​Overcoming Bantu Education in Post-Apartheid South Africa 

Looking at teachers' reactions to Bantu education is an effective way to gauge the system's initial impact on black schools. Despite Verwoerd's threat toward disobedient teachers, they still engaged in the political activism to shed light on the "barbarism of education" (Souiden 213). The African National Congress advocated for nationwide boycotts of Bantu schools, but teachers claimed that would hurt children more by denying them access to any kind of education. Instead, organizations such as the Cape African Teachers' Association (CATA) and the Teacher's League of South Africa campaigned for the boycott of the new boards of education (Souiden 214).

 

While some teachers who opposed the new system chose to leave their profession entirely, others stayed while secretely circumventing Bantu education guidelines: "these responses ranged from evasion of the department's prescriptions to active subversion by refusing to obey instructions" (Soudien 217). 

 

A teacher who had been in the profession since 1936 explained his justification for not leaving: "Many qualified teachers left the profession. I was among those who said 'gentlemen, if we all leave, who is going to teach our children? It was termed 'poison,' we are teaching them poison. We said, let us add something to it, teach them as much as we can. If you add something it will 'dilute' the poison. We did not throw away books we were using before" (qtd. in Souiden 218). 

 

Nelson Mandela also referred to the new teaching methods and curriculum as poison: 

 

"Our secret discussions among the executive turned on whether we should call on the people to stage a protest for a limited period or whether we should proclaim a permanent school boycott to destroy the Bantu Education Act before it could take root. The discussions were fierce and both sides had forceful advocates. The argument for an indefinite boycott was that Bantu Education was a poison one could not drink even at the point of death from thirst. To accept it in any form would cause irreparable damage” (Mandela 145).

 

Because of the lack of funding for teachers' salaries and the sudden influx of black students into a new system, pupil-teacher ratios worsened from 42.3 to 1 in 1946 to 54.7 to 1 in 1960 (Hyslop 56). The government also introduced the concept of double session teaching, where teachers would have to instruct two separate classes a day in an afternoon and morning shift, which had a drastic impact in the quality of teaching black students were receiving. A former student said: "The teachers would be too tired to teach in the afternoon. They would find it boring teaching the same subject. The pupils who would come in the afternoon wouldn't be as alert as pupils who came in the morning" (qtd. in Hyslop 56). 

 

The following collection of quotes from teachers serves as a kind of oral history of their response Bantu education: 

 

On the difference between mission schools and government schools: 

"I think the mission schools provided a better type of education since they prepared the child for a higher...calling. They also prepared the child for a meaningful role in life. Bantu Education on the other hand aparently deprives the child of his self, of his personality and of his realisation." (qtd. in Hyslop 57)

 

On carrying out his duty as a teacher, despite racist policies: 

"It was terrible teaching under those conditions. One could not say a word, we had to meet in private places trying to resolve this situation...it was very difficult for all teachers, and of course it was even worse because I got into the profession out of love...in addition I had to disregard most of the regulations and gave all that I could to enhance the standard of education and above all to teach the black child" (qtd. in Soudien 217). 

 

On risking his teaching career or accepting the new system: 

"Who are you going to challenge? The moment they thought you were trying to be...er...subversive, rebellious or anything like that, they would just come down on you and told you to pack up and go...We couldn't use anything...We were very young people, twenty, twenty-one. These things didn't affect us. All we were interested in was sport, schoolwork and girls and this and that" (qtd. in Soudien 220). 

 

Teacher response varied from actively oppositional, secretly subversive and passively compliant. But because they were so integral to the functioning of Bantu education, they are a vital community to evaluate.