Racial equality in education

How far has South Africa come?

By: Fiske EB & Ladd HF
Produced by: Terry Sanford Institute of Public Policy, 2005

A major task of South Africa's new government in 1994 was to promote racial equity in the state educaiton system. This paper evaluates progress toward this goal using three distinct concepts: equal treatment, equal educaitonal opportunity, and educational adequacy. The authors find that the country has succeeded in establishing racial equity defined as equal treatment, primarily through race-blind policies for allocating state funds for schools.

Progress measured by the other two criteria, however, has been constrained by the legacy of apartheid, including poor facilities and lack of human capacity in schools serving black students, and policies such as school fees. The paper concludes with some thoughts on the future outlook.