The majority of the population live below the poverty line, therefore this limits the available resources needed to obtain an adequate education. If quality education is not made available, then children will not be able to obtain an education that could make them competitive within the global workforce. By neglecting to educate the low class population the country will not be able to overcome income inequality, and by default, racial inequality.

Equity within schools could lead to a fair distribution of educational growth. Schools need to be pushed to desegregate through incentives and funding in order to ensure equality. Africa cannot build economic success on failing education systems.

Policy Issues

AbstractPost-Apartheid South Africa continues to lack in educational equality and may have resorted to deeper economic discrimination, leading to deeper racial disparities. Research suggests that the government lacks certain implementations for overseeing racial equality across the field of education. Programs aimed at ameliorating class inequality may help to solve the hidden racial apartheid system that still persists.

Education in Post-Apartheid South AfricaCourtney Wright

UCSB-FAMU Summer InternCharles Williams

UCSB Student Mentor

Policy issues within the scope of this study include:1. Optimal Resources2. School Structures 3. Accessibility

These three policy issues have played a major role on how the educational system is structured across South Africa.

Based on my findings within the articles, my next step would be to conduct research on how programs aimed at dealing with economic inequality might help to ameliorate racial disparities.

My Research: Next Steps

Synthesis Search Terms

After obtaining my doctoral degree, my plan is to become a professor in the field of International Education. I would like to conduct research on leading issues affecting the educational systems in developing countries. Throughout my research my goal is to create opportunities for children who are uneducated and neglected because of their financial and racial background.

My Career Goals

Findings

Policy Implications

Optimal Resources:• Fleisch (2008:1) has argued that South Africa has two

education systems; the first has better resources in former white schools with better performing learners. The second one comprises of poorly resourced schools, mostly in historically black African schools.

• Fiske states that majority of African students continue to attend schools that have under qualified teachers and inadequate facilities and face other disadvantages such as a shortage of books and other teaching materials.

School Structure:• Fiske also states that African schools continue to serve

African students almost exclusively, formerly coloured schools serve mainly coloured students, and formerly white schools now serve a mix of white and black students, with whites still accounting for the majority.

• Sayed states that “inequities between the rich and poor may have even increased in the post apartheid ‐period and user fees essentially amounted to the ‐‘privatization’ of education”

• Although attendance records are high research has shown that more than half of the students that make it to primary school age – one-in-every-two across the region – will reach their adolescent years unable to read, write or perform basic numeracy tasks. (Watkins)

Accessibility:• 72% of South Africa's learners walk to school, while

8% use public transport. Only 1% report using school buses or transport provided by the government. The vast majority 84% of White children are driven to school in private cars, compared with only 11% of African children. (Hall, 2014)

My Research Question

What role does class inequality play on the quality of education for Black African students in Post-Apartheid South Africa?

Professor Rebeca Mireles-RiosUCSB Faculty Mentor

achievement; education reform; developing countries; quality education; government; education; public education; primary and secondary schooling; South Africa; Post-Apartheid