Racism is still rife in South Africa’s schools. What can be done about it This article was previously published in the Teacha! Magazine in 2019.
demographics of former white and private schools.
It’s 2019, almost 25 years into South Africa’s democratic dispensation, and racism is still playing out in the country’s schools.
The problem is that general assimilatory practices persist. These don’t deal with each learner as an individual. Instead, they expect black students to think, look and speak like their white peers so that they don’t somehow stand out. The attitude of “this is our school, our culture, our language; if you want to be here, you will have to accept and adapt to it” is rife.
Most recently, a primary school teacher was accused of separating children according to race. Elsewhere, a high school was accused of progressing white pupils who failed while holding back black pupils who’d failed. There have been numerous other stories of racist behaviour, separatist language policies and instances of schools turning away largely black pupils, claiming their classrooms are full. This is happening despite legislative changes since the end of apartheid, along with a noticeable change in the
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Many formerly whites only schools also show little flexibility in accommodating the identities and worldviews of students from other race groups. There are several ways to deal with these issues, from initiating national dialogues to training teachers to identify their own biases.
