié Commission, investigating black unrest, as. the major contributory factor to the riots, which exploded into injury and death on June 16, 1976. Besides the objection to Afrikaans, there was dissatisfaction with the standard of education, the quality of teaching, and physical facilities. The promulgation of the Education and Training Act (Act 90 of 1979), which took effect on 1 January 1980, and which initiated a new dispensation for Black education, was without doubt an outcome of the 1976 school disturbances. In June 1980 the Government requested the Human Science Research Council (HSRC) to conduct an in-depth investigation into all facets of education (embracing all population groups) in44 the RSA. A Main Committee with Professor J.P, de Lange as chairman was - appointed. The final chapter of the Report of this committee is devoted to a consideration of the concept of equal quality of education, and how it might be achieved in the South African context, (Behr and Ngubentombi 1988:58). The basic premise of the committee was the right of every individual to receive equal treatment in the allocation of collective benefits in the social structure. However, “equal education does not imply identical or the same education for everybody’. The operational criterion for the principle of equality should be “for each and everybody his rightful share”. “Rightful share’, should be understood as being related to the concept of “distributive justice”. It should be noted that in the educational dispensation of the 1980's in South Africa, differentiation in the provision of education occurred in different ways and on different grounds for different individuals. The grounds on which differentiation that is justifiable can occur are for instance, ability, interest and occupational orientation. The committee's recommendation include the following statement (HSRC 1981:209): Differentiation based purely on differences of race or colour, cannot be regarded as relevant grounds for inequality of treatment and is consequently contrary to the social and ethical demands for justice. Of essence the appointment of the De Lange Commission was a step in the right direction. As such the report was fairly comprehensive and proved to be a guiding light with regard to the principle of equality in endeavour to move towards a new education dispensation. It should, however, be mentioned that the White Paper of November 1983, published by the Government in response to the De Lange Report, proved fruitless in its effort to restructure the South African education system. Of notable importance in subsequent developments was the formation of the National Education Co-ordinating Committee (NECC) in December 1985 in reaction to the ineffective White Paper mentioned above (NEP! 1993:1). The NECC was a national body representing teachers, parents and students, mainly from educationally disadvantaged black communities, The National Education Policy Investigation (NEP!) was a project of the NECC and an inquiry into policy options for a future education dispensation in South Africa. NEPI research reports (1993:12), state that a common tendency in their research was to45 treat the concept of “equality” as a largely quantitative notion. In such cases there - tends to be a predominant focus on access to education institutions, and the inequalities between institutions. According to the report (1993:12-13) this leaves relatively unexplored the character of the institutions themselves and the question of their transformation, which is related, in tum, to an under-emphasis on the qualitative aspects of equality. Neither ‘equality’ nor ‘redress" is really elaborated on in the NEPI documents. In part, this stems from the democratic movement itself using these concepts in a rather imprecise, interchangeable manner. The underlying assumption is that through “redress” it will be possible to immediately eliminate all historically generated inequalities. As a result, the “development” path itself is not questioned This undifferentiated concept of “equality” or “redress’ makes it impossible to prioritise areas of equality or redress. It is important to note that, during the period 1990-92, the National Party government had conceded its illegitimacy by agreeing to negotiations (NEPI 1993:7). However, the government had not yet given way to a popularly endorsed transitional arrangement, which could set the country on the path to serious reconstruction. The National Party had been in power since 1948, and the democratic movement in opposition for a good deal longer, so both had ingrained policy habits. The result was that the nature and character of negotiations were determined by the struggle between two opposing paradigms: establishmentarianism and transformationalism (Visagie 1995:1). The ideological content of both these paradigms, marred the educational discourse in many areas, including equality in education. As quoted in Schoeman (1996:111), the pro-establishment discourse on equality in education, as embodied in policy statements of the government shortly before the 1994 elections (Department of National Education 1992:6) accommodated equality of opportunity to the fundamental principle of “separateness’. The principle of equal opportunity in education was attended by ideas like “open competition’ and ‘pure merit’. On the other hand, Schoeman (1996:111) states that the transformationalist view, which insists on equality in education, does not necessarily turn a blind eye to the existence of distinct, innate (inherited and not man-made) differences between individual persons. It does, however, demand that all different forms of treatment are mandatory (natural), and never arbitrary; that ‘unequal’ treatment of pupils and students is compelled on grounds other than blatant racism and sexism. Schoeman (in Coetzee and le Roux 1998:9) points out that so-called cultural differences were used by supporters of the ideology of apartheid to justify compulsory inequality at all education levels in South46 Africa. For this reason, it is not surprising that equality is regarded as one of the - cornerstones of educational transformation and a necessary condition for an egalitarian society. Despite the opposing paradigms that underlie the various options, suggestions and proposals made by the contributors in the educational debate, the realisation remains that a new education system must ensure a fundamental equality of treatment, Previous government reports on education (Education Renewal Strategy and Curriculum model for South Africa (CUMSA) support equality in education (Steyn 1995:23). The CUMSA document states that “equal opportunities for education, including equal standards of education, must be created for every inhabitant of South Africa imespective of race, colour, creed or sex’ (Committee of Heads of Education Departments 1991:7). The NEPI approach represents a policy and philosophy with socio-political overtones and with specific emphasis on “equity’, “equality” and “redress’. This characterised the direction of the educational discourse on equality in education and led to the removal of discriminatory laws on educational equality. 3.2.4 Equality and Present South Africa Mcgregor (1992:498) observes that the implications of trying to achieve some measure of equality, when resources are constrained, are considerable. Clearly the first step is the removal of obvious inequalities such as size of class, teacher qualifications, funding disparities, facilities and equipment. While some additional resources can be created to move towards equality, it cannot be achieved without a redistribution of the resources that are already allocated to education. Equality cannot be achieved without former levels of privilege being reduced. As a declaration of intent, it is clearly stated in the Bill of Rights (Constitution Act 108, 1996:5) that equality includes the full and equal enjoyment of all rights and freedom. To promote the achievement of equality, legislative and other measures may be taken to protect or advance persons, or categories of persons, disadvantaged by unfair discrimination. With regard to education the Bill of Rights (Act 108 1996:11) spell it out that, “all reasonable educational alternatives, including single medium institutions, will take into account (a) equity; (b) practicability; and the need to redress the results of past racially discriminatory laws and practices”47 ~ The Ministry of Education's first White Paper contains these words: “New education and training policies to address the legacies of underdevelopment and inequitable development and provide equal opportunities for all will be based principally on the constitutional rights for all persons..." (Education White Paper 1, 1995:19). The subsequent White Paper (1996:10) stipulates that: A primary objective of the new strategy for schools must be to achieve an equitable distribution of education provision throughout the nation, in such a way that the quality of provision in underresourced areas is raised, and reductions in public funding to betier-resourced schools are responsibly phased in. South Africans thus expected the implementation of new laws in education to ensure that there was both equity and redress in funding from public (budgetary) resources, in order to achieve a fair distribution of public funds and the elimination of backlogs caused by past unequal treatment. Unfortunately it seems that people are witnessing the opposite. In the Sunday Times (November 9, 1997:25), Dr. Mamphele Ramphele observes that attempts by die government to transform the grossly inequitable and inadequate schoo! system in South Africa are characterised by failure to translate good policies into sound practice. At the heart of the failure to map out a path that has a reasonable chance of succeeding to lift the system out of its present rut is a tendency with a terrifying familiar ring to it: sacrificing sound educational principles and practices for short-term political gain. It is a path that can cause the recreation of relations of domination, Coetzee and Le Roux (1998:2) expresses the same sentiments when stating that the same conditions which acted as a catalyst for democratisation, could very well tead to its collapse: social and economic disintegration, a dissatisfied civil society and a government which has lost control. One may infer that putting into place good policies is not enough. One needs to develop the capacity and have the necessary ability to translate them into practice. This means that the mere removal of discriminatory laws that cause inequality in education is not a guarantee that disparities will be dissolved (Coetzee and Le Roux 1998:10). The inequalities and imbalances that still persist in the present South African education system bear testimony to the above argument. The Educator's Voice (1998:1) reports that most of our schools are still without textbooks and learning48 materials. The inequitable resource allocation means that many schools are not only without textbooks, but also do not have laboratory equipment. Educators are stil confronted by overcrowded classrooms and heavy workloads, indicating that the problem of pupil: educator ratios is still unresolved. The struggle for quality education has to face the scarcity of resources, Addressing Parliament on 6 February 1998 (Government's Report to the Nation, 1998:9), President Nelson Mandela admits that many children still study under trees and in dilapidated buildings. Many schools are hollow shells without even the most basic equipment for normal teaching. These inexcusable and unacceptable delays in the supply of textbooks derive from poor management and shoddy tendering deals. 3.3. The relationship between equity and equality According to Grant (1989:89) the meaning of equity is tightly connected with concepts of faimess and justice. This means that educational equity concems those areas for which rules and procedures are based on this notion of justice. The common meaning ascribed to equality, is “the quality or state of being equal” (Webster 1977:306). Grant (1989:89) observes that, because equity and equality as concepts do have a great deal in common = they are related to egalitarian concepts of liberty, democracy and freedom from bias — they are often used interchangeably, without specific meaning given to each of the terms. Educational equality may be said to concern equality of treatment in educational matters. Secade’s view (1989:68-69) of equity is that it refers to our judgements about whether or not a given state of affairs is just. In this view educational equity should be construed as a check on the justice of specific actions that are carried out within the educational arena (Secada 1989:69) Bunting (1992:67) assumes that equity in Higher education does not require equality in the distribution of its resources and benefits, and that the main issue of concem is that of the justifiability of the inequalities which exist. in much of the current literature on educational equity, one finds writers who treat equity and equality as interchangeable However, the relationship of educational equity to equality of education is problematic (Secada 1989:69). In this regard, Green (1983:324) maintains that equity and equality are linked, but he also draws a distinction between those inequalities that are inequitable and those that are not: “Inequity always implies injustice. Inequality does not!49 - The implication for current South African education is that care should be taken when principles such as affirmative action are applied in the name of equity and equality. A well-structured affirmative action is needed, which comes down to “levelling the playing field". (Schoeman, 1996:113). In other words (Coetzee & Le Roux 1998:10), equality of opportunity will never lead to true equality if students do not have the power to make use of the opportunity. 3.4 CONCLUSION Given the history of domination in South Africa's educational past, it is imperative that an equity framework designed should allow the formulation of appropriate strategies at appropriate levels to bring about greater equity, However, in the implementation of this principle, other principles such as equality, justice, competence and accountability should not be compromised. Also, the relationship between equity, redress, redistribution, transformation and affirmative action should be observed. Of importance, their operation should not bring about the lowering of standards One remains, even at the current stage of transformation, sceptical of the assumption that our society would be stabilised merely by consensus regarding democratic values and norms directing future education. The opposite view is, however, closer to the truth; implying that the different parties involved in discussions on education interpret the above-mentioned values in radically diverse ways (Coetzee & Le Roux 1998: 16), thus adding confusion to an already complicated state of affairs. An investigation into the issues of equity and equality in the process of education transformation can however not be isolated from questions on authority and power. In the subsequent section our exposition will focus upon the reference of authority and power in the process of attaining equity in education4 DEMOCRACY AND POWER RELATIONS IN SOUTH AFRICAN EDUCATION 4.14. INTRODUCTION It was indicated in the previous chapter that despite attempts at transformation of South African education, based upon commendable ideals and policies of equity and equality, difficulties such as poor management practices largely prevent these ideals from being realised. It seems that however commendable policy declarations of proposed equity and equality in South African education might be, when these intentions are not balanced by legitimate authority and power, they remain unattainable ideals. This chapter therefore focuses on the issues of authority and power relations in education. The ideological concept of “the people” as it was manifested in an ethnocentric hypemormative discourse during the previous regime, as well as the current dangers of revolutionary populism are discussed as violations of the relationship between authority and power. This investigation focuses on the possibility that the misapplication of legitimate principles, such as participation, justice and accountability, could also violate the authentic relationship between authority, power, freedom and responsibility in education. The appropriate implementation of these principles can, however, take place in a democratic educational setting, Before investigating these principles and their relationship to equity in education it is imperative to briefly look into the concept of democracy, and its relevance to education in South Africa51 - 4.2 DEMOCRACY DEFINED Democracy may refer to a system of government by the whole population, usually through elected representatives. Coetzee and Le Roux (1998:2) define “democracy” as a system of government in which the ruling power of the state is legally vested in the people: government of the people, by the people, for the people. Cloete, however, (in Coetzee & Le Roux 1998:3) warns that if the words govern, the people; of the people and for the people, are not clearly defined it is possible for any dictator to claim that he or she is one of the people, tolerated by the people to provide government as seen fit for the people. In particular, the word people needs to be qualified as perhaps inclusive of all inhabitants of a country or individuals and groups forming a given society. The definition of democracy as “rule by majority consent” (Dekker & Lemmer 1993:7) thought to minorities, who are not necessarily included by the term people. It is argued here that any conception of democracy must be clear about what happens to the minority ~ who do not consent. This implies that a majority rule which ignores individual or minority rights is no longer acceptable and can only be described as tyranny. A true democracy thus always takes minorities into account. According to Du Toit (1993:5), the democratic idea! can mean radically different things in contemporary South Africa. He concurs with Kogan (1986:90) that the very concept of democracy itself has acquired quite different meanings. This is partly due to the rise and historical influence of at least two distinct senses of democracy: that of liberal democracy and of popular or social democracy. In some circles there is also talk of Third World democracies. The biggest challenge facing South Africans is to identify the relevant meaning and functions of the democratic ideal in the South African context. This means that the democratic ideal needs to be interpreted within the unique political and social milieu of a transforming country.52 - The transition to democracy thus requires careful and thorough preparation, because it could not be taken for granted that a genuine and sustainable democracy would just automatically emerge in this country (Coetzee 1997:2) 4.3 DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION IN SOUTH AFRICA 4.3.1. Revolutionary populism The 1996 Constitution requires that schoo! education be transformed and democratised in accordance with the following values: a Human dignity, the achievement of equality and the advancement of human rights and freedoms. 0 Non-racialism and non-sexism. 0 The rule of law applies. 0 A multi-party system of democratic government, accountability and ‘openness (Department of Education, 1997:5). It appears, however, that the biggest problem encountered in South African education is the implementation of these values and principles. Cloete (in Coetzee & Le Roux, 1998:3) observed that democratic education in South Africa is based upon Westem values which have not yet been absorbed by South Africans to the extent that these values direct their way of life. On this “uncertain” foundation the new system of education is being constructed. Several authors, educationists and other interested parties have expressed concern regarding the quality of governance in the process of educational transformation in South Africa. In the Sunday Times (November 9 1997:25) Ramphele observes that attempts by the government to transform a grossly inequitable and inadequate schoo! system are characterised by failure to translate good policies into sound practice. The worst problem currently encountered is the appointment of unqualified personnel, which negatively impacts upon the quality of governance, It seems that the struggle has been absolutised as a supernorm in the appointments of staff in the education structure. This practice has nurtured what Van der Walt (1996:385) calls: revolutionary populism.53 Van der Walt (1994:38) further states that should a government, for its own gain, consistently act only for a specific group of citizens, and with contempt and even violence suppress and reject the rights of others, then it is rejecting the will of God for the state ~ which is general impartial justice. Such a government has then become revolutionary in the most profound sense of the word: it commits revolution (resistance) against God. A citizen can in such a case no longer accept the exercise of power and authority of the state. This would be glorification of power (power for the sake of power) — while we are only called to glorify God. Citizens who come to oppose such a government cannot simply be branded revolutionaries, as they are in fact anti- revolutionary, that is, against the revolution of which the government is guilty in the face of God. Their positive intention is to bring the government back to its authentic calling. One other issue which poses a threat to the newly established democratic education, is the biased interpretation of “democracy” by “the people". According to Coetzee and Le Roux (1998:4-5), when the power of the state is regarded as legitimate only on the grounds of the opinion of the people, one runs the risk of elevating the collective will of the people to a position of utmost importance, thus falling into the ideological trap of populism. The will of the people thus becomes the ultimate criterion for all facets of human life, as well as the final authority before which every societal relationship is supposed to bow in deference and total subjection. The will of the people is generally seen as the sole liberating force and is thus in the centre of school governance. This will of the people is ingrained in the South African Schools Act by virtue of the composition of the governing body. The number of educator representatives is far less than the number of parents and learners (in the case of secondary schools) who have not been trained in educational matters. The danger is that the educator component may be outvoted in serious educational decisions that must be taken in the governing body. Just to cite an example, two of the allocated functions of governing bodies reads thus: (b) “to determine the extra-mural curriculum of the school and the choice of subject options in terms of provincial curriculum policy; (c) to purchase textbooks, educational materials or equipment for the school’ (SASA 1996:16). These are matters that can be left to the principal and educators, who are professionally trained in educational matters. Parents represent the will of the people, and can even recommend the expulsion of educators for misconduct in matters of duty54 When an external authority such as “the people" dictates the nature and objectives of education, the purpose is no longer decided with reference to its nature and structure (Visagie 1995:16). This is coercion by the so called democratic, but oppressive will of the people (Schoeman 1998: 62-63). The school should be left to perform its functions without hindrance. It implies that its internal sovereignty should be respected. That js, its institutional rights and inherent freedom should be recognised and allowed to develop according to its distinctive normative structures (Visagie 1995:18). The irony is that while in the past apartheid education schools were harassed by community structures such as School Boards and School management committees, today the perpetrators are governing bodies in the name of the will of people. 4.3.2 A nationalist ideology (ethnocentric populism) According to Schoeman (1995:48), like all ideologies, the ideology of Afrikaner ethno- nationalism was bom out of strife. It started out as a legitimate struggle of a part of the South African population who valued their Christian faith and Dutch culture, and therefore resisted the might of the British Empire and its policy of anglicisation. Its origin was thus lawful but soon developed into an all-encompassing goal that, before long, reached the proportions of an ideology in the negative sense of the word. This is one of the aspects where revolutionary populism and the nationalist populism share a common ground. Both originate from legitimate struggles that developed into hypernormative manifestations, The ‘struggle’, “the people” and “die volk” eared the state of “super-values" that dictated the nature and objectives of education. Van der Walt (1994:378) explains that Afrikaner ethno-nationalism later had as an aim, breaking with the inequality of the feudal system and the hierachical view of authority on which it was built. The important question however, was how the diversity among South African people should be understood, should they all be equal. The solution proposed by nationalism has been that people do not stand beneath each other (as, for example, in the hierarchical, feudal system), but in clearly distinguishable groups next to each other. In other words, there is not a vertical but a horizontal distinction between people. It is not a distinction of non-equals but of equals. In the well-known apartheid credo of “separate but equal", the separateness would at the same time imply the protection and freedom of a nation (“volk’). The implemation of this “ism” however, violated the legitimacy of power and authority as bestowed to man by God55 Nevertheless, Afrikaner nationalism should be understood against the ~ background of threats to the Afrikaner nation: first by British colonialism and imperialism; later on, black people were regarded as a danger because they outnumbered the whites. It should be noted that there is nothing wrong with being proud of one’s own national identity and to try to protect and maintain it (all over the world we today experience the revival of ethnic groups). What is wrong, however, is to absolutise national identity and uphold it to the disadvantage of other ethnic groups, as happened in the case of the apartheid ideology (referred to here as a nationalist ideology). National pride and identity are good, but nationalism is wrong (Van der Walt 1994:378). Visagie (1995:4) concurs with this sentiment by stating that when the notion of a people's cultural identity achieves hypernormative status, such a people is easily led, by the precepts of hypernormative rationality, to create relations of domination by means of which their cultural images and aspirations may be sustained. 4.3.3 Democratic participation and education in South Africa Before examining the dimensions of democratic participation and education it requires of this section to recall the nature of ideology and how it relates to power and authority. There is also a need to investigate how revolutionary populism and ethnocentric populism compare with democratic participation, especially in education, Schoeman’s (1998:11) account is that all ideologies relate to cherished and legitimate ideals and goals of groups of peoples, especially of those who suffer from the structures of domination imposed on them by oppressors, despots, dictators and tyrants. However, the lust for absolute (political) power soon transforms these ideas and ideals into ideologies (Van der Walt, 1976:398, 401-408). Now, ideology adversely affects every mode of human existence, every aspect of human culture, and every structure in society. This is what apartheid ideology did to South Africans, and it is the road that present revolutionary populism may be pursuing, the road of abuse of power and authority and the exercise of coercion. There is no doubt that there are similarities between revolutionary populism and ethnocentric populism. Both employ an ideology to justify their “privileges, political power, social prestige and financial benefits’, thereby creating an illusion of legitimacy and credibility Where there is an abuse of power and authority, there can be no democratic participation. Educational democracy, according to NEPI (1993:14) points to the popular desire for wider participation in educational affairs. This presupposes56 participation in decision-making, which is often called direct democracy. This form of democracy is most appropriate at local levels (school level) of participation, However, this principle of direct democracy is partly served by means of partnership relations between key political and educational actors at provincial and national levels. The notion of “the government of national unity" is an example. There is also, The Public Sector co-ordinating Bargaining Council (PSCBC), which was established on 13 November 1997 (Voice 1999:4). The PSCBC has four sectors, namely, Education Labour, Relations Council (ELRC), Safety and Security, Health and General and Administration. At school level school governing bodies have been established to put in place democratic authority. Through these structures and many others, guided by Education acts and regulations, democratic participation is fostered. Democratic participation requires that joint or shared decision-making should be accompanied by joint responsibility, which will have legal and financial implications (NEPI 1993:15) This helps to develop a sense of ownership amongst the stakeholders in an educational institution. The sense of ownership gives birth to an intrinsic motivation to ail involved in an institution, which brings about commitment and effectiveness. According to Coetzee and Le Roux (1998:4), wien defining the concept of democratic patticipatior by discussion. This implies that the purpose of education for democratic participation 's sufficient to say that it refers to the act of trying to reach agreement would be “to create a space in which anti-democratic activities were rejected and in which people learned the skills and acquired the disposition to submit their judgements to the discipline of the democratic process, a space in which things are decided by discussion rather than by fiat or force’ (Morrow 1989:130). A democratic discussion could thus be characterised as not being manipulative; which follows that what people say is listened to and taken seriously (Morrow 1989:131). It should be noted, however, that the educational democratic interaction we are referring to, can only take place in a stable democratic political system. it is a kind of political order which needs a combination of the forces of a well-respected leader as a national unifying symbol, a class of professional politicians, as well as mechanisms and procedures which enable citizens to participate actively. The task of the office-bearers would thus be to keep the power of the leader in check and to speak on behalf of the citizenry. The same thing applies to the education department. It needs an educational leader together with office-bearers who are competent and are accountable to the entire South African87 society, At this point, it will require of this discussion, to recall from reference the development of concepts “freedom” and “authority" and the complementary characteristics immanent in them. Of essence will be their joint application in an educational enterprise. 4.4 FREEDOM AUTHORITY AND RELATED CONCEPTS IN EDUCATION 4.4.1 Freedom and authority Since the outery for freedom in the sixties the relationship that exists between freedom and authority has become a thoroughly debated topic, also among educationists. The fact is that a tendency exists for an overemphasis on either authority or freedom and that the two concepts represent conflicting interests in education. According to Schoeman (1985:173) human authority is only relative. Only the authority of God can be regarded as absolute. This means that no human being has total authority in any area. Parental authority, ecclesiastical authority, school authority and state authority, are to be conceived of only as relative authority. To this, Van der Walt (1994:284) makes an addition that the correct vision is that each person in accordance with his calling has a mandate from God to authority. Man can only lay claim to authority to the extent to which he has insight into and shows obedience towards the divine norms which hold for the relevant situation or societal relationship in which he finds himself. It may be stated here then, that in the education field, authority refers to the educators in person, as well as to the norms of propriety and the rules of the home or school which assist the child in knowing and understanding what is right or wrong and correct or incorrect. However, like all things, human authority is imperfect, fallible and has limits (Van der Walt 1994:284), This provides room for the exercise of freedom as a natural endowment in human beings This sophisticated version of freedom may not take place without responsibility and true authority. So that, in its positive context freedom refers to “freedom for’, e.g freedom for responsibility, freedom for obedience, etc. Schoeman (1996:175) adds more substance to this definition by stating that in a positive sense true freedom implies a God-obedient life, or freedom under the law. It means freedom in obex58 to the perfect law of God, a life conforming to the will of God as revealed - in Christ. In a negative sense, it means freedom from the enslavement of sin. What is evident here is that, authority and freedom cannot exclude each other: one is the condition for the possibility of the other. 4.4.2: The complimentary nature of freedom and authority in education According to Coetzee (19974), it is of utmost importance to understand that freedom and authority are not opposing concepts, This means that the existence of the one does not exclude the other. The existence of authority in reality guarantees human freedom. However, we are not dealing here with freedom and authority in general but with freedom and authority in education. Educational authority reveals a very delicate relationship between freedom and authority. If only one of these issues and not both receive proper attention, something goes wrong. For instance (Schoeman 1996:177). too much authority without freedom always leads to despotic discipline which is entirely negative in nature and lays all the emphasis on punishment. Maintenance of authority at school may therefore never degenerate into despotic flaunting of power. Thus, authentic authority always attempts to maintain the delicate balance between authority and freedom, The above description raises a number of questions with regard to authority, power, individual rights, liberties and spheres of competence in the sphere of education According to Coetzee and Le Roux (1998:4) the question of legitimacy of power cannot be viewed in isolation from an investigation into given structures of authority (spheres of justice). Authority does not originate in the will of people, or the state or in any other societal relationship, but in the divinely established law framework, This means that all authority is to be conceived of as circumscribed, limited and relative. A further implication of this view is that no human being, or institution has total authority in any areas. All authority is limited by the absolute authority of the Creator on the one hand, and the personal dignity of other humans on the other. Within creation there is an irreducible plurality of kinds of authority each delimited by its own social sphere (Schoeman 1985:173-174) Although authority differs fundamentally from power, authority is accompanied by power if competence, based on knowledge, insight and understanding is present in the office-bearer. Without this, power will degenerate into coercion (unlawful power). This59 means that power is legitimate and acceptable, only when based upon competent authority. According to Schoeman (1980:139) power and authority accord well together only when the person in whom they are vested possesses the necessary competence, based upon adequate knowledge, insight and comprehension. Power without insight degenerates rapidly into uncontrolled and uncontrollable oppression, destructive through its own tendency to enslave and its inability to function constructively. Implicit within the meaning and understanding of “competence” are the ideas ability, capability, potentiality, efficiency, quality, excellence, expertise, power, control, governance and therefore legitimate authority. Evidently, as Schoeman (1985:177) claims: “Legitimate authority cannot be conceived of outside the competence arising from knowledge, insight and understanding, Genuine competence on the part of the teacher also guarantees that he will possess legitimate authority and therefore controlled power". Akinpelu (1981:224) perceives “competence” as “quality” In other words, to talk of the quality of a thing is to talk of the fitness and efficiency of that thing in performing the functions that are associated with it. A good quality education is one that best fulfils the objectives entertained of an ideal education. An, educational administrator of “high quality” is one who is endowed with competence and efficiency, which is a prerequisite for legitimate authority and power. 4.5 Accountability and current South African education The issues of competence, authority, power and justice are closely related to the principle of accountability, which is clearly linked with ‘mutually agreed and understood responsibilities’ (Government Gazette 1994:22). Central to this notion of collective responsibilities is stakeholder participation. Communities are obliged to actively participate in decision-making processes in the current South African education. This means that accountability to education provisioning does not lie with the state, but with individuals and communities. This view of accountability brings to mind the importance of individual rights and responsibilities. To put it simple (Government Gazette 1994:2), this country upholds the rights of all learers, parents and educators, and promotes their acceptance of responsibilities for the organisation, governance and funding of schools in partnership with the state. This undertaking through the compulsory provision of Federal Education by the State, places a legal obligation on the parents to ensure that children attend school (White Paper 1995:76). Itis therefore the responsibility of parents to see to it that children are60 availed to education provision. Educators on the other hand, are contractually ~ bound to honour their obligations as educators of the citizens of the State. In other words, they are contractually accountable to education authorities. However, this kind of accountability still has problems in the minds of South African educators, The legacy of the past, of protests and defiance of @ “higher authority” still prevails amongst teachers (Morrow 1989:7), as referred to in Coetzee (1998:8). Morrow is of the opinion that the very notion of *higher authority’ in the minds of the teaching profession is part of the theory of authority which creates and recreates hierarchical structures and oppressive and powerful central institutions, As Coetzee (1998:8) puts it, the erosion of authority, administrative breakdown and total collapse of the culture of teaching and learning, especially in black urban schools, gave tise to absenteeism, late-coming and a poor work ethic amongst students as well as teachers. The situation is stil the same, which gives account of poor matriculation results. Another version of accountability on the part of educators is the professional accountability to the profession and society for maintaining its ideals and principles (Morrow 1989:6). The transformational discourse on education informs us that the envisaged new outcome based school curriculum and the teacher appraisal instrument (to be implemented in 1999) will restore the dignity of the profession. However, since human authority is relative and relational, educators are accountable to the will of God They are first and foremost accountable to divine norms. As Schoeman (1985:176) states: ‘responsibility, by its derivation, in fact means that man replies to a certain call, and that he can account for his personal choices in the light of normative points of view". 4.6 CONCLUSION The contents of policy documents, bills and acts that have been produced thus far, notably, the Employment of Educators Act (1998), Education and Training White Papers 1 and 2 (March 1995, February 1996), the National Education Policy Bill, South African Qualifications Authority Act (September 1995) and the South African Schools Act (November 1998), are an indication that the process of transformation in education is underpinned by legitimate values. One may also include Curriculum 2005 and the teacher appraisal instrument. However, the danger lies in the implementation of educational principles of equity, equality, authority, freedom, power, competence and accountability. Failure to realise that they are relational, will create new structures61 of domination. This is unavoidable when educational institutions are forced to - exceed their sphere of competence or when attempts are made to alienate the school from its authentic task and mission through centralised control (cf. Schoeman 1996:113). The subsequent section will discuss spheres of competence relevant to South African education and principles that govern the way in which societal relationships interrelate with the school.5 SPHERES OF JUSTICE IN CONTEMPORARY SOUTH AFRICAN EDUCATION 5.1 INTRODUCTION In the light of the relationship between “equity’, “equality’, “justice”, “authority”, “competence”, “power” and “accountability, there is a need to explore principles that underlie the implementation of these concepts. One such principle is “sphere sovereignty” or “spheres of competence”, that relate to the specific tasks of various societal relationships, such as the state and the school, Human society is highly structured in the sense that, in a differentiated society such as South Africa one can distinguish societal forms such as the state, the church, the family, clubs, business enterprises and the school. Each one has a specific role to play in society according to their peculiar nature. At this point, it is important to note that Abraham Kuyper as referred to in Kalsbeek (1975:92) declared that God, the absolute Sovereign, has given each sphere within society its own peculiar laws of life by which that sphere is to live. The source of authority for each of these spheress is not the state, but God himself. Of essence each sphere has the right to contro! its own affairs within its own sphere of competence (Schoeman 1980:141, cf also Dooyeweerd 1979:79-81 and Walzer 1983:10). The school also, as a societal form, assumes sovereignty within its own sphere of competence. Any exercise of threat to this sovereignty will deprive the school of its lawful right of deciding on its own affairs. This discussion will subsequently attempt to unfold a number of threats to the school's sphere sovereignty in current South African education.63 - 5.2 SPHERES OF JUSTICE 5.2.1 Sphere sovereignty and enkapsis By “sphere sovereignty’, Kalsbeek (1975:353) meant that the various distinct spheres of human authority, such as state, family, church, schoo! and business enterprise, each have their own responsibility and decision-making power, which may not be usurped by those in authority in another sphere. In addition all of the spheres have their own identity and sovereignty. God calls them to exercise their authority according to their respective inner nature and strictly within their distinct area of jurisdiction, This implies that, while “sphere” refers to a field of action, influence or existence, “sovereignty’ is treated as governance, rule, direction, contro! or authority. In simple terms then, “sphere sovereignty" is captured as directionship, control, leadership, command or authority over an area of action. For this discussion, the presupposition is that each sphere or societal relationship, has its own aims and objectives. "The structural principle of societal relationships can be theoretically approached by gaining insight into its destination and foundational functions”. (Spier 1966:196). The foundational function is the function in which the individualy of a relationship has its origin. This also means that the laws which govern one societal relationship cannot be made valid or applied to the others and the structure of a specific societal relationship provides the boundaries within which it can properly fulfil its task. Every sphere was created to fulfil a specific function; nothing in creation was structured to take over the task of another (differently structured) relationship. Despite the sphere sovereignty of the societal relationships, nothing exists in isolation, and are all bound together to form an enkaptic (i.e. with retention and maintenance of its own typical character and task) unity (Coetzee 1997:3). No societal relationship can be conceived of in isolation frem the rest; every relationship refers within and beyond itself to the rest of created reality. Each of the societal relationships (school, state, family and church) is therefore involved in the school as an educational institution without in any way encroaching upon the entrenched boundaries of any one of these. Apart from the principle of sovereignty, the principle of universality (coherence) guarantees that things do not exist in isolation. It is the principle that all societal relationships are intimately connected with each other in an unbreakable coherence (Kalsbeek 1975:353). Relationships can therefore be identified and64 distinguished, but never separated. Although existing in its own characteristic way, these relationships need one another to survive: they exist in an enkaptic coherence. For example, the school needs the church for moral injection, the state for supply of buildings and textbooks, the business sector for sponsorship. The church and state need the school for the supply of well-educated citizens. The fact that societal relationships need each other does, however, not mean that they should loose their identities. 5.2.2 Structural analysis of societal relationships Before discussing the involvement of societal relationships with education, it will be appropriate to first analyse each of the societal relation as an individuality structure. According to Coetzee (1996 A:1) all existing things have been created as individualities and can be identified and distinguished from other entities. Consequently societal relationships e.g. school, church, state and family are all characterised by a distinctive individual disposition. Each societal relationship can in other word be principally distinguished from others as comprising a specific individuality structure. For instance, the individuality structure of the schoo! is radically different from that of the family. The structure of a societal relationship can therefore be described as the characteristic nature and composition thereof. In philosophical terms, the structure of things (and in this case the school, state, church and family) can be described as the coherence between its modal foundation (origin) and modal qualification (destination). That means, the origin, function and destiny of each of these institutions are unique. This structure determines the particular structure of authority, which exists in a relationship, In this way the family reflects a radically different type of authority than that of the school, and it can be described as “family- typical", while the school has “school-typical’ authority (Schoeman 1985:174). The family is founded upon the biotic aspect, because it constitutes the “origin” of the child. It is qualified (designated), within the ethical aspect because it is a relationship based upon love. Coetzee (1996 A:1-2) states that a further structural analysis reveals that the state, school and church are all historically founded, but are characterised by different qualifications. Kalsbeek (1985:205), phrases it as “typically historically founded”. In simple terms, although the state, school and church share a common denominator, “historically founded, they are vastly different by nature and character. Being the65 highest judiciary power, the state is qualified within the juridical aspect, - whereas the church finds its highest qualification in the pistical aspect. The school is qualified within the (disclosed) logical aspect because the disclosure of this aspect of the child is regarded as the primary task of this institution. As stated in the previous paragraph, the structure of a societal relationship has a typical task in a multi- dimensional reality, which is founded upon its typical structure. This is supported by Schoeman (1985:174) when he states that human authority exists only in relation to the specific walk of life and societal relationship within which that specific authority (family-typical authority, school-typical authority, etc.) is valid. The authority of the school (and teachers) can thus be referred to as a specific educational power which enables the educator to adopt a position of authority in his relationship with the pupils. Educational authority thus derives from the structure of the school. The authority of the church can be described as ecclesiastical authority, while that of the state as judicial authority. It is important to note that each of the different societal relationships has a specific and different structure, which determines their task, competence and authority. 5.2.3 Societal relationships concerned with education The involvement of different institutions in educational matters have always caused problems ever since their establishment. In most cases the problem has been one institution prescribing to the other what it should do. Many authors agree that no societal relationship (institution) should impose itself on others. Kalsbeek (1975:92) indicates that: “...other spheres must not exceed their competence in an effort to rule other domains”. Referring to a Christian society, Schoeman (1985:79) declares that it is unacceptable for any one of these institutions to predominate over another, to take over its duties and responsibilities, to obstruct it in its vision or to restrict it to such an extent that it cannot perform its duties. What is evident is that school education is 2 focus of interest for all societal relationships. Everybody has a direct interest in education. According to Schoeman (1985:79), the state requires cultured, well brought up and educated citizens who are independent and who live to be a benefit instead of a burden to the state, Industry, on its part, is naturally interested in the availability of trained technicians and professionals to fulfil the occupational requirements of the different sectors of industry efficiently. The parents need schoo! education as a continuation of family education in the form of specialised education and training in the different sciences and technical skills in order to prepare their66 children properly for the future. The church needs cultured and educated members to fulfil their tasks as believers in all spheres of life, and set an example through Christian conduct. Given this observation, it would appear that a rigorous interaction and harmonic supplementation between family, church, school and state should be seen as the ideal situation. 5.2.4 Legitimate power Every societal relationship discussed above cannot function or be run haphazardly without order. There needs to be an official authority in place. And as Schoeman (1985:174) observes, it is clear that the nature and structure of every societal relationship (home, school, church, state etc.) determines the nature of the various forms of official authority. Differentiated in the same sequence as in the bracket above, one would then have inter alia parental authority, school authority, ecclesiastical authority and state authority. As stated in the previous chapter, all human authority is on the one hand relative authority (that is, limited by God's absolute authority, from which it stems); on the other hand, it is relational authority, showing a specific character on account of its relation to a specific institute (Schoeman 1980:138). As Schouls (1983:40) states, hence the authority of a principal is derived from his understanding of the Word of God, and his understanding of the norms of the educational process, in the case of the school situation. Authority so bestowed is legitimate. It is thus by virtue of their particular positions in specific institutes, that people hold specific levels of office, possessing the authority, and jimited power of that office. The last statement suggests that there is a connection between authority and power. ‘An authority by virtue of his office may wield power as a corrective measure or to get things done. However, one should clearly distinguish between legitimate power and illegitimate power. Schouls (1983:41) indicates that power and authority accord well together only when the person in whom they are vested processes the necessary competence, based upon adequate knowledge, insight and comprehension Schoeman (1980:139) summarises by stating that power without insight degenerates rapidly into uncontrolled and uncontrollable oppression, destructive through its own tendency to enslave and its own inability to function constructively. Essentially only power possessed or exercised by a man who possesses authority is power exercised legitimately. The legitimacy of power also affects the inter-relatedness and67 intergratedness of the various societal relationships concerned with education. For one societal relationship to exercise power over another is illegitimate. The observation of the principle of sphere sovereignty and the principle of interlacement while maintaining individual identity guarantees legitimate power. 5.2.5 Abuse of power ‘As Coetzee and Le Roux (1997:128) observe, the over-extension of the power sphere of a particular societal relationship not only violates the legitimate boundaries of these life spheres, but relativises their concomitant competencies. This invariably leads to disharmony in society, within which an over-expansion of power is sustained by the creation of certain structures of domination. This view is supported by Walzer (1983:19), when he states that the disregard of the principles internal to each distributive sphere could thus be regarded as tyranny. Alll this put together, constitutes an abuse of power on the part of the perpetrator. Power abused destroys the harmonious co-existence of the different life spheres, and undermines the principle of sphere sovereignty, that is, the recognition that sovereignty is rooted in the intrinsic nature of each life sphere (Coetzee & Le Roux 1997:127). In actual fact if the power that comes from the possession of authority were to be hostile to the variable and fresh qualities, the qualities of initiative, invention, and enterprise in which development roots, then such a power is illegitimate. Abuse of power is not just physical but can have a hold upon imagination, emotions, and purpose which properly belongs to the principle of authority. 5.3 IMPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATION 5.3.1 Structures of domination The impli ions of the illegitimate exercise of power on education, are so destructive that it is imperative for South Africans to thoroughly take into account all possible structures of domination that subtly contro and direct rational interpretations of issues concerning future education (Coetzee & Le Roux 1997:117). One needs only to refer to South Africa's educational past to size up the degree of distortion that can be caused by deep-rooted structures of domination to educational practices.68 Kogan (1986:30) regards power, like authority, as entailing the ability to affect the behaviour of others. But it may be more effective as the use of authority. That means power as such is not bad or wrong, for no societal relationship can function properly without the necessary power. The state even receives the power of the sword from God (Van der Walt 1994:284). However, it must be noted that any desire for expansion of powers already possessed, as prescribed by authority of office, has the potential of going beyond its limits and thus becoming unlawful and oppressive. This may be the case when one societal relationship imposes itself upon another. In the sections above, it unfolded in the discussion that each sphere is entrusted with a unique task. The family cannot take over the task of the school and vice versa. The origin, function and destiny of the four societal relationships differ. The family as primary educational institution provides for every need of the child and especially provides security and a place of safety. The church caters for the religious needs of the children of its members, while the school is entrusted with the educational teaching task. The state provides adequate educational opportunities and facilities. However, it will be shown below how negatively an ideology can impact on the harmonious relationship that must occur between the four institutions. 5.3.2 Ideology and its significance for education South Africa needs only page back its history book for a good example of how apartheid ideology hijacked the legitimate sphere of educational institutions for its selfish ends. According to Coetzee and Le Roux (1997:118), ideology plays an important role in the establishing and perpetuating of relations of domination. It makes part of reality the total reality. By enclosing the world in a narrow prison an ideology always represents a reductionist perspective on reality and is therefore always coercive. This part of reality referred to, are ideals and ideas that precede the rise of any ideology. Usually no fault is to be found with these ideals and ideas; they are legitimate goals. But when they are elevated and detached from their relative and coequal position in relation to other human interests and values, an ideology is indeed present. (Coetzee & Le Roux 1997:118). According to Schoeman (1995:47; and Walzer 1983:10-11), at the core of such an ideology a particular “hypernorm’ is to be found. A hypernorm can be labelled a “norm of righteousness’, as criteria for the interpretation of all aspects of human existence are thereby justified. This was the case with the ideology of Afrikaner ethno-nationalism, which was fostered through a repressive state apparatus.69 In addition, Schoeman (1998:152) states that legitimate spheres of competence of educational institutions were arbitrarily ignored by state authorities. Extra-educational interests were undemocratically forced upon these institutions, thereby unilaterally disregarding their relative autonomy in handling their own affairs in accordance with their respective spheres of competence. The state prescribed curricula for schools and dictated the contents of the subjects to be taught for different population groups The following paragraph will illustrate the way in which, by distorting facts and states of affairs, ideology can misapply education at school to promote its own ends. Almost every subject taught at black and white schools were open to manipulation Althusser (1971:155) conclusively states that the school can be regarded as the most dominant ideological state apparatus. In an essay ‘Ideology and Ideological State Apparatuses", (1979:158), he maintains that the indissoluble relation between the state and political power, and especially the significant role of ideological and repressive state apparatuses in entrenching state hegemony are characterised by class and social structures of domination. The myths and lies of the apartheid ideology have indeed been exposed but the question remains: are relations of domination still present in the new educational dispensation? 5.4 FINDINGS ON CONTEMPORARY SOUTH AFRICAN EDUCATION Walzer (1983:226) observes that if the schools are to have any inward strength at al, there must be limits on the state's activity limits fixed by the integrity of academic subjects, by the professionalism of teachers, by the principle of equal consideration and by an associative pattern that anticipates democratic politics, but is not dominated by the powers-that-be or the reigning ideologies. tis interesting to note that findings on the current South African education reveal instances of threats to the sovereignty of the education enterprise. With Walzer’s observation in mind, this section unfolds structures of domination prevalent in the present day education practice. The attention is focused upon the ways in which the sovereignty of the school is constantly threatened. According to Sayed and Carrim (1997:91), central to the notion of educational democracy in South Africa is the idea that democracy entails, and should enhance, greater participation. The notion of participation means different things to different70 people and in different contexts. In the White Paper on Education (1995:21), participation takes this kind of form: “rehabilitation of the schools and colleges must go hand in hand with the restoration of the ownership of these institutions to their communities". The implication is that commurities, as the “owners” of the school, will play a directional role in the new education system. Ownership is properly understood as a certain sort of power over things. Like political power, it consists of the capacity to determine destinations and risks (Walzer 1983:291). The assumption that the school belongs to the community signifies a particular danger. The relative sovereign sphere of the school as an individuality structured societal relationship is threatened. And the possible result is that schools will be governed according to the will of the communities and not along professional ethics. Essentially the school has the right to control its own affairs within the sphere of its own competence. The second form of danger from the communities to schools is quoted in Coetzee and Le Roux (1997:127). According to them, Curriculum 2005 (1997:11) suggests a flexible and relevant curriculum which is to be planned by parents, teachers, education authorities and leamers. This means that the curriculum is to be determined by the needs and wants of the community and will obviously vary from place to place. It is clear that comment and input from the wider community is encouraged. This is an exercise beyond the competence of the communities. One would have expected that determining a curriculum should be left in the hands of educators, education department officials and educational experts. If in a new educational dispensation, the task of educational institutions belong to the communities, the danger exists that education in South Africa would be once again instrumentalised for non-educational purposes. Because of the intrinsic nature of the school, community participation in educational matters should be carefully determined. A critical issue in contemporary South Africa education about school and educational governance represents two interrelated concerns, namely, the understanding of Participation and the relationship between participation and equity and redress (Sayed & Cartim, 1997:94). Equity and redress embraces concepts such as equality, justice, affirmative action and accountability. The discussion hereunder argues that current policies in place, in various policy texts, do not necessarily enhance participation and may, in fact, contradict moves towards equity. For instance, the South African Schools Act (1996:18) stipulates that the number of parent members must comprise one more than the combined total of other members of a governing body who have voting rights74 (the governing body is conceived of as community participation). in other words, - parent should make up the majority on the governing body. A proposal which, Sayed and Carrim (1997:93), view as problematic. They argue that it seems to militate against equal teacher and student representation, two key constituencies in schools and that have been instrumental in the fight for democratic governance structures. The South African Democratic Teachers Union (SADTU) embarked upon protest actions conceming this provision in SASA (The Star 1996:6). More over, a parental majority on school governing bodies may have the potential of hindering equal participatory democracy. As referred to in Sayed and Carrim (1997:96), a more important problem is the assertion that parental choice is central to school governance. This can be worse in schools that were previously disadvantaged, because most parents from those communities are not learned. It is inconceivable that they can make any sound educational decision. To site an example; Resolution No. 5 of the Education Labour Relations Council (1998:7) provides for the establishment of interview committees at educational institutions where there are advertised vacancies. The interview committee comprises, amongst other members without votes, two parents with voting status as against one vote of a departmental representative. Quite clearly the parents have one voter advantage over a professional department official. An indication that the parents’ votes decide the appointment and promotion of educators. An exercise beyond their competence. There is a probability of bias or influence on the appointment process. One would have expected that the appointment and promotion of educators should be the responsibility of educationists or education department officials, as this is a professional matter within their competence. The South African education system, although attempting to transform, has currently encountered problems of unqualified leadership — and thus poor governance. The misapplication of the principle of “affirmative action’ has led to degeneration is good governance. Schoeman (1998:90) observes that despite the prospect of a new, just and equitable social dispensation that was anticipated when “the people" came into government, “affirmative action’, a novel form of reverse discrimination, is currently being perpetrated by ‘the people” against the “White” segment of the South African population. That implies the ‘will of the people” as a liberating force has been absolutised as a supernorm in the appointment of office-bearers in the main areas of governance including education. The resultis that, as stated by Thulas Nxesi, SADTU72 General Secretary (1998:4), there is turmoil in certain education departments. Each year, in most provinces, MEC’s for Education are fired and Heads of Education are suspended and fired. The appointment of office-bearers without competence, constitute illegal authority. Coetzee and Le Roux (1998:5) state that authority does not originate in the will of the people, or the State, or in any other societal relationship, but in the divinely established law framework. Authority is based upon competence in knowledge: it belongs to those who are expert in the concepts and theories pertaining to education as such. To promote people beyond their level of competence, is therefore a disservice both to the individuals involved and to society (Ramphele, 1995:23). Recent findings on education problems quoted by Pretorius and Heard (Sunday Times 1999.6) state that a national teacher shortage is on the horizon following a dramatic decline in student enrolments at training institutions. According to them, the deciine is attributed to several factors: poor pay; the tamished image of the teaching profession; a perception that there are no jobs or job security; bigger classes and workloads; no money for equipment and books; limited bursaries and unsafe environments. These remain a challenge to the new education system. 5.5 AUTHORITY AND OUTCOME BASED EDUCATION The reconstruction of education has meant a spate of policy changes. Inevitably, these have been challenged by interest groups and discussed in the media, The result is that most lay-people are confused about the implications of the changes and worry about their effect on the quality of schooling. There are four major policy changes that need to be considered. The first concerns the outcome based education. In this curriculum the focus moves from content to the skills and competencies that a learner should be able to demonstrate at the end of a learning process. It is a departure from authoritarian rote teaming. Outcome based education offers the promise of better quality education than in the past, but there are major problems of implementation. On this note, Coetzee and Le Roux (1998:11) state that with the draft of Curriculum 2005 and its underlying principles of outcome based education, there can be no doubt that South Africa has taken the first important steps towards applying democracy to education and training South African education should heed to their warning that the larger and more73 complex task is to translate the laudable language of “accessibility”, “quality” “accountabilty’, “equality”, "critical thinking’, ete, from theory to practice. Fortunately, the Department of Education has recognised these and scaled down its plan, although significant challenges remain. If quality is to improve, effective in-service training is needed for teachers, and good teaching and learning materials are required. On the second issue, neither the voluntary severance packages nor redeployment offered to reduce teacher costs were properly designed, monitored or implemented. This has affected quality as some of the most experienced teachers have taken voluntary retrenchment and other teachers have not been redirected to where they are most needed. These processes need to be revisited and redesigned for effective implementation to take place. In another policy change, the department has proposed ideal class sizes for different subjects and levels of education as guidelines to provinces. In effect, the department is dropping the national norms expressed as pupilteacher ratios and, from 1999, provinces will determine personnel provisioning according to their budgets. In reality the provinces will have little room for manoeuvre with a fixed national teacher salary scale and budget constraints. The problem is that the teacher salary bill is so high - 90% or more of the province's education budgets — and that things such as classrooms and textbooks are not affordable. This issue should be tackled by the government and the unions. The last two major policy changes concer funding and examination policy. The only remedy in this area is the appointment of qualified personnel. In most areas of education governance, the biggest problem has been inappropriate appointment of officials. 5.6 CONCLUSION A central issue of the transformation process in contemporary South Aftican education is the implementation of the core values of democracy, namely, liberty, equality, equity, justice, competence and accountability. At the disposal of Education officials are the Constitution, Education Act, South African Schools Act and Curriculum 2005 to translate in service for the nation. Of essence, educational institutions should be devoid of state control. Lastly, emphasis should be placed on the creation of opportunities and the identification and development of potential to protect South African education against ultimate self-destruction.74 But, it must be stressed here that, the quality of individual schools depends - ultimately on the commitment of all parents, teachers, pupils and the wider community, The private sector has much to contribute in the form of funding, equipment, time and expertise. Finally, of fundamental importance to educators, is obedience to all the pedagogical norms as prescribed and discussed in the structure of schooltypical education.ee SUMMARY, RECOMMENDATIONS AND CONCLUSION 61 INTRODUCTION Productive educational change is full of paradoxes, and components that are often not seen as going together. Caring and competence, equity and excellence, social and economic development are not ‘mutually exclusive. On the contrary, these tensions must be reconciled into powerful new forces for growth and development. (Fullan 1993:4) A negotiated transition from an authoritarian apartheid regime to a more representative and democratic political system in South Africa, has brought with it challenges so enormous and complex that all of us must be on guard and apply ourselves to investigating and solving problems. An exercise requiring of individuals, assortment of organisations and various political formations to roll up their sleeves to maintain and sustain a democratic credo, characteristic of a legitimate and democratic government Through reconciliation, nation building, reconstruction and development programmes, all facets of a South African life, including the education sector, await radical transformation. Good policies and laws have been put into place as instruments for changing the segregated educational system of the past. During the first five years of democratic rule, the emphasis was on planning and setting up the machinery for delivery. The foundation has been laid, but the biggest challenge is the phase of implementation. This challenge and the many problems our schools are facing, the nature of educational principles and the relation between these principles and education as a practise, provided the main motivation for this research The overall locus of this investigation incorporated an inquiry into the implications of a balanced and integrated view for South African education. Questions regarding ‘leadership’. when viewed against the pre-requisites of equity, redress and76 redistribution are examined. Concepts such as "development", “accountability”, authority’, “power” and “competence” were evaluated against the background of possible structures of domination at work in present-day education. The primary objective of this study was frankly and incisively to determine what the implications of equity, equality, justice, accountability and other related concepts, currently prescribed as principles, are in contemporary South African education. Evidently, the depth of meaning in this research required the definitions and clarification of concepts referred to herein as a point of departure. This was followed by an analyses of relationships between these concepts with regard to education. The summary and findings of this research are outlined below. 6.2 SUMMARY AND FINDINGS OF THE RESEARCH An introduction to the first part of this study (chapter 2) lays down the field of research with reference to legal documents: Government Gazette 1994; White Paper 1 1995; the National Norms and Standards for School funding, 1997 and the Green Paper on Higher Education Transformation of 1996. The radius of research revolves around equity and transformation, Generally the many sources consulted refer to equity as distributive justice, which is closely related to the pursuit of equality. Equity seeks to redress the educational inequalities of the past. However, the assumption that equity Is closely related to equality is problematic in the sense that equitable distribution may not require equal distribution. The question here is: When is distribution justifiable? It was interesting to note that many authors are of the opinion that distributive justice (equity) need not always conform to equality of benefits and resources. Unequal treatment may be educationally sound as long as it is justifiable. For instance, Justifiability based on the needs of previously disadvantaged schools as against those that were advantaged in the past. Further interrogation into distributive justice brought to the fore, questions like: In the face of “unlimited demands" what criteria should be applied to distribute benefits and resources fairly and justly? What strategies can be applied to assess and evaluate fairness and equity in a distributive system? As the current position with regard to equity shows (e.g. rationalisation and redeployment), the road to a settled education system will remain bumpy for quite some time:77 The research paid a visit to South Africa's educational past in the perspective of educational equity. It unearthed the ideology of Afrikaner ethno-nationalism, the Act of Union of 1910 and Education, Bantu Education (with its separate institutions for different races) and Christian-National Education as monumental to Educational inequalities and imbalances facing this country. What is believed to be a corrective measure, affirmative action, is a course for concern for many South Africans. An appropriate way of its implementation remains elusive. It has brought with it tension between equity and development, lower efficiency and lower economic growth. in the opinion of the researcher, the appropriate way of implementing affirmative action is applying it in conjunction with the principle of competency and policy goals such as development, efficiency, excellence, democracy and freedom. As Fullan (1993:4) elaborates .."these tensions must be reconciled into powerful new forces for growth and development’. Further investigation showed that the link between equity, redress and redistribution constitutes one of the most significant components of the transformation processes. Research unfolded that transformation presuppose progression, development, improvement, change and transition. The interaction and interrelatedness of the principles discussed in this chapter, together with the confusion around affirmative action necessitated investigation into the principle of equality in the next chapter. In this research affirmative action was seen as a means to ensure equal treatment for all However, it must be stressed that the researcher embraces Shotter and de Beer's (197-119-135) idea that the holistic approach to affirmative action be emphasised This encompasses the idea that *... historically disadvantaged groups can only be empowered and occupationally advanced once opportunities for the following have been created: occupational advancement, personal development and an improved quality of life” A study of the principle of equality in current South African education was subsequently conducted in Chapter 3. The concept “equality” was found to mean different things to different people. Its definition suffers from ambiguity since it is subject to a wide variety of interpretations. As a result authors interpret “equality of educational opportunity” in many different ways. Whatever the case may be, in the view of the researcher, it seems to make sense to conceptualise the right to equal education as an obligation on the part of the government of a given country, to provide education of equal quality to all its children as future citizens, Investigations show that78 South Africa needs an egalitarian vision of education to undo the inequalities and imbalances that still persist in the present South African education system. It was also argued that the implementation of the principal of equality in education should be in conjunction with other related principles, such as equity, justice, competence and accountability. As the investigation unfolded it became necessary to page through the history of inequalities in South African education. ‘An exposition of South Africa's educational past showed that the South African education system cannot be studied for any purpose without due regard to the pattern of the conflicting forces of integration and segregation that helped shape its history These two sets of conflicting forces were found to concern the relationship between the different racial groups in the various fields of human endeavour: domestic, economic, educational, political, religious and social. Segregation and inequalities gained an upper hand until they triggered unrest in Black Schools, the period between 1976 to 1980, following the Soweto school riots of 1976. The institute of Race Relations in its evidence to the Cillié Commission, investigating black unrest, listed the Nationalist Governments insistence upon Afrikaans as the medium of instruction as the major contributory factory to the riots. Another factor was found to be dissatisfaction with the standard of education, the quality of teaching, and physical facilities. The implication on these inequalities was that, there was no equal attainment for blacks and whites at the end of their schooling process. This shows that the quest for equality in education has a long history in South African politics. ‘An in-depth investigation conducted by the Human Science Research Council (HSRC) into all facets of education (embracing all population groups) in RSA, provided a breakthrough in educational problems in June 1980. Behr and Ngubentombi (1988:56) reported that the final chapter of the De Lange Report was devoted to a consideration of the concept of equal quality education, and how it might be achieved in the South African context. The basic premise of the committee was the right of every individual to receive equal treatment in the allocation of collective benefits in the social structure. One may add that the De Lange Commission was a step in the right direction. It was fairly comprehensive and proved to be a guiding light with regard to the principle of equality in the endeavour to move towards a new education dispensation79 Subsequent developments were the formation of the National Education Co- ordinating Committee (NECC) in December 1985. Reports have it that the NECC designed a project of the National Education Policy Investigation (NEPI) to make an inquiry into policy options for a future education dispensation in South Africa. The NEPI approach represents a policy and philosophy with socio-political overtones and with emphasis on “equity’, “equality” and ‘redress’. The main findings, according to the research, were the following: 1) Anunder-emphasis on the qualitative aspects of equality. 2) Equality is regarded as one of the comerstones of education transformation and ‘a necessary condition for an egalitarian society. According to Steyn (1995:23) the Education Renewal Strategy and Curriculum model for South Africa (CUMSA) also supported equality in education. The CUMSA document stated that “equal opportunities for education, including equal standards of education, must be created for every inhabitant of South Africa irrespective of race, colour, creed or sex”. There was also a need to investigate “equality and present South Africa’, since a declaration of intent on the issue of equal rights is clearly stated in the Bill of Rights (Constitution Act 108 1996:5) With regard to education the Bill of Rights (1996:11) spell it out that “all reasonable educational alternatives, including single medium institutions, will take into account: (a) equity; (b) practicability; and (c) the need to redress the results of past racially discriminatory laws and practices, Other legislation on equality in education include the Ministry of Education's first White Paper (1995:19) and the subsequent White Paper 2 (1996:10). The research has the following findings: (i) failure to translate good policies into sound practise on the part of the government80 (ii) sacrificing sound educational principles and practices for short-term political gain (iii) putting good policies into place is not enough. One needs to develop the capacity and have the necessary ability to translate them into practise. Coetzee and Le Roux (1998:10) observe that the mere removal of discriminatory laws that cause inequality in education is not a guarantee that disparities will be solved. ‘An investigation into the issues of equity and equality in the process of education transformation, can however not be isolated from questions on authority and power. In the next chapter 4, our exposition focused upon the reference of authority and power in the process of attaining equity and equality in education. Chapter 4 is an attempt to determine the assumptions underlying the concept “democracy” and power relations in South African education. It unfolded that the very concept of democracy has acquired quite different meanings. The research revealed that this is partly due to the rise and historical influence of at least two distinct senses of democracy, that of “liberal democracy” and of "popular" or “social democracy’. It seems then, that the biggest challenge facing South Africa is to identity the relevant meaning and functions of the democratic ideal in the South African context. This also means that the ideal needs to be interpreted within the unique political and social milieu of a transforming country. Admittedly, the transition to democracy required careful and thorough preparation, because it could not be taken for granted that a genuine and sustainable democracy would just automatically emerge in this country. Our exposition reveals that the biggest problem encountered in South African education is the implementation of values and principles enshrined in the Constitution Concem has been expressed regarding the quality of governance in the process of educational transformation. There are many instances where problems regarding appointments of personnel, resulting in poor management practices could be identified. This impacts negatively upon the quality of governance and power relations. It shows that however commendable policy declarations on education might be, when these intentions are not balanced by legitimate authority and power, they remain unattainable ideals. As investigation on power relations revealed, the sources and nature of the concept “power” represents the most fundamental instrument of a hierarchical system. From a reformational perspective, power originates from man’s81 cultural mandate, and as such is subject to norms. In this study it was argued that authority and power in an educational setting should be based upon competence, rooted in insight and knowledge. Power derives from authority. So that authority presupposes power. The exposition ‘on these two concepts (power and authority) was conducted within a framework of democratic participation and education in South African. It reveals that as an official of God man has authority over the whole of earth, God has given power to man, but unfortunately, the danger exists that man can abuse his power over creation and exploit the different creatures on earth to his own advantage. In the sphere of education, research shows that where there is an abuse of power and authority, there can be no democratic participation. Human authority is imperfect, fallible and has limits, Therefore, according to this study, authority presupposes that man will have insight into the norms that God has laid down for creation in all its rich diversity. To conclude: office and authority in the Scriptures simply, means service. To be an educational authority therefore does not means to rule to one’s own advantage, but rather to serve those over whom you have been appointed. You owe God an account of how you fulfl this service. The subsequent part of the research (chapter 5) discussed spheres of competence relevant to South African education and principles that govern the way in which societal relationships interrelate with the school. Societal relationships concemed with education were identified as the family, the church, the business enterprise, the state and the school. It was argued that no one relationship should encroach upon the entrenched boundaries of any one of these. This tendency, not violates the legitimate boundaries of these life spheres, but relativises their concomitant competencies. It was found that it invariably leads to disharmony in society, within which an overexpansion of power is sustained by the creation of certain structures of domination. The implications for education by illegitimate exercise of power, are so destructive that it is imperative for South Africans to thoroughly take into account all possible structures of domination that subtly contro! and direct rational interpretations of issues concerning future education. Given the above scenario, investigations show that the source of authority for each of these spheres is not the state, but God, the absolute Sovereign. He gave each sphere within society its own peculiar laws of life by which that sphere is to live. Each societal82 relationship can in other words be principally distinguished from others as comprising a specific individuality structure. The structure of each can be described as the coherence between its modal foundation (origin) and modal qualification (destination). Therefore each sphere has the right to control its own affairs within its own sphere of competence. The school also, has its own sphere of competence. Further investigation revealed that despite the sphere sovereignty of the societal relationships, nothing exist in isolation, and are all bound together to form an enkaptic unity. In other words, although existing in their own characteristic ways, these relationships need one another to survive: they exist in an unbreakable, enkaptic coherence. However, this does not mean that they should loose their identities. Of essence is that apart from the principle of sovereignty, the principle of universality (coherence) guarantees that things do not exist in isolation. These individuality structures are all typically historically founded, but are characterised by different qualifications. It was found that the school is qualified within the (disclosed) logical aspect because the disclosure of this aspect of the child is regarded as the primary task of this institution. Only school-typica! authority is valid. It derives from the structure of the school. ‘The subsequent exposition on ideology and its significance in education exposed that ideology plays an important role in the establishing and perpetuating of relations of domination. Ideology makes part of reality the total reality, By enclosing the world in a narrow prison an ideology always represents a reductionist perspective on reality and is therefore always coercive. This was the case with the ideology of Afrikaner enthno- nationalism, which absolutised national identity. As soon as part of reality (e.g. national identity) assumes hypernorm active manifestations, then ideology is called into being. It was against this background that the discussion attempted to unfold a number of threats to the school’s sphere sovereignty in current South Africa Observations reveal that "the struggle” and “the people” may have been elevated to hypernormative status, thereby controlling and directing the destiny of education In conclusion, the research findings are that central to the issue of the transformation process in current South African education is the implementation of the core values of democracy, namely, liberty, equality, equity, justice, competence and accountability. Of essence, educational institutions should be devoid of state control. It must be stressed herein that, in the opinion of the researcher, the quality of individual schools83 depends ultimately on the commitment of _ all parents, teachers, pupils and the wider community, 6.3 RECOMMENDATIONS Although the findings of this research (cf. infra. 6.2), implicitly contained recommendations with regard to possible solutions to problems facing contemporary South African education, a number of additional comments will be made in this regard My comments were inspired by the vision of God's all: encompassing Kingdom and the need to obey and serve Him in all areas of life. Instead of human sovereignty and autonomy, they accordingly indicate and re-emphasise the authentic, Biblical reformational perspective. 6.3.1. Moral purpose on the road to transformation As South African citizens we have succeeded in achieving a radical political transformation in a peaceful way. We have a new democratic constitution and other legislation. These positive achievements should be an inspiration to move on to the next stage of implementation. A clear refiection should always go hand in hand with action. Delivery should be the order of the day First of all, we have to come to terms with a clear picture of the current South African situation as portrayed by Van der Walt (1994:43) when he claims that Apartheid ideology has had concrete effects. Among these are maldistribution of wealth and other backlogs. hatred fear, suspicion, a decreasing level of respect for the lew, a culture of violence etc. These results will not be cancelled out simply by abolishing the apartheid laws ~ or even by accepting a new constitution. The flood of apartheid may have washed past, but the damage done by the flood is stil clearly visible. Out of this horrifying scenery, including current educational practice, we need to appreciate the fact that firstly, an educational system is influenced in its development by a variety of aspects of its environment, as a result of its inter-relatedness with this environment, Secondly, an outlook on reality, which will reflect the wealth of aspects revealed by reality, is necessary for a full appreciation of the many forms which education can assume. Thirdly, in the face of production techniques being adopted across the world — brought by the progress of computerisation, automation,84 technological advancement and the Intemet Revolution ~ South Africa is ~ challenged with an enormous task of earnestly and honestly rebuilding her education system. In the following paragraphs, the recommendations will relate to the normative structure of the pedagogical occurrence brought to the fore in the Philosophy of the Cosmonomic Idea. Investigations show that all educational systems also basically display the same aspects of reality. It should therefore, also suit the South African educational situation. 6.3.2 The potential of educational change in current South Africa 6.3.2.1 Educational Order ‘An education system should exhibit a certain orderliness, or analytic aspect. The analytic aspect reveals that there is a link between an education system and its environment. In other word, the differentiation of the various components of an educational system depends on differentiation within the community to which it belongs. According to Stone (198174), the best known form of differentiation in the macro-organisation of education systems is the centralistic or decentralistic organisation of education systems. This is a means of differentiation which usually tuns parallel to centralistic or decentralistic state organisation. In South Africa we have a centralistic state of government. The new constitutional arrangements that education is a provincial competence and the government's new provincial approach to budgeting has faced serious problems in its attempts to implement policies that can deal with the legacies of apartheid education. It is recommended here that the way in which policies are interpreted and put into practice at the implementation level should be examined much more closely when policy is being assessed, as part of a holistic evaluation of transformation There are indications that lack of capacity of implementers at the provincial level and administrative inefficiencies are @ course for concer. It is believed that the National Ministry should centrally push the implementation of its principles, because if it cannot, the country will eventually end up having nine education departments operating autonomously. Decentralisation of authority and power impedes orderliness in that it does not run parallel to the centralistic state of government, In short, the researcher calls for the ‘establishment of order” as the first priority on the government's reform agenda,85 ~ 6.3.2.2 Educational Coherence It is recommended here that “change events’ should cohere meaningfully and should refer to one another. For instance, interlocking institutions which together comprise public schooling should be simultaneously strengthened. That Is, there is a need for total school development. However, we should not miss a point that different schools require different reform strategies, depending on their level of functionality. For example, previously disadvantaged and low performing schools require high levels of extemal support, because they lack the capacity needed to initiate and manage their ‘own development. Perhaps, the solution lies in the business sector and other profit- making institutions adopting schools and helping financially. In addition, management and administration at all levels of the education system should be strengthened. Also, the contradiction between downsizing (as recommended by GEAR) and increasing Glass sizes on the one hand and the demands made on teachers by the new curriculum on the other hand should be looked into. In other words, @ workable teacher: pupil ratio should be designed in conjunction with the demands mad by the new curriculum. 6.3.2.3 Cultural-historical Aspect How to control diversity of education in a pluralistic state has become one of the most pressing problems of our time. Fortunately in South Africa today, cultural diversity (viewed linguistically, ethnically and religiously) has received official recognition. However, investigation reveal that one aspect of policy development that has not been adequately examined relates to the extent to which a new policy departs from existing values and procedures. Policies that seek to radically alter existing practices and institutions may create tension, resistance, confusion and uncertainty. An example here is the continuing widespread use of corporal punishment in schools, despite the fact that it is now illegal. Studies have shown that parents and often teachers in many communities feel that a key tool has been taken away form them. Changes in policy may touch certain core values and beliefsystems. Care should be taken in the formulation of policies, because policy needs to make sense to the practioners, The education system planned for current South Africa, ought, also, to reflect the wider cultural world with its changes and challenges. It must exhibit flexibility to the rapid86 global changes brought ~— by _ computerisation, automation, technological advancement and the Intemet revolution that forms part of the postmodem era, The international schooling community has embarked on lifelong learning education, which emphasises in the famous dictum, “Learning to learn’. The South African education system has to do likewise. The schooling prosess needs to be realistic and true to life. The leaming content should be connected to the realities Which the child will find himself as an adult, As adults, on their own they can initiate self-study and be able, with the skills they have learnt at school, to learn on their own and adapt to the changes of their time and place. That means, the curriculum should be so structured that it refiects the elements of integration and differentiation that is market-related. 6.3.2.4 Lingual Aspect In multingual countries, such as South Africa, the language aspect creates great problems for the educational system, Studies reveal the commitment of national Janguage in education policy to the principle of additive bilingualism. Research also shows the benefits of initial instruction in the mother tongue. Despite all this, it would appear that the overwhelming majority of parents and schools are opting for a straight- for-English approach. Because of this tendency, it is recommended that an English component should be a central feature of all pre- and in-service courses in teacher development. Furthermore, initial teacher education courses should include a compulsory component of a major language of the region in addition to the language of instruction. All in all, initial teacher development programmes must have as a central component the development of linguistic competence in the teaching languages. 6.3.2.5 Educational Power and Balance In current South African education teachers need to be empowered, enskilled and trained to become agents of change and curriculum developers. There is also a need to improve the conceptual knowledge of teachers in order to cope with the demands of the new curriculum, Teachers should be in a position to integrate textbooks into their classroom activities, and teach their learners to undertake independent study from books. Lastly, there is a need that education officials should strike a balance between87 policy and economic growth and development, balance — educational ~ principles with desired results. 6.4 CONCLUSION A process of unraveling contradictions and clarifying meanings into principles and policies remains a pre-requisite for their proper implementation. This requires competent and accomplished policymakers. For, the complicated notion of policy itself, include aspects such as formulating the theory behind the policy, and finding appropriate methods of implementation. This complex process is often characterised by conflict and bargaining. The recommendations made above, form the basis of an integrated approach to the implementation of educational principles and policies in the research. It is hoped that any serious evaluation of policies aimed at transformation, will measure success or failure, not only in terms of the stated aims of the policy, but also in terms of the way its practioners interpret and give meaning to it.BIBLIOGRAPHY African National Congress Education Department. 1994a. A policy framework for education and training. Braamfontein. African National Congress. 1994b. The reconstruction and development programme — A policy Framework. Johannesburg: Umanyamo Publications. Akinpelu JA. 1981. 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