Paper/Proposal Title
The Public Good in South African Education: The Lifeblood of Democracy
Location
Kennedy Union 310 (on UD's main campus)
Start Date
November 2023
End Date
November 2023
Keywords
Public good, South African public education, Parliament, Narrative Policy Framework
Abstract
This paper investigates how the concept of education as a public good in South Africa has been affected by privatisation since 1994. This study locates itself within a human rights framework, which is premised upon South Africa’s (seemingly progressive) Constitution of 1996 and seeks to investigate the potential shift of education as a public good (that truly benefits the public) towards a more market-based and neoliberal approach to education provision. In this regard, I analyse the annual South African education budget vote speeches presented in the South African Parliament by successive post-apartheid Ministers of Education from 1994 to 2021. As its core focus, this study theorises that the notion of education as a public good has shifted and changed in meaning since 1994. I investigate this by tracking its perceived change in meanings using a qualitative research design known as the Narrative Policy Framework, which I leverage using a Thematic Analysis approach. This approach is used as a data reduction and analysis strategy. This study argues that the re- articulation of public education under the broad rubric of neoliberal thought has fundamentally impacted the concept of education as a public good and education as a fundamental human right in South Africa in the post-apartheid era. Furthermore, despite the goal of making education universally available, the increasing encroachment of ‘the market’ in public education provision consolidates and creates new forms of inequalities, thereby enlarging the general inequality gap.
Author/Speaker Biographical Statement(s)
Pagiel Joshua Chetty was born in eMkhondo, Mpumalanga, South Africa in 1988 and was one of the first people of 'colour' in the local ‘white’-only primary school. Pagiel has always been passionate about education and empowering the youth, which led him to found the NPO 'The Meira Football Academy' in 2009, with the core function of improving the lives of children through education and football. After completing his Bachelor of Education degree, Pagiel moved to Cape Town, and was struck by the massive injustices still prevalent in the majority of South Africa's schools and neighbourhoods. His experiences have made him realize that South Africa's segregated and class dependent past (and Neoliberal reliance) cannot simply be forgotten or erased. Pagiel completed his Honours in Educational Management in 2017, his Bachelor of Theology in 2018 and his Master’s degree in 2023. His MEd thesis, through the University of Cape Town, is titled "The R/Evolution of South Africa's Public Education System post-1994 in an era of Privatisation." Pagiel currently serves as a board member of Alpha & Omega School in Mpumalanga, South Africa and is the HOD for Inclusion, Equity and Policy Development at Rondebosch Boys' Preparatory School in Rondebosch, Cape Town.
The Public Good in South African Education: The Lifeblood of Democracy
Kennedy Union 310 (on UD's main campus)
This paper investigates how the concept of education as a public good in South Africa has been affected by privatisation since 1994. This study locates itself within a human rights framework, which is premised upon South Africa’s (seemingly progressive) Constitution of 1996 and seeks to investigate the potential shift of education as a public good (that truly benefits the public) towards a more market-based and neoliberal approach to education provision. In this regard, I analyse the annual South African education budget vote speeches presented in the South African Parliament by successive post-apartheid Ministers of Education from 1994 to 2021. As its core focus, this study theorises that the notion of education as a public good has shifted and changed in meaning since 1994. I investigate this by tracking its perceived change in meanings using a qualitative research design known as the Narrative Policy Framework, which I leverage using a Thematic Analysis approach. This approach is used as a data reduction and analysis strategy. This study argues that the re- articulation of public education under the broad rubric of neoliberal thought has fundamentally impacted the concept of education as a public good and education as a fundamental human right in South Africa in the post-apartheid era. Furthermore, despite the goal of making education universally available, the increasing encroachment of ‘the market’ in public education provision consolidates and creates new forms of inequalities, thereby enlarging the general inequality gap.
