The State of Capetonian Township Education From Student Perspective

South Africa is one of the most socially fascinating countries I’ve studied, which I attribute to its wealth of diversity, and its still recent history of systemic inequality. Such conditions, in my opinion, make for very interesting dialogues at the intersections of race, culture, socioeconomic status, etc. Over the years I developed a particular curiosity in the position of education at these intersections, which led me to embark on a research project that addresses the issue of education in the South African context with particular regards to its underprivileged populations.

The central question of my research is: what do township students’ narratives about their school experiences reveal about the quality of education they have received?

I wanted to know what they liked and disliked about their school experiences, how they’d compare the quality of their education to that of their more privileged counterparts, and what deficiencies they feel they have experienced with regards to their education. In addition, I wanted to discover whether or not these students had ideas of their own for addressing some of the issues facing township schools today.

The purpose of this project was to gain an understanding of contemporary township education as experienced by township students. And its purposed was achieved by simply speaking with township students about school experiences, which in turn positioned their voices next to those of policymakers, educators and administrators, and NGOs within the dialogue around education reform. This write-up is the result of those conversations. But to fully understand their contemporary context, we must begin with the historical one.