South Africa’s Student Protests Have Thrived For Decades

Khanyi Mlaba had this really interesting story in Global Citizen. Here is an excerpt:

As one of the most unequal countries in the world, South Africa has been grappling with leveling the playing field after the divisions of apartheid, and nowhere is this clearer than its continuous struggle to provide citizens with affordable education.

Protests for free and fair education have helped to shape the country’s history as well as its constitution. In 1976, Black South African school children protested to break the barriers put in front of them by the Bantu education system, which was a schooling system created by the apartheid government to limit the growth and the futures of young Black people. The system sought to keep Black people in lower paying jobs, and limit their access to tertiary education.

While the Bantu education system no longer exists, the education that is available for all citizens today, specifically tertiary education, costs a lot more than what lower-income households can afford. 

Access the full article through this link.