Answer:
South Africa: Broken And Unequal Education Perpetuating Poverty And Inequality The South African education system, characterised by crumbling infrastructure, overcrowded classrooms and relatively poor educational outcomes, is perpetuating inequality and as a result failing too many of its children, with the poor hardest hit, according to a new report published by Amnesty International on Tuesday. Broken and Unequal: The State of Education in South Africa calls on the government to urgently address a number of endemic failings in the system in order to guarantee the right to a decent education for every child in South Africa. The report particularly highlights poor infrastructure in public schools including sanitation which has tragically resulted in the death of two children in pit latrines in recent years. "For South Africa to comply with both its own constitutional and international human rights obligations with respect to education, major change is needed urgently, "said Shenilla Mohamed, Executive Director of Amnesty International South Africa. "The right to quality education includes having a school where learners are safe to learn and have the adequate infrastructure and facilities to do so, but our research has found that this is not the reality for many learners in the country." The report details how the education system continues to be dogged by stark inequalities and chronic underperformance that have deep roots in the legacy of apartheid, but which are also not being effectively tackled by the current government. For example, it brings to the fore that many schools and the communities they serve continue to live with the consequences of the political and economic decisions made during the apartheid era where people were segregated according to their skin colour, with schools serving white communities properly resourced. The result of this modern-day South Africa is that a child's experience of education still very much depends on where they are born, how wealthy they are, and the colour of their skin. As the President prepares to deliver the State of the National Address this week, the critical question is: why is it that a child's experience of education in South Africa still depends very much on where they are born, how wealthy they are, and the colour of their skin? While the report acknowledges that there has been progress made since the end of apartheid on widening access to education as well as other aspects, it has identified weaknesses by the Department of Basic Education, such as repeatedly failing to reach its own targets with respect to infrastructure and facilities. In these circumstances it is not surprising that educational outcomes remain relatively poor. For example, a recent international survey found that more than three quarters of children aged nine cannot read for meaning. In some provinces this is as high as 91% in Limpopo and 85% in the Eastern Cape. And of 100 learners that start school, 50-60 will make it to matric, 40-50 will pass matric, and only 14 will go to university. "South Africa has one of the most unequal school systems in the world. Children in the top 200 schools achieve more distinctions in mathematics than children in the next 6,600schools combined. The playing field must be levelled." The right to quality education includes having a school where learners are safe to learn and have the quality education