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Impact on mission schools
The introduction of the Bantu Education Act saw many mission churches losing control of their schools to the Department of Education of the government of the day. On 2 August 1954, the secretary for Native Affairs sent a letter to all those conducting teacher training institutions (the very large majority were run by missions) saying it had been decided that the training of all teachers for state and state-aided schools should be conducted in Departmental training institutions only. Those running such schools might choose one of the following courses of action:
– To rent or sell their schools and hostels to the Department, or
– To rent or sell their schools, while retaining the hostels on a subsidized basis, or
– To close the teacher training school and instead conduct a primary or secondary school (Horrell 1964:20).
Another letter was sent on the same day to all superintendents or managers of stateaided missions schools. They were asked to inform the secretary of Native Affairs by the end of 1954 whether they wished:
– To retain control of the schools as aided institutions with the subsidy reduced of 75 per cent of the salaries and cost of living allowances of approved teachers, or
– To retain control of the schools or hostels under their care as private, unaided institutions or
– To relinquish control of them to Bantu community organizations.
Even if a mission school decided to retain control of their schools the minister might later, in his discretion, decide that the school should be transferred to a Bantu community organization. Any arrangements made in regards to schools in white areas would be subjected the provisions of the Group Areas Act (Horrell 1964:21). Horrell (1964:22) noted the following as the response of the churches to the introduction of the Bantu Education Act. The synod of the Dutch Reformed Churches response was that it was a natural development that the state should accept the responsibility for the control of Bantu Education. They motivated their point but highlighted that there was nothing in the Government’s education policy which necessarily conflicted with recognized Christian principles. The Synod Commission welcomed the opportunity which had been created for Africans themselves to accept responsibility for the education and rearing of their children, the opportunity the church still had of retaining some of its institutions on certain conditions the prospect of the expansion of educational facilities, and the assurance that there would now be a Union wide policy.
When the government decided to take more active interest in education it is significant that it did so for political rather than education or social reasons. Free State schools were the first schools to be established in South Africa in the 1820’s as part of Governor Somerset’s plan for Anglicizing the predominantly Dutch population of the Cape. Six teachers selected by the British government, opened free schools in 1822 in Graaff- Reinet, Uitenhage, George, Stellenbosch and Caledon ‘for the purpose of facilitating the requirement of the English language to all classes of colonists (Rose, B. and Tunner, R 1975:97).
The Christian Council of South Africa, (CCSA) presently known as the South African Council of Churches (SACC) convened a special meeting in May 1954 which was attended by delegates from all larger churches and missionary societies in South Africa, except the Catholic Church and the Dutch Reformed churches, which were not members of the Christian Council. However, both Catholic Church and Dutch Reformed churches sent their observers to that gathering. While the meeting conceded that the provision of education was the prime duty of the state, and that it was beyond the resources of the churches to educate all African children, it stated that in view of the unaffordable fees and the results thereof – that 60 per cent of these children were still not in school – it was difficult to understand why, apart from bureaucratic passion for uniformity, successful schools under church auspices should not be welcomed and allowed to continue. During April 1956, a delegation from the Christian Council met the Minister of Native Affairs to discuss the future of private schools for Africans. The Christian Council, in their statement, reiterated the belief that there is an essential place for the private school in Bantu Education, firstly because there is virtue in a variety of approaches, and secondly because hundreds of thousands of African children were still receiving no education at all (Horrell 1964:25).
In their comments on mission education, the commissioners in fact drew attention to a number of problems which were already abundantly clear to those involved in the provision of education: the impossibility of the missions meeting the ever-increasing demand for education, the lack of adequately trained teachers and the inability to offer effective supervision of teachers, the low standards (aggravated by irregular attendance and high drop-out rates) being attained in many of the small primary schools, and the inadequate facilities and equipment provided at many schools, as well as the growing demand by local communities for secularisation of education in line with what was provided for ‘white’ children. These were not problems which were unique to South Africa; similar issues were being or would be faced by Christian churches throughout Africa, as well as in other areas where they had pioneers in the provision of education to the local inhabitants (Rundle 1991:108). It must recognized that education has to deal with a Bantu child; that is, a child trained and conditioned in Bantu culture, endowed with a knowledge of a Bantu language and imbued with values, interests and behaviour patterns learned at the knee of a Bantu mother. These facts must dictate to a very large extent the content and methods of early education. The Commission considered that Bantu education should be an integral part of a carefully planned policy of socioeconomic development for the Bantu people. It emphasized the functional value of the school as an institution for the transmission and development of the Bantu cultural heritage (Horrell 1968:5). Education does not exist in a vacuum but in a certain constitutional, political, social and economic context.
The curriculum in the “fundamental” or lower primary stage cannot go much further than the teaching of the “three R’s” through the medium of the mother-tongue, the beginning of the study of Afrikaans and English, religious education and singing. In the past there was great deal of difference between theory and practice in these matters. In fact, the instructions in the curricula laid down the mother-tongue should be the medium of instruction until at least Standard II, and the social milieu of the pupils should be the basis of the learning process by Native teachers. Whatever the case may be, the final results was that the Bantu pupil, unlike the European child, did not achieve a thorough grasp of what he was taught in the natural way through his mother tongue. It is clear that an education provided in this form must stand isolated from the life of Bantu society. It prepares them not for life within a Bantu community, but for the life outside the community, progressively uplifted by education, but for a life outside the community and for posts which do not in fact exist. In this way education has served to create a class of educated and semi-educated persons without the corresponding socio-economic development which should accompany it (Verwoerd 1954:16-17).
Medium of instruction
The famous Eiselen report came up with a suggestion saying that in order not to confuse the African child; education must be conducted in the vernacular. The promotion of “mother tongue” education also meant the demotion of English as a medium of instruction and communication. We have seen how the commissions argued that mission education offered Africans a false perspective on their roles in society. It was clear from the statement above that the use of English as a medium of an instruction was a cause for concern in the Afrikaner circles. The Afrikaners did not like the use of English as a medium of instruction for political reasons (Neil 2002:91).
On the issue of which language must be used as an official language, we see the country authorities coming up with a compromise, which made the two languages to be official languages in South Africa. An African child was expected to use his or her mother tongue at a primary level, but as soon as he or she was at higher primary school, the medium of instruction should be either English or Afrikaans. Bantu education was designed to disadvantage Africans by offering them an education system designed to limit the potential of the African child. The Bantu education system was designed to ensure that the development of an African child was arrested. The African child was to be educated with one purpose in mind, and that was for him/her to take instructions from the white civilized person (Faku, 27 August 2007: paragraph 8, page 6, Grahamstown).
The analysis of the results of this study have painted an interesting picture of how the written sources described the role played by the churches in the introduction of Bantu education and how the world sources emphasized the role of the churches in relation to the implementation of Bantu education.
The Methodist Church of South Africa Conference was of the opinion that practical experience of instruction through the medium of the mother-tongue during the eight years of lower and higher primary schooling, which was introduced in 1955 and fully operative from 1963 indicated that the system had not been beneficial. It pointed out that this insistence on the use of a Bantu language as the medium of teaching until the completion of standard six had been, and continued to be, one of the most potent causes of African mistrust of the system of Bantu education. Conference noted with concern that it was widely held that the extended use of mother-tongue instructing had hindered the intellectual progress of the pupil, was a contributory factor to the decline in competence in the official languages, handicaps the African child particularly in learning mathematics and science because of the difficulties of teaching abstract concepts (such as mass v/s weight, density, fractions or inertia) and was one of the reasons, for what was widely regarded as a general lowering in the level of scholastic ability of African pupils entering the secondary school (Conference Report,1969:11)
1. INTRODUCTION AND METHODOLOGY
1.1. Introduction
1.2. Aims and objectives of the research
1.3. Sources
1.4. Methods of Research
1.5. Organization of Methodology
1.6. Research Design
1.7. Research Process
1.8. Significance of the Study
1.9. Research Problem
1.10. Hypothesis
1.11. Theoretical Framework
1.12. Organization and thematic structure
2. ORAL SOURCES
2.1. Introduction
2.2. Research sample
2.3. Selection of participants
2.4. The settings
2.5. Methods of data collection
2.6. Focus interviews
2.7. Research procedure
2.8. Context of participants
2.9. Instruments
2.10. Procedures
2.11. Interviews
2.12. Interviewing skills
2.13. Field notes taking approach
2.14. Data analysis
2.15. The role of the researcher
2.16. Oral history used
2.17. Presentation of Findings
2.18. Interviews
2.19. Conclusions
3. BANTU EDUCATION
3.1. The Origins of Bantu Education
3.2. Why educate the “Native”?
3.3. Centralisation of Bantu Education
3.4. Report of the Eiselen Commission
3.5. Recommendations by the Eiselen Commission
3.6. Funding for an African Child
3.7. Racial Divide in Mission Education
3.8. Dr. Verwoerd’s speech and presentation
3.9. Implementation of Bantu Education
3.10. Management of Bantu schools
3.11. Impact on mission schools
3.12. Medium of instruction
3.13. Experience of Bantu Education
3.14. Resistance to Bantu Education
3.15. Bantu Education for a Bantu economy
3.16. Bantu Education and apartheid
3.17. Conclusion
4. THE CHURCHES’ RESPONSE
4.1. The English‐speaking churches
4.2. Churches and mission bodies relinquished control
4.3. The role of the church
4.4. A brief survey of mission schools in South Africa
4.5. The churches’ response
4.6. Institutions without subsidies
4.7. The church persecuted
4.8. The involvement of the church and others
4.9. Racial discourse
4.10. The response of the churches
4.11. Control of schools
4.12. Conclusion
5. THE REACTION OF TWO CHURCH LEADERS
5.1. Introduction
5.2. Anglican Church Reacting to Bantu Education
5.3. Conclusion
6. CONCLUDING EVALUATIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
6.1. Introduction
6.2. The road traveled in this study
6.3. Overview of the main findings
6.4. Recommendations
6.5. Conclusion
7. BIBLIOGRAPHY
