Bantu education refers to the racially segregated education system for Black South Africans established by the apartheid government through the Bantu Education Act of 1953. This law placed Black education under the control of the government, specifically the Department of Bantu Education, and was designed to enforce separate and unequal schooling based on race
. The key features of Bantu education included:
- Education was delivered in the students' native languages, with some instruction in English and Afrikaans, but the curriculum was deliberately limited to prepare Black children for manual labor and menial jobs deemed suitable by the apartheid regime
- The system was underfunded and poorly resourced compared to white education, with Black schools receiving only a fraction of the funding, leading to overcrowded classrooms, a shortage of qualified teachers, and inadequate facilities
- The curriculum emphasized practical skills like needlework, handcraft, and agriculture for girls, while also including basic arithmetic, social studies, and Christian religious instruction, all designed to reinforce the ideology of Black subservience to whites
- Missionary schools, which had previously provided relatively better education to Black South Africans, largely closed rather than comply with the government's apartheid curriculum and control
- The policy was explicitly intended to maintain white supremacy and social stratification by limiting Black South Africans' educational and economic opportunities, effectively preparing them for low-skilled labor roles and excluding them from full participation in the broader society
Overall, Bantu education was a tool of apartheid designed to institutionalize racial inequality in education and restrict Black South Africans' social and economic advancement
. It was repealed later, but its legacy had long-lasting detrimental effects on South African society.
