African Education History

This essay addresses several reasons as to why is an understanding of the history of Schooling in South Africa important for teaching and learning today. Africans have always had their own formal educational system long before the invasion of Europeans in Africa (Hlatshwayo, 1658-1988, 28). The purpose of this system was to instill societal values and behavior, it was an inclusive system because all the society was involved in the education system. In 1658 the first type of European or western cultured school was opened in the Cape, in particular for young African slaves in order to teach them about Christianity and civilization (Hlatshwayo, 1658-1988, 28). The latter was the beginning of colonialism in the South African Schooling system. Nelson

As the old saying goes “you will never know where you are going until you know where you have come from”. In South African Schooling system this is also the case, because the majority of South African schools are still practicing the very same western culture that was introduced by colonists to young African slaves in 1658 such as Christianity, (Hlatshwayo, 1658-1988, 28). Colonialism might have happened a long time ago but its results are still embedded in our society and we see them every single day. The majority of South African school text books are written and taught in the language of the colonist. Maldonado Torres (2007,243) support these facts on coloniality when he says it is maintained in literature, academic selection, school culture, in the self-image of people, and other aspects of our modern society. Personally from my experience in township schools in Khayelitsha the ability of a student to speak English is still being used as the measure of

This is very true as Maldonado Torres (2007,243), explains that coloniality is an embedded logic , and it forces control and domination of Europeans in Africa mainly through the schooling system. South African schools are segregated by class, gender, and race. This segregation in the South African schooling system came from a religious perspective. It was an initiative of the Church Council in 1676, following an opening of the second European type of school in South Africa in 1663. This type of segregation still exists in our schools and the society at large, and now it is driven by socioeconomic circumstances among the people of South Africa. Coloniality has become a norm in our society and it still serves the desires of the colonists, as stated by Langham Dale, the superintended general of education of the cape in 1889, he explained that the aim of European education in South Africa was “to recognize the position of the European colonist as holding the permanent influence, social, political, and to see that sons and daughters of the colonists…should have at least such education as their peers in Europe