Schooling, the underclass and intergenerational mobility: a dual education system dilemma
Abstract
School education in South Africa has seen much progressive change in the last 20 years.
Yet educational outcomes are poor and many argue that a dual education system exists.
Those with financial and socio-cultural capital access resourced schools, while poor
South Africans are relegated to schools still suffering from apartheid resource neglect.
This empirical study of high schools in Alexandra township, a poor black African
residential area, demonstrates both the extent of the resource backlog and the
consequences thereof. Secondary schools in Alexandra have an inadequate number, and
standard, of toilets, libraries, computer facilities and science laboratories. They also have
relatively high learner to teacher ratios and poor matriculation success rates. Enrolment
in such schools means learners achieve a poor quality matriculation certificate or none at
all, thus, trapping these learners into significant disadvantage. Meagre financial resources
preclude Alexandra parents from selecting better resourced schools. Thus, for these
learners, neither their legal rights with respect to school choice nor their geographical
proximity to resourced schools has ensured redress from the apartheid past. The result is
that intergenerational class mobility is limited. Thus, the dual nature of South Africa’s
education system is creating a vicious cycle of intergenerational poverty where young
people cannot improve their living standards despite enrolment in secondary schooling.