During the first half of 1982, a year after the ending of the 1980 school boycott, schools in South Africa were again in a state of tension and unrest in several areas.
Anger, both among students and in the black community generally, was focussed on issues concerning the examination system, the imposition of new regulations, poor conditions in schools and action by the government against teachers who had shown sympathy with previous protests. The anger was expressed in protest meetings and, in a number of schools, in boycotts or stoning and burning of school buildings.
In universities organised support for the campaign against apartheid education appears to have been growing in strength.
EXAMS
Pass rates were very low in both African and Coloured schools in the matriculation (end of school) examinations written at the end of 1981. Pass rates in Coloured schools generally, and in African schools in Soweto were 56 and 57 per cent respectively. These rates were considerably lower than in previous years, and much lower than those for whites: there was a 94 per cent pass rate in white schools in the Transvaal. Of black pupils writing the matriculation exams, less than 20 per cent reached the level required for university entrance.
In the Venda bantustan, where education is still controlled by the central government, it was reported that four per cent of candidates qualified for university entrance.
The low pass rate was attributed in part to the disruptions of the boycotts of 1980. But black educationalists, parents and community leaders combined in ascribing the causes to the inferior education system for black children. The compulsory rewriting of certain subjects owing to leaks of exam papers, which resulted from administrative problems, was also held to be partly responsible for the surprisingly poor results.
The situation was made worse by the imposition of new regulations imposing limits on the admission of African children into schools. The regulations, gazetted in December 1980, prevent pupils over 20 being admitted to the final year (Std. 10), without permission of the Department of Education and Training. Pupils over 18 are similarly prevented from being admitted to Standard Eight. In January at the start of the school year, the new regulations were imposed for the first time, excluding from schools thousands of pupils who would otherwise have been admitted. This included many who had to rewrite exams because of the leak of papers.
SHORTAGES
Shortages of school places also prevent many children receiving education. In areas of the KawZulu bantustan near Pietermaritzburg it was reported that schools were so overcrowded that 900 children were turned away. 75 of them who enrolled at a school in Sobantu near Pietermaritzburg, outside the bantustan area, were expelled because they were not resident in Sobantu: however, in the face of a class boycott by 800 pupils protesting at their expulsion, they were given a 'reprieve'.
Overcrowding was particularly severe on the East Rand. In Tembisa township hundreds of children had had no lessons three weeks after the school term started because of shortages of teachers and classrooms.
ACTION AGAINST TEACHERS
Teachers in Coloured and Indian schools who had previously expressed support for pupils' protests, have been acted against by the education departments in various ways, including dismissal of temporary teachers and transfers of permanent teachers.
Fifteen Johannesburg and Cape teachers on temporary appointments were dismissed from their posts at the beginning of the 1982 school year, because they had stayed away on 16 June 1981, the commemoration of the uprising of 1976.
Several other teachers who had stayed away or in other ways expressed support for pupils' protests have been transferred or demoted. At least six teachers in Coloured schools in the Cape and Johannesburg were transferred to remote places. Vacancies in Indian schools in the areas which showed the greatest militancy during the 1980 boycotts, such as Lenasia, are being filled with people from other regions. Local teachers are having to accept posts in places remote from their homes.
PROTESTS
The situation in schools has given rise to a wide range of protest action.
Prompted by the bad exam results, the administrative confusion and the imposition of the age-limit regulations, educationalists, community leaders and black organisations called a number of meetings during January, February and March. Apart from taking up the specific issues, the meetings reaffirmed the need to eradicate the apartheid education system. In Soweto the principal organisations involved included the Teachers Action Committee, the Congress of South African Students (COSAS), the Azanian Students Organisation (AZASO), the Azanian People's Organisation (AZAPO).
A rally in Port Elizabeth organised by COSAS was attended by over 2,000 people, including student, community, civic and trade union leaders.
In the schools themselves, the most forceful action was taken in Natal. Anger over the compulsory rewriting was expressed at several schools in Umlazi, near Durban, through demonstrations and class boycotts.
Elsewhere in the country there were incidents in schools which, although not overtly connected with protests, were suspected by police to be cases of arson. In the first two weeks of January, eight schools in the Port Elizabeth area were damaged by fire, while five schools in the Western Cape were damaged by fire in March and April and one in Tembisa in March.
UNIVERSITIES
There were two major developments amongst black university students during the first half of 1982, both indicating growing support for action and organisation against the apartheid education authorities.
In March the Azanian Students Organisation (AZASO), at a meeting attended by representatives from several universities, decided to draw up an Education Charter setting out the demands and goals of students. The charter is to be drawn up at a meeting later in the year after consultation with trade unions, community organisations and educationalists. At the meeting the President of AZASO said that apartheid education 'does not simply mean inequality in facilities. It also means an attempt to control the values of students so that they accept racism as a way of life.'
Later in the year, in May, a boycott by Fort Hare students received support from universities in a number of areas. The boycott was staged after the arrest of 1,500 students who were protesting against the action of Ciskei police in detaining 22 students and shooting and injuring two others. The police action was taken against students protesting against a visit to the university of Chief Sebe, the leader of the Ciskei bantustan. Sebe was trying to attend the university graduation ceremony.
