Lack-cess to education â the cycle of abuse against South African students continues
Seven postgraduate students from Wits Universityâs Critical Diversity Studies department write about the perennial funding crisis in higher education in South Africa. They argue that institutional failure via the government, universities, police, and apathetic citizens preserve the cycle of abuse against the majority of students in this country. South Africa, they say, cannot claim to be equal and free if privilege and power remain as the determinants of access and success.
Access to education in South Africa should be termed âlack-cess to educationâ. While the educational sector receives the lionâs share of the national budget every year, we still find ourselves with broken and corrupt systems leaving underprivileged students, the majority of whom are black, with poorly trained teachers and without school toilets, adequate textbooks, school lunches.