Educational access in South Africa: country analytic report

Since 1994, South Africa has undertaken the vital task of transforming the inequitable political, economic and social system that characterised the apartheid era into a democratic society which aims to equalise opportunity for all its citizens. Central to this transformation is the establishment of a quality, equitable and democratic education system. This review provides an overview of access and participation issues for children in the five to 15 years age group in South Africa. A major focus in the post-apartheid period has been on access: both in relation to increased enrolments in schools and in terms of meaningful access to quality education. Much attention has been given in the last ten years to how and whether equity and access have been achieved.

This review also considers factors such as negative schooling experiences, HIV and AIDS, sexual harassment, racism and xenophobia as contributing to repetition, absenteeism, low achievement and drop-out. The authors describe and explain patterns of access to schools in South Africa according to these zones of exclusion. It outlines policy and legislation on access to education and provides a statistical analysis of the seven zones of access, vulnerability and exclusion.

The review also analyses the way in which educational access is conceptualised, and identifies gaps in these accounts which suggest areas for future research. Starting points are highlighted by the authors for reconceptualising access in South Africa, including:

• access can only be understood and addressed if it is informed by a sound base of reliable data
• the conceptual model of zones of exclusion applies to the South African context with some variations
• access in education in post-apartheid South Africa has been regulated by efforts to create a more efficient education system 
• a particular problem in the South African context is that amongst those who are attending and enrolled are those who learn very little and are silently excluded
• access and equity have to be addressed together. Access, progression and transition to higher levels are strongly related to household income, suggesting that direct and indirect costs remain significant causes of exclusion.