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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The politics of multi-racialism: the private schools of Southern Africa |
Author: | Randall, P. |
Year: | 1985 |
Periodical: | The English Academy Review |
Volume: | 3 |
Pages: | 177-186 |
Language: | English |
Geographic terms: | South Africa Zimbabwe |
Subjects: | race relations private education Christian education |
External link: | https://doi.org/10.1080/10131758585310151 |
Abstract: | This article uses the term 'private school' in a narrow sense, to denote the independent school originally established for fee-paying white English-speaking children and modelled on the British public school, including not only the older Anglican boarding schools but also Protestant or non-denomination foundations as well as Catholic private schools. The first such schools in South Africa (and the first English private school, founded in 1806) were racially integrated. This practice, however, was abandoned during the 19th century: in the British colony of Natal in the 1880s, in the Cape by the turn of the century. However, in the 19th century there was not the same rigid and legally enforced segregation demanded by successive governments in the 20th century and while the private church schools became progressively whiter, the mission schools frequently admitted non-black pupils. Much the same general pattern of schooling developed in Southern Rhodesia. The provision of schools for Africans was left by and large to the missionaries. A separate department of native education was established in this country as late as 1927. Moves towards multiracialism in private schools, which continued after the ending of the Central African Federation in 1963, fell foul of the new Rhodesian Front Government in 1965. After independence private schools in the new Zimbabwe were impelled towards full integration. In South Africa the government is prepared to tolerate a limited amount of racial integration in private schools. Notes, ref. |