| Summary: | The aim of the study was to investigate affirmative action as a mechanism for
education reform in South Aftica.
This investigation was prompted by political changes, which took place after
the democratic elections of April 1994, impacting on the provisioning of
education in South Africa. The South African education system and its
institutions were confronted by many new laws and policies, including
affirmative action programmes that had to be implemented. Structural
changes like a unified and racially integrated education system came into
being.
Through literature and empirical studies it was found that race and gender
discrimination was observable in all the education institutions in the RSA.
Literature study revealed that neither arguments for, nor arguments against
affirmative action should be overemphasized at the expense of the other.
Both approaches supplemented and enriched each other. Applied correctly
and managed well, the disadvantages of affirmative action can be overcome
in the main. In this manner most of the injustices of the past can be
corrected.
It was established through literature study that, like in the USA, affirmative
action in the RSA seems to be an option to eradicate the imbalances of the
past in terms of race and gender. In the USA success was achieved by
affirmative action programmes: The American population became more
representative in terms of race and gender. On the other hand it was also
established that the previously disadvantaged groups were over-represented.
This led to the claim of reverse discrimination. The empirical method, namely using questionnaires, was successful in
obtaining information about how education participants, especially at school
level, were affected by the implementation of affirmative action policies. It also
established how education participants felt and thought about their
experiences and perceptions about the affirmative action mechanism for
education reform.
The study established that factors aimed at the equality of opportunity (also
known as the soft approach) enjoyed preference to factors aimed at the
equality of result (also known as the hard approach). In order to bring about
the smooth education transformation it also established that for observable
and radical changes to occur in the education system, factors aimed at the
equality of result (the hard approach) should enjoy more attention than factors
aimed at the equality of opportunity. Thus it was concluded that both the soft
and the hard approaches were necessary to understand the controversial
nature of affirmative action. A number of recommendations were made with regard to the research findings for stakeholders and officials to note. === Thesis (M.Ed.)--Potchefstroom University for Christian Higher Education, 2003
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