Education in South Africa: a review

Abstract

This is a masterly study, of exceptional range and quality, by a truly remarkable man. words 'masterly' or 'magisterial' are frequently used but seldom merited. In this case they are inadequate. No man other than E. G. Malherbe could have written this profound and penetrating analysis of education in South Africa because no other man has participated more fully in its processes and for over half a century and no other man has been equipped with his extraordinary richness of talents intelligence, courage, humour, simplicity, leadership, dedication. And very few, if any, specialists in education can ever have matched either his thorough technical expertise in his subject or his flair for effective research, and the sensitive application of research findings in educational policy and practice at all levels. Afrikaner of Afrikaners though he is, and is always proud to proclaim himselfand his loyalty is constantly visible throughout this book it is very easy to see why the author was once asked to consider appointment to the most senior office in UNESCO. He would have filled the post with distinction. He is a universal man, appreciative and at ease in citing the thoughts and findings of colleagues in the Soviet Union and the United States, in South Asia and the Arab countries, as well as in Britain, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. But despite his always responsible honesty and his whole-hearted love of South Africa, it is also very easy to see why the supporters of the Afrikaner-Nationalist government of his country, committed to apartheid, which has now been in power since I948, should view him with such implacable hostility. He sets education in South Africa firmly within its political context, and he pulls no punches over the damaging, even disastrous, effects which narrow, bigoted nationalism has had on education, especially during the past thirty years. In the first two sentences of his first chapter Language and Nationhood, he declares The national aims and ambitions of the country are often better expressed in its educational system than in any other institution. fact is illustrated par excellence in South Africa's educational history, especially in recent times. He also reveals, in convincing fashion, how during the three decades before their close electoral victory in I948 Afrikaner-nationalist leaders of the most intensely narrow persuasion had planned and forged the institutions and methods which enabled them to achieve and to secure their dominance. Afrikaner Broederbond, the secret organisation which has exerted such a significant influence on all aspects