The origins and demise of bantu school boards and school committees in the urban areas: with particular reference to Soweto 1953 - 1979
Date
2014-03-27
Authors
Tsotetsi, Josiah Oupa Khehla
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Abstract
This dissertation is an effort in educational history, which attempts to recover and
reconstruct the history of School Boards and School Committees in the urban areas with a
view to assessing both their origin and impact on Soweto schooling during the period
1953 - 1979. Many scholars might have been able to account for the history of Bantu
Education, its significance and its impact on African people in the townships. However
the history of the School Boards have been sidelined for long and completely hidden from
historical and institutional discourse. Whereas very little has been written about the
structures of school governance, which for three decades shaped and influenced the
education of urban African people (except an isolated case by Mkhize {1989}who
researched the origin of School Boards in the Vosloorus Township of the East Rand),
none have tried to account for the Soweto School Boards and School Committees, yet the
name itself is known throughout the world as a symbol of the heroic struggle of its people
against the apartheid system, including its schooling.
This research argues that the history of African townships regarding education, cannot be
understood outside the framework of Soweto itself and certainly not with regards the
history of Soweto School Boards. It is therefore endeavoured, within this dissertation, to
put on the agenda of academic discourse and investigation, the otherwise marginalised
structure of school governance of one of the largest African townships in South Africa.
The beginning chapter examines the process o f formulation and implementation of the
Nationalist Party education policy towards the African people in Soweto and elsewhere,
with a view to establishing how this contributed towards the creation of School Boards
and School Committees, This brings to the fore a view that, whereas the Eiselen
Commission of 1949-1951 and the Bantu Education Act of 1953 might have served as the
foundation of the ‘Bantu’ School Board system, the Tomlinson Commission of 1955
sought to functionalise these institutions within the broad framework of the policy of
‘separate development’.
Part of this research work attempts to show the advocacy and support the School Board
system had, especially in its early years and points to ethnic, religious and cultural
justifications which emerged from a diverse spectrum of opinion within the African
Community of Soweto itself
The investigation does not sideline the actions carried out by members o f School Boards -
especially against teachers - but attempts to evidence the achievements and help provided
by rhese bodies to teachers and pupils; often at the risk of confrontation with the DBE.
Further examination shows that there was a link between criticism and reservation the
Soweto teachers and pupils had against the School Boards and School Committees and
their resistance of Bantu Education as a whole. Despite the School Boards’ attempts to
caoitalise on the controversial ‘Medium of Instruction’ issue against the DBE and its
attempts to gain the confidence, and sympathy, of the Soweto people, their demise was
finally, through the Education and Training Act of 1979, ensured and consigned to history.