Education reform in southern Africa since the 1960s: what progress has been made?
Date
2014Author
Van der Walt, Johannes L.
Potgieter, Ferdinand J.
Wolhuter, Charl C.
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Show full item recordAbstract
The investigation reported in this paper centred on the socially relevant question of whether a
number of countries in Southern Africa, particularly their education systems, had not only succeeded to shrug off
their pre-independent past and heritage, but also whether they have made significant strides in terms of the
education reform that form part of their broad socio-political restructuring. After having stipulated a number of
input, throughput and output criteria, the researchers examined a purposive sample of eight systems. Their
educational initiatives during the past fifty years were surveyed. These include expansion of education supply,
examination reforms, curriculum reforms, teaching methods, higher education, vocational education, higher
education expansion and the eradication of adult illiteracy. The researchers found evidence of improvement in the
systems through the greater availability of education but not so much of improvement in the quality of the
education systems in question. The paper ends with a number of recommendations for addressing shortcomings in
this regard.
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