4th Teaching & Education Conference, Venice

EDUCATION IN A NEW SOUTH AFRICA: CRISIS AND CHANGE

ROBERT J. BALFOUR

Abstract:

It is difficult in modern-day South Africa not to see the longevity of the legacy of Apartheid, despite a swath of policy change, economic development and systems growth. For example, the persistence to this day of agricultural subsistence farming in rural areas has an impact on the quality and scope of education in rural areas in which just under half of South Africa’s children are located. And yet, since its first democratic elections in 1994, education has been central to the transformation project of the State. In 2014 South Africa celebrated twenty years of a full and participatory democracy and this paper reflects on the impact of change in relation to the longevity of Apartheid’s legacy. The paper considers themes in the book by the same title and raises the question about what new interventions are needed, systemically, to provide for a new generation in the context of declining growth and employment possibilities.

Keywords: education, systems, South Africa

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