Bantu Education Act

The Bantu Education Act , Act No. 47/1953 ( Afrikaans : Wet op Bantoe-onderwys ; German for example: "Bantu-Bildungs-Gesetz") was a law that was passed on October 5, 1953 by the Parliament of the South African Union . The preparation of this law was the responsibility of Hendrik Verwoerd , the then Minister of Native Affairs and later Prime Minister. With Bantu (as a synonym for Natives ) in the sense of the law all citizens of South Africa were meant who are considered to be " a member of any aboriginal race or tribe of Africa " ( [...] a member of any aboriginal race or tribe of Africa; [ ...] ) were viewed. The law laid the foundations for them to introduce “Bantu education” within the framework of apartheid policy , which was qualitatively below the required level of schooling.

prehistory

On January 19, 1949, the South African government appointed a Commission on Native Education , which was named Eiselen Commission for short after its chairman and anthropologist , Werner Willi Max Eiselen . She worked on a new conception of the education system for the black population, which at that time was largely the responsibility of Christian missionary societies . The work of the commission concluded with its report ( Report of the Commission on Native Education , also Eiselen Report ) in 1951 and recommended essentially state control and takeover of the mission school system, which has been heavily influenced by Anglican, Presbyterian and Roman Catholic since the 19th century Supporting institutions was shaped. The results of the Eiselen Commission , which was active between 1949 and 1951, formed the conceptual basis for the Bantu Education Act .

Purpose and goals

The Bantu Education Act is one of a group of historical laws from South Africa that served to legalize the concept of apartheid . The general aim was to put the non-white population groups, especially the black South Africans, in an unfavorable legal, social and cultural indoctrination situation and consequently to force them into a position that was distanced or isolated from the white upper class. The officially declared purpose of this law was to transfer the administration and control of Bantu education of any kind or level from all provincial administrations, as well as all other related matters, to the responsibility of the Union government of South Africa ( section 2 ).

The scope of the law extended to any school , class , college or institution for the education of "Bantu children and persons" and for the instruction and training of persons who wish to take up the teaching profession; including offers available for their further education ( section 14 ).

In section 15 , paragraph 1 of the Bantu Education Act lists extensive powers, such as the Ministry will carry out the administrative reorganization of the education system for the "Bantu population." This includes regulatory issues such as the subsequent regulations to be issued on rights, obligations and remuneration. Disciplinary regulations for teachers as well as supervision and control by the competent authority over training and instruction courses are explicitly mentioned .

For the further implementation of the objectives that were not precisely defined, options for action that were not regulated in more detail or were somehow restricted were expressly permitted, which enabled differentiated decisions for teachers, groups, classes or “teachers of certain races”, or schools and regions. This regulation according to Section 15 , Paragraph 2 left the competent ministry free to make arbitrary decisions.

In addition to the massive scope for shaping and influencing the Ministry, it is assured in section 12 that "with regard to the principle of the active participation of the Bantu population in the control and management of the state Bantu schools , regional, local and school bodies will be created." the prospect of granting rights, duties, functions and privileges for self-governing bodies and unspecified Bantu authorities .

The basis for these double structures had already been created in 1951 with the Bantu Authorities Act . The three-tier management system for the reserves, the later homelands , which was founded on this, provided opportunities for joint responsibility for the construction and maintenance of educational institutions. These tasks could be transferred to their regional authorities through individual legal acts . In the settlement areas of the black population that had not yet become autonomous homelands, their own regional authority was run by a “white” administrative level.

After the Bantu Education Act came into force , the South African " Ministry of Native Affairs " had the power to expropriate land it considered necessary for the purpose of restructuring the educational structures .

Verwoerd quote

The following statement has been passed down from the responsible Minister Hendrik Verwoerd within these matters:

“There is no place for [the Bantu] in the European community above the level of certain forms of labor… What is the use of teaching the Bantu child mathematics when it cannot use it in practice? That is quite absurd. Education must train people in accordance with their opportunities in life, according to the sphere in which they live. "

“There is no place for [the Bantu] in the European population above the level of certain forms of work ... What is the benefit of a mathematics education for a Bantu child if he cannot use it in practice? That is completely absurd. School education is necessary to train people in accordance with their chances in life, depending on their living environment. "

This view, aimed at the economic usability of population groups, continued on the basis of the guideline competence of all apartheid governments in their education, labor market and social policy and cemented conflicts of interest among the South African population groups. In 1981 the De Lange Commission submitted a report through the Human Sciences Research Council which attempted to present the ongoing antagonisms in educational policy as a question that was linked to management measures in the state and from the perspective of establishing “law and order” under the overall objective a "national interest" (economic growth) would have to be solved.

Effects and development of the education system

overview

In the with this law for the school education of the black population the establishment of state operated schools resulted. The school facilities (approx. 5000) that had been run in large numbers by mission societies and other religious organizations had to be transferred to the South African state. This was also linked to the goal of eliminating the influence of liberal and English-influenced attitudes on the young generation of the black population that was independent of apartheid politics. The intended impact was low-quality and inadequate education, which led to targeted structural discrimination .

In 1969, government spending on education for a black child compared to a white child was 17:70. On average, a teacher at a "Bantu school" taught classes with a strength of 51 students. Some of the educational staff did not have sufficient training. The long-term consequences of those policies have resulted in persistent mass unemployment and a widespread educational deficit. The latter can hardly be compensated. Accordingly, the annual admissions to universities in the country were shaped by white students for many years. The refusal to provide adequate schooling resulted in long simmering political unrest among the younger generation in some metropolitan areas (see uprising in Soweto ). A reintegration into the school education that was interrupted as a result and obtaining a qualification proved impossible in many cases and caused psychological and social consequential damage.

School types according to school sponsorship

Within the education sector for blacks there were different types of training centers according to school authority. This differentiation resulted from the historically inherited inhomogeneous settlement structure of the country and its similarly inhomogeneous distribution of school education institutions:

• Community schools

These schools were under the supervision of the Ministry of Bantu Education. They were subject to regional control by school committees, if necessary by subordinate school committees. About 80 percent of all black students in the country attended this type of school in the 1970s. The Ministry financed teachers' salaries and school equipment. In the homelands, responsibility lay with the respective homeland school ministries (authorities).

• State schools

The state schools were financed by the state and were subject to its supervisory authorities. There were no school committees or school boards here. These were higher technical schools and colleges, trade schools and industrial training centers as well as institutions for teacher training such as teacher training centers and pedagogical academies. There were also home schools with white staff and special schools (such as special schools ). Every school that was built on state land fell under this type of school.

• Farm, mining and factory schools

Schools of this type have been established by farms, mining and other businesses. Financial subsidies from the state budget were granted according to ministerial standards. This type of school was available for children of the black workers employed in these companies. There had to be at least 20 students in order for such a school to be established. In farm schools, the farm owner was also the headmaster or a person named by him exercised this function. Students from neighboring farms could be called in. The same subsidy modalities applied to school equipment and teachers' salaries as to community schools. This type of school formed an important basis for primary school education in rural areas.

• Hospital schools

The hospital schools were under the direction of the respective hospital authorities and were co-financed by ministerial bodies. The school offer was aimed at children who had been in inpatient medical treatment for three months or more.

• Private schools

There were few private schools left after the Bantu Education Act came into force . The largest remaining private school provider was the Roman Catholic Church after the Anglican Church had closed its schools on its own initiative as a result of the law.
In 1973 there were still 382 privately financed and run schools. Catholic primary schools were gradually placed under state supervision in the 1970s, so that only a few larger school facilities remained under this denominational leadership.

• Evening schools

Evening schools in this sense were primarily available in urban areas and served the adult qualification to obtain elementary and secondary school qualifications. They were financed exclusively on the basis of participant contributions. There were also advanced training courses for higher school qualifications, some of which served as preparation for a ministerially organized examination.

A few special schools with special educational offers existed for deaf (1975: 8 schools) and blind (1975: 4 schools) children, as well as children with physical / cerebral (1975: 4 schools) and mental (1975: 2 schools in test operation) handicaps . After graduation, technical training is planned.

Educator training

Under the Bantu Education Act, there were three professional training courses for educators from the black population group:

• in a teacher training college

Lower Primary Teacher Certificate (LPTC), eligibility requirements: school leaving certificate 8 years; Duration of training: three years to become a primary school teacher (primary school was 1st to 4th grade).

• in a pedagogical academy / university

Primary Teachers Certificate (PTC), aptitude requirements: high school diploma, secondary school leaving certificate; Duration of training: two years as a secondary school teacher (secondary school was 5th to 8th school year, from 1975 to 7th school year),

Junior Secondary Teachers Certificate (JSTC), eligibility requirements: high school diploma or high school diploma; Duration of training: two years to become a teacher for lower levels of higher schools (secondary schools, 8th to 10th school year / Forms I-III; 10th to 12th school year / Forms III-V; 8th to 12th school year / Forms IV).

Commercial and vocational training

Simplified procedures and courses existed around 1975 for vocational training for the black population. As a rule, these were measures specific to industrial areas.

• Trade schools , entry requirement: 8 school years; Vocational training period two and three years, frequent occupations: car mechanic , for the electrician the secondary school leaving certificate was a prerequisite and a vocational training period of three years or five years “sandwich course” (six months of vocational school and six months of work experience every year). Other apprenticeships in the craft around 1975 included house painters , car fitters , plumbers , bricklayers , prefabricated bricklayers, mechanics (diesel tractors), radio technicians , welders , plasterers and carpenters .
• Industrial training that, if necessary, generated unskilled labor qualifications with short or longer training:

Intensive crash courses (13 weeks), in industries of the homelands and border industry areas ,

The aim of these fast-track courses is to provide qualifications for activities in the areas of gas and electric welding, bricklaying and plumbing, textile, metal and wood processing and machine fitter.

simplified work courses, in industries of the homelands and border industry areas,

Bantu Ministry training centers, training centers in urban areas,

Work instruction courses in companies (tax-reduced measures by the employer).

For girls there were vocational training courses as tailors and kindergarten assistants as well as for spinning and weaving.

Higher-level vocational training could be obtained at technical colleges or technical schools, some of which made engineering degrees possible. Two institutions of this type existed in Mmadikoti near Seshego in Homlenad Lebowa and in Edendale in Homeland KwaZulu . In the beginning there were dual courses (sandwich courses) for civil and agricultural engineers, geotechnical and surveying engineers as well as water technology engineers for sewage treatment plants.

In the medical field there were training courses for nurses and midwives , as well as for health inspectors , health assistants, medical-technical assistants, health department nurses, X-ray assistants and physiotherapists . The latter two courses were offered in the teaching hospital of the township of Ga-Rankuwa .

University education for blacks

On the part of the state educational policy for the black population group, three higher education institutions were available until 1982, which were then expanded by a new university. Those were:

• University of Fort Hare
• University of the North
• University of Zululand

From 1982 there was also the Vista University , a university that had been designed by the apartheid authorities especially for the black population according to what was then considered modern.

There was also access to higher education for blacks at the universities of Witwatersrand , Cape Town and Natal . There have always been a small number of students at foreign higher education institutions through grants and loans from aid organizations and money from other private sources.

Legislative

This law repealed the 1945 Native Education Finance Act, Act No. 29/1945.

literature

• Manfred Kurz: Indirect Rule and Violence in South Africa . Works from the Institute for Africa Customer , No. 30. Hamburg (Institute for Africa Customer) 1981
• Dieter Nohlen (ed.), Franz Nuscheler (ed.): Handbook of the third world. Vol. 5 East Africa and South Africa . Bonn (JHW Dietz Nachf.) 1993, 3rd edition ISBN 3-8012-0205-4

Individual evidence

1. ^ Commission on Native Education is appointed. on www.sahistory.org.za (English)
2. ↑ BANTU EDUCATION ACT - Results of the Eiselen Commission. on www.sahistory.org.za (English)
3. ^ Hermann Giliomee : A Note on Bantu Education, 1953 to 1970 . In: South African Journal of Economics, Vol. 77 (2009), Issue 1, pp. 190–198 (English)
4. ^ Bantu Education Act, 1953 . on www.disa.ukzn.ac.za ( Memento from January 18, 2016 in the Internet Archive ) (English)
5. ↑ Brief: Indirect Rule, p. 39
6. ↑ Quoted from Brian Lapping: Apartheid: a history . (Grafton / Collins), London 1987, ISBN 0-246-13064-4
7. ↑ Ludwig Helbig: Liberation Education in South Africa . In: Christine Lienemann-Perrin, Wolfgang Lienemann (ed.): Political legitimacy in South Africa . Texts and materials from the research center of the Evangelical Study Community, Series A, No. 27, Heidelberg 1988, pp. 111–181, here pp. 136–138
8. ^ Nohlen, Nuscheler: Handbook of the Third World . Vol. 5, p. 431
9. ↑ Nelson Mandela Center of Memory and Dialogue: Brief Description of the Bantu Education Act 1953 . on www.nelsonmandela.org (English)
10. ^ Nohlen, Nuscheler: Handbook of the Third World . Vol. 5, pp. 458-459
11. ↑ ^{a b c d e} Chris van Rensburg (Red.) Et al., Euridita Publications Ltd. (Ed.): Keys to Progress. Education for South Africa's blacks, mixed race and Indians . Johannesburg [1975], pp. 22-24
12. ↑ van Rensburg et al., 1975, pp. 51-52
13. ↑ van Rensburg et al. 1975, p. 40
14. ↑ van Rensburg et al., 1975, p. 43
15. ↑ van Rensburg et al., 1975, p. 49
16. ↑ van Rensburg et al., 1975, pp. 47-48
17. ↑ van Rensburg et al., 1975, pp. 48-49