Studying together, living apart: Emerging geographies of school attendance in post-apartheid Cape Town

Abstract

Desegregation of South African schools is creating new geographies of education. Parental choice of school in the context of continuing spatial inequalities of educational provision encourages considerable movement of pupils from outside traditional catchment areas, as parents send children to distant schools formerly intended for members of other racial groups. To explore the socio-economic context of such choices, and the costs of making them, this article uses survey data from ten secondary schools with differing apartheid histories, in different socio-economic neighbourhoods, and with differing racial compositions. The findings reveal both the progress made since the end of apartheid and the limitations of change. Pupils travelling to distant schools in white areas appear to be coping well with the potential pressures, but remain a small, largely middle-class minority of black and coloured children, while friendships still appear to be made mainly within rather than across racial groups. Genuine educational choice and class mobility will depend on more fundamental reduction of educational inequality. NATIONAL EDUCATION POLICIES IN POST-APARTHEID South Africa have been strongly influenced by policy debates in developed countries, but they are implemented in specific conditions, many of which arise from South Africa’s common apartheid inheritance. The influence of this *Anthony Lemon (tony.lemon@mansfield.ox.ac.uk) is Emeritus Research Fellow in Geography, Oxford University, and Emeritus Fellow, Mansfield College. Jane BattersbyLennard ( jane.battersby.lennard@gmail.com) is Lecturer in Geography, University of Cape Town. 1. See Ken Hartshorne, The Making of Education Policy in South Africa (Oxford University Press, London, 1999); Jonathan Jansen, ‘Explaining non-change in education reform after apartheid: political symbolism and the problem of policy implementation’ in Yusuf Sayed and Jonathan Jansen (eds), Implementing Education Policies: The South African experience (University of Cape Town Press, Cape Town, 2001), pp. 62–72; Jonathan Jansen, ‘Political symbolism as policy craft: explaining non-reform in South African education after apartheid’, Journal of Education Policy 17, 2 (2002), pp. 199–215. 2. Crain Soudien, ‘The “A” factor: coming to terms with legacy in South African education’, International Journal of Educational Development 27, 2 (2007), pp. 182–93. African Affairs, 1–24 doi: 10.1093/afraf/adq062 © The Author 2010. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of Royal African Society. All rights reserved 1 African Affairs Advance Access published November 18, 2010 by gest on N ovem er 2, 2010 afraf.oxjournals.org D ow nladed fom complex legacy continues to shape social behaviour and socio-economic change in South Africa, not least in education. Urban/rural, racial, income, and other differences produce highly diverse spaces and places which constitute the lenses through which educational change is reflected. This article uses the particular lens of metropolitan Cape Town to explore ways in which desegregation of the South African school system has created new social and spatial geographies of education. The size of its coloured group (49 percent of the population in 2001), occupying a middle position in the apartheid hierarchy, together with its growing black population help Cape Town capture the nuances of educational desegregation better than most South African cities. Previous research has tended to focus on schools themselves rather than the wider spatial processes shaping and shaped by the school experience. Recognizing that there is now considerable movement of pupils to schools from outside their traditional catchment areas, this article explores the lived experience of these new geographies and the parental and pupil perceptions they reflect in the context of continuing inequality of educational provision, which encourages parental sacrifices to educate their children at distant schools. The experience of the pupils themselves is important: significant journeys to school may affect their ability to participate in out-of-school activities, their friendship patterns both at school and at home and the everyday mobility these reflect, and their sense of identity and belonging. Geographies of friendship also help to define the critical difference between statistical desegregation and social integration in the schools themselves: evidence for the former, it is argued, is much clearer than evidence for the latter. During the apartheid era the racial geography of school attendance in South Africa closely mirrored that of the country’s legally segregated residential areas, although many blacks were not enrolled at all, especially in higher grades. Residential segregation began to loosen in the 1980s and ceased to be legally enforced in 1991. Residential desegregation has proceeded gradually in most areas, however, affecting black areas only through the out-movement of better-off families. In contrast, since the 3. See Hein Marais, South Africa: Limits to change: the political economy of transition (Zed Books, London, 1998) and Clive Harber, State of Transition: Post-apartheid educational reform in South Africa (Symposium Books, Oxford, 2001). 4. See John Western, ‘Africa is coming to the Cape’, Geographical Review 91, 4 (2001), pp. 617–40. 5. Apartheid racial categories continue to be widely used in South Africa, both in popular discourse and officially. The terms used here are black, referring to the African or, as in the 2001 census, ‘black African’ majority; and coloured (mixed-race), Indian and white for the three officially recognized minority groups. 6. A. J. Christopher, ‘The slow pace of desegregation in South African cities, 1996–2001’, Urban Studies 42, 12 (2005), pp. 2305–20. 2 AFRICAN AFFAIRS by gest on N ovem er 2, 2010 afraf.oxjournals.org D ow nladed fom end of apartheid educational desegregation has had a broader impact. By 2001 some 12 percent of secondary school pupils in the Western Cape attended schools formerly confined to race groups other than their own. In Western Cape primary schools, Fiske and Ladd found that while nearly 100 percent of the enrolment in former black schools in 2001 remained black, and coloured students accounted for 93 percent enrolment in former coloured schools, 34 percent of students in former white schools were not white, most of them coloured rather than black. Desegregation has continued since 2001: all the former white schools studied here had less than 50 percent whites, several of them substantially below this figure. Whilst former black schools remain overwhelmingly black, as do the residential areas they serve, the out-movement of children of middle-class or wealthier families to schools elsewhere deprives black schools of some potentially good students. Whilst financial constraints deter the majority of blacks, coloureds, and Indians from moving, it is also clear that significant numbers of middleclass members of these communities have so far preferred to remain in areas formerly allocated to their own group, reflecting contention among blacks over the desirability of residential integration. Despite this choice, they – and others who could not afford to move – have chosen to send their children to school elsewhere. Such moves are invariably ‘up’ the apartheid racial hierarchy: blacks moving to former coloured, Indian, and white schools, coloureds to former Indian and white schools, and small numbers of Indians moving to white schools. Many former white, Indian, and coloured schools now draw at least a minority of their students from districts formerly allocated to other race groups. Others choose to define their feeder areas more restrictively, and thus the desegregation of their intake more closely reflects residential desegregation. The article proceeds in four sections. The methodological discussion focuses on the choice of schools and on issues surrounding fieldwork itself, together with the use made of other data sources. The second section considers the costs incurred by parents who send their children to distant schools formerly intended for members of other racial groups, and possible costs for the children themselves, in the context of continuing inequalities within the South African school system. The core of the article then addresses the issues investigated in the classrooms of ten secondary schools, focusing on the spatial processes creating new 7. Authors’ calculation based on data in Edward B. Fiske and Helen F. Ladd, Elusive Equity: Education reform in post-apartheid South Africa (Brookings Institution Press, Washington, DC, 2004), p. 90. 8. Ibid., p. 89. 9. James L. Gibson, Overcoming Apartheid: Can truth reconcile a divided nation? (HSRC Press, Cape Town, 2004). STUDYING TOGETHER, LIVING APART 3 by gest on N ovem er 2, 2010 afraf.oxjournals.org D ow nladed fom geographies of secondary education and the lived experience of these new geographies. The findings are related to the racial and socio-economic character of the school neighbourhoods and the home areas of the students. The final section concludes with a discussion of key findings and their implications. These include the negative views of local schools held by many of those who commute to school as well as by their parents, who recognize that former white and some former coloured and Indian schools continue to offer much higher standards of education than most black schools. A higher proportion of black students than whites were found to do homework at home and receive parental encouragement. In terms of integration and equality of opportunity, the research reveals both the progress made since the end of apartheid and the limitations of change. Key policy implications include the need for targeted intervention to create centres of excellence among schools in black areas and the retraining of demoralized school principals and teachers.