Students protesting 'Bantu Education' in 1955.

The South Africa's National Party viewed education to be a key element in their plan to create a completely segregated society. The Minister of Education at the time, Henrik Verwoerd, stated that:

There is no place for [the Bantu] in the European community above the level of certain forms of labour ... 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^[1]

The government controlled the curriculum of the segregated schools and the books used regularly included sentences such as "This kaffer has stolen a knife, this kaffer is lazy".^[1]

The introduction of Bantu Education led to a huge reduction of government aid to the already ailing learning institutions of black Africans. The law forced institutions under the direct control of the state. The National Party now had the power to employ and train teachers as they saw fit. Black teachers' salaries in 1953 were extremely low and resulted in a dramatic drop of trainee teachers. Only one third of the black teachers were qualified.^[1]

The schools reserved for the countrys white children were of Western standards and the education was both mandatory and free. 30 % of the black schools did not have electricity, 25 % running water and less than half had plumbing. The education for Blacks, Indians and Coloured was not free.^[1] In the 70's the per capita governmental spending on black education was one-tenth of the spending on white.^[3]

In 1976 student protests against the Afrikaans Medium Decree of 1974 which forced all black schools to use Afrikaans and English in a 50-50 mix as languages of instruction led to the Soweto uprising in which more than 575 people died, at least 134 of them under the age of eighteen..^[4][3]

References

External links

• Article on apartheid and education that mentions the Bantu Act (in Dutch)

fi:Bantuopetuksen laki