Overcoming Bantu Education in Post-Apartheid South Africa
While Dr. Verwoerd initiated the overarching rhetoric regarding the effectiveness of apartheid policy, W.W.M. Eiselen spearheaded the commission that ushered it into the education system. Eiselen was a South African linguist and anthropologist concerned with the effects of white civilization on the integrity and authenticity of black culture (Kros 56). He characterized African cultures as "being in a state of decline, having corrupted through their contact with 'white' society (Kros 57). In this sense, Eiselen framed apartheid education as a moral imperative that needed to be tackled by "the creation of effective arrangements for the peaceful co-existence of different ethnic groups" (qtd. in Giliomee 194).
The Bantu Education Act of 1953
The Bantu Education Act of 1953 was the government's first official step in transforming the South African education system to supply black labor and achieve an ideological hegemony. The main provision of the act was that it took education control from state-aided missions and invested total power in the Afrikaner government. This centralization of education was clearly expressed in the act: "the control of native education shall vest in the Government of the Union...No person shall establish, conduct or maintain any Bantu or native education school other than a Government Bantu school" (qtd. in Hlatshwayo 62). Because of this provision, schools were only allowed to operate after receiving approval through a formal process of registration with the government (Soudien 213).
Dr. Hendrik Verwoerd sums up the act's central goals:
"The general aims of Bantu Education Act are...firstly, the control of the education system is taken out of the hands of the Provinces and placed in the hands of the Department of Native Affairs so that a uniform education policy in accordance with the broad policy of the country can be introduced....Secondly, the local control of the schools under the supervision of the State is entrusted to Bantu bodies which must learn to perform a service for the community as a whole...thirdly...institutions for advanced education and especially for the training of teachers, must be controlled by the department itself" (qtd. in Hlatshwayo 63).
Of 7,000 schools, over 5,000 had been missionary-run before Bantu education took hold. By 1959, nearly all black schools had been moved under the control of the national government (Christie and Collins 60).
The Bantu Education Act sought to transform the basic curriculum by specifying the language of instruction in black schools. Claiming that the African people must remain connected to their own culture, the government required that schooling begin in an indigenous language until grade 5, when instruction would shift to Engilsh and Afrikaans (Soudien 213). This forceful instruction of Afrikaans would eventually lead to one of the most potent and influential resistance movements during the apartheid era.
The first page of the Bantu Education Act (retrieved from Digital Innovation South Africa).
It was the formation of the Eiselen Commission and the arguments that came out of its 1951 report that lead to the passing of the Bantu Education Act. In the report, the commission named several imperative reasons for a new education system.
The commission reported:
"The formulation of the principles and aims of education for Natives as an independent race, in which their past and present, their inherent racial qualities, their distinctive characteristics and aptitudes, and their needs under everchanging social conditions are taken into consideration" (qtd. in Christie and Collins 59).
The report emphasized that schooling for the Bantu people should function as a vehicle for the advancement of black cultural heritage (Christie and Collins 59). In other words, blacks should be taught to value their tribal cultures while understanding that they have a defined role in South African society.
The Eiselen Commission gained support for Bantu education by criticizing its predecessor: Native Education. Under this system, Anglican and Roman Catholic missionary societies controlled black schools (Giliomee 191). While they received some state funding, it was not enough to provide proper school facilities with appropriate class sizes or competent teachers.
Mission schools also suffered from high drop out rates. When the National Party took power in 1948, only 2.6% of black students were enrolled in post-primary education, and nearly 75% of black children of school-going age were not enrolled at all (Giliomee 191). These grim statistics gave the Eiselen Commission the necessary fuel to argue for a complete restructuring of the education system.
After completing a formal investigation of the current education system, the Commissioners divided their findings into the following subsets: "(1) The Bantu and the Present System of Education; (2) Critical Appraisal of the System of Education; and (3) Proposals and Recommendations" (Seroto 102).
After the government accepted Eiselen's recommendations, which included moving the control of the mission schools to the state and initiating language instruction in Afrikaans and English, the Nationalist Party began forming the Bantu Education Act of 1953 in order to solidify the report into national law.
The Eiselen Commission
The System's Architect: W.W.M. Eiselen
Understanding his motivations to “preserve” African culture by separating black Africans into a different education system clarifies the origins of Bantu education as not necessarily inherently racist, but significantly misguided. Eiselen undoubtedly perpetuated racism, but did he intend to? His background as an academic, scientist and reformer would suggest that no, he was not motivated solely by malicious racism. What he did intend to do, however, was to lay the groundwork for a "grand social plan" - one that integrate intellectual, moral and emotional development into the socio-economic development of the Bantu as a people (Fleisch 47).
He stated:
"By firmly anchoring the schools in the life of the people, education would no longer encourage escape from Bantu society but would fulfil its true function of uplifting the community as a whole and of training leaders for this community" (qtd. in Seroto 104).