The search for quality education in post-apartheid South Africa

18 years after the first democratic elections education in South Africa is still in a state of crisis. Failure to deliver textbooks, limited support available to schools, ineffective districts, under-qualified teachers, poor matriculation results, and low performance in national and international assessments is symptomatic of a fundamental malaise in education. And it is the poor, marginalised and the disadvantaged who are most affected. For those who have access to private and ‘better quality’ public schools, there is no crisis!

This book considers these issues by reviewing selected large-scale interventions to improve education quality in South African schools. These interventions include the District Development Support Programme (DDSP), the Education Quality Improvement Partnership Programme (EQUIP), the IMBEWU programme, the Integrated Education Program (IEP), the Khanyisa School Programme, the Learning for Living (LFL) Project, and the Quality Learning Project (QLP). It locates these interventions by providing a chronology of education policy development in South Africa since 1994 as well as engaging with key debates about the notion of education quality. Furthermore, it invites policy-makers to critically review and reflect on the changes to improve education quality in South Africa since 1994. By bringing together academics, policy-makers and practitioners to reflect on education development the book sheds light on the continuous but elusive search for quality education for all. In so doing, the book provides a basis for a critical conversation about the history of education change in post-apartheid South Africa, and the implications for interventions aimed at improving education quality.