White ‘opportunity hoarding’ divides SA schools on racial lines: study

White pupils occupy 62% of the spaces in elite public schools and 55% in private schools while their black African counterparts occupy 20% and 27% of spaces respectively.

This was one of the preliminary findings of a study conducted by Rob Gruijters from Cambridge University, Benjamin Elbers, a postdoctoral fellow at Oxford University, and Vijay Reddy, a distinguished research specialist from the Human Sciences Research Council.

It found that school segregation in postapartheid SA “remains very high along racial lines”.

“Black African children, in particular, remain highly underrepresented in the country’s best schools. Elite schools, both public and private, remain predominantly white.”

Titled “School segregation in postapartheid SA”, the academics who participated in a webinar on Monday said their research was based on the 2021 annual school survey data provided by the department of basic education.

Gruijters, who was the lead author, said last year the average white pupil attended a school that had 68.5% white pupils, 3.3% Indian, 8.5% coloured and 19.6% black pupils.

The study found that conversely the average black pupil attended a school that had 0.9% white, 0.7% Indian, 2% coloured and 96.4% black pupils.

Indian pupils had 8.6% exposure to white pupils, 41.6% to Indian, 5.8% to coloured and 44% to black pupils.

“Some of the former white schools have become almost 100% black and a few remain almost 100% white. Schools may be racially diverse but not integrated or representative of the population.”

Some of the former white schools have become almost 100% black and a few remain almost 100% white. Schools may be racially diverse but not integrated or representative of the population.

Gruijters said while former white schools are, on average, the most racially diverse, they also contributed most to segregation “because white and Indian children remain strongly overrepresented in these schools relative to their share of the population”.

Alluding to the theory of “opportunity hoarding”, he said the resource that is hoarded in the case of school segregation is “access to the most well-resourced and high-performing schools and the economic opportunities they provide”.

“In SA, former white schools continue to be the most prestigious and desirable schools.”

Gruijters and his two colleagues argued in the paper that the political settlement that emerged in post-apartheid SA “was conducive to opportunity hoarding by the white minority”.

He said that “opportunity hoarding” was facilitated by there being no explicit government policy or guidance on school integration.

“School governing bodies received a broad mandate to set fee levels, decide on catchment areas and other admission criteria.”

He said there was the introduction of school fees, mainly in former white schools, “at levels that are unaffordable for most of the population”.

“Previous research suggests that school fees and admission criteria were used strategically by governing bodies in former white schools to exclude undesirable, that is, poor or black applicants.”

The study also concluded that when white pupils have exposure to black classmates, they tend to be from the most socio-economically advantaged segments.

Previous research suggests that school fees and admission criteria were used strategically by governing bodies in former white schools to exclude undesirable, that is, poor or black applicants.

Jonathan Jansen, distinguished professor of education at Stellenbosch University, told participants of the webinar that what the three academics had as a set of reasons for the lack of integration and desegregation “is called racism and we need to call it that”.

“The findings are largely confirming existing research.”

Jansen, a social scientist, said there should be a caveat to the point that the most desirable schools were white schools “because the most desirable schools are not white schools”.

“There are a huge number of black schools that are desirable for a whole lot of other reasons such as academic performance and the other is a sense of social cohesion.”

Said Jansen: “Don’t make the assumption that there is a straight line to be drawn between a white school and a most desirable school. Desirable in terms of what?

“I do think we must not run away with this idea that the issue, relationally speaking, is only about the desirability of these former white, elite, middle-class schools.

“We also have to believe that if all these schools were ideally integrated, the majority of black pupils would not fit into them by virtue of the size of the schooling population.”

Jansen asked why black pupils wanted to get into white, coloured and Indian schools.

“I don’t think that it’s necessarily because the schools are white. I think it is to do with the perception of greater functionality, the perception of greater opportunity.”