The failure of hearts and minds in SA education

THE Higher Education Act of 1997 envisaged a system that contributed to SA’s economic and social development. The act anticipated a system geared to unleash the intellectual energy of all South Africans.

The realisation of this objective requires both leadership and a system free from racial prejudice. The assumption was that brilliance is equally distributed among all groups. It assumed that racism stops the country from exploiting all of its intellectual sources. Irredeemable racists believe differently and have little difficulty in perpetuating practices of exclusion.

It would appear, however, that the system lacks the required leadership to confront racism in its sector. In dealing with racism, we need to remind ourselves of Richard Shaull’s assertion, in Paulo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed, that there is no such thing as a neutral educational process.