A Human Sciences Research Council (HSRC) research paper has shown that almost 30 years after the end of apartheid, school segregation in South Africa remains very high along racial and socioeconomic lines.

Presenting the study – School Segregation in Post-Apartheid South Africa – during a seminar hosted by HSRC, University of Cambridge assistant professor Dr Rob Gruijters said the paper shows that while socioeconomic segregation is also exceptionally high, it only explains 16% of racial segregation.

The HSRC used a comprehensive overview of current patterns of school segregation by race and class in South Africa. The study is based on the 2021 Annual School Survey – an administrative dataset covering all South African schools – and the 2019 TIMSS school survey.

In South Africa, former white schools continue to be the most prestigious and desirable schools.

The study found that the average white child attends a school that is 70% white, and the average black child attends a school that is 96% black. White children are clustered in a small number of former white schools, and most elite public and private schools remain predominantly white.

Gruijters explained that many, but not all, former white schools are racially diverse to varying degrees, but they are not representative of the population.

He said black African children, in particular, remain highly underrepresented in the country’s best schools. Public and private “elite schools” remain predominantly white, with white students exposure to black classmates mostly from the socioeconomically advantaged segments. 

Gruijters said it is almost impossible to understand racial segregation in education without analysing its intersection with socioeconomic segregation, explaining that previous research has suggested that the integration of former white schools is often limited to the wealthiest children from other racial groups.

Although many “white schools” now admit learners from other groups, there is a lot of variation among them. Some have become almost 100% black, while some are racially diverse to varying degrees. A few remain almost 100% white. The same goes for former coloured and Asian schools.

OPPORTUNITY HOARDING

The resource that is ‘hoarded’ in the case of school segregation is access to the most well-resourced and high-performing schools, and the economic opportunities they provide.

The study says it can be argued that the political settlement that emerged in post-apartheid South Africa was conducive to opportunity hoarding by the white minority and other socioeconomically advantaged groups.

The study notes that opportunity hoarding is a micro-level process that does not require political power or centralized coordination, although political institutions can facilitate or counteract hoarding behaviour.