Today I'm feeling a little bit of information overload, but it's been another great day of learning here in Cape Town! So much rolling around in my head tonight, but I'll try to connect it all into something to share!
After breakfast, we headed on a train and up the coast to Cape Town's city center. We found our way to South Africa's parliament building (after multiple tries and being sent to multiple different doors), where we joined 5 others on a tour. 2 of the others on the tour were South African, two were visiting from the U.K., and one was an American Peace Corps Volunteer in Lesotho! So fun to compare stories from our service!
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The tour was led by a South African law student and was very interesting and informative. In many ways, I can see the influences of British systems on both SA's and the US's current governement. Like the US, SA has a bicameral parliament system, as well as three branches of governement. The two branches of SA's legislative branch are the National House of Provinces and the National Assembly. Where the legislative branch once had supreme authority, the new Republic of South Africa has given its new constitution supreme authority.
The National House of Provinces is made up of 10 delegates from each of the 9 provinces, and delegates vote in a block for the wishes of their province. The National Assembly is made up of representatives from the parties that make up the multiparty government, with seats given proportionally by the vote. (In the last election, the current party in power, the ANC, got 62% of the seats.) Representatives from different parties sit across from eachother, with the Speaker at the front of the group. In all houses the public is welcome to obtain a free ticket and observe the congress in action, and proceedings can take place in any of the country's 11 official languages. Translators sit at the ready to keep the dialogue moving and record the proceedings in all of the languages.
We also had the chance to sit in the old National Assembly building. Because it is no longer used for official parliament business, we were able to sit in the chairs on the floor. For a brief period of SA's history, there was a tricameral legislature, made up of some of the different racial groups: Whites, Indians, and Coloureds. Black South Africans were excluded all together. It was in this building that one of those groups met. Interestingly, this section of parliament was built as closely as possible to England's House of Commons. (The Brits in the group said it looked just like it!) It was in this room that the majority of Apartheid laws were passed, as well as the site of the only assassination of a prime minister. One of the other visitors asked why they keep this building - a place where so many awful Apartheid laws were allowed to make South Africa into the place it had become. (Remember, since at that time parliament had supreme authority, any law that followed proper procedure could be passed - no checks and balances...) Our tour guide had a great answer. He said that you can't just wipe out history. It's important to remember what happened here, to be sure that it never happens again. So, the house still stands as a reminder for what SA once was, and what it should never be again.
In 1994, everything changed for SA. The New Democratic Republic of South Africa was born. The new constitution became supreme, the law changed - adopting traits from Dutch, British, American, Indigenous, and International law. All of the old pictures were taken down, and African tapestries were hung on the wall instead. The official symbolic tools, the gold mace and the black rod, were redesigned to reflect the new SA and everyone's part in it. It became a democracy built on the principles of forgiveness and reconciliation.
So - a very interesting look at the governemental side of things here in South Africa.
From there, we caught a train and headed just out of the city to visit with a college professor named Peter, the head of the education department at the school. Since the timing of my trip coincided poorly with the school term, it wasn't possible for me to visit any. But, I've been able to see many from the outside, and talking with this knowledgeable professor of education was the next best thing!
This conversation brought yet another snapshot into the experience of another South African - this time with an added focus on the education side of things that I'm so interested in. We talked for hours, but I'll try to share objectively on some of my biggest insights:
After breakfast, we headed on a train and up the coast to Cape Town's city center. We found our way to South Africa's parliament building (after multiple tries and being sent to multiple different doors), where we joined 5 others on a tour. 2 of the others on the tour were South African, two were visiting from the U.K., and one was an American Peace Corps Volunteer in Lesotho! So fun to compare stories from our service!
The tour was led by a South African law student and was very interesting and informative. In many ways, I can see the influences of British systems on both SA's and the US's current governement. Like the US, SA has a bicameral parliament system, as well as three branches of governement. The two branches of SA's legislative branch are the National House of Provinces and the National Assembly. Where the legislative branch once had supreme authority, the new Republic of South Africa has given its new constitution supreme authority.
The National House of Provinces is made up of 10 delegates from each of the 9 provinces, and delegates vote in a block for the wishes of their province. The National Assembly is made up of representatives from the parties that make up the multiparty government, with seats given proportionally by the vote. (In the last election, the current party in power, the ANC, got 62% of the seats.) Representatives from different parties sit across from eachother, with the Speaker at the front of the group. In all houses the public is welcome to obtain a free ticket and observe the congress in action, and proceedings can take place in any of the country's 11 official languages. Translators sit at the ready to keep the dialogue moving and record the proceedings in all of the languages.
We also had the chance to sit in the old National Assembly building. Because it is no longer used for official parliament business, we were able to sit in the chairs on the floor. For a brief period of SA's history, there was a tricameral legislature, made up of some of the different racial groups: Whites, Indians, and Coloureds. Black South Africans were excluded all together. It was in this building that one of those groups met. Interestingly, this section of parliament was built as closely as possible to England's House of Commons. (The Brits in the group said it looked just like it!) It was in this room that the majority of Apartheid laws were passed, as well as the site of the only assassination of a prime minister. One of the other visitors asked why they keep this building - a place where so many awful Apartheid laws were allowed to make South Africa into the place it had become. (Remember, since at that time parliament had supreme authority, any law that followed proper procedure could be passed - no checks and balances...) Our tour guide had a great answer. He said that you can't just wipe out history. It's important to remember what happened here, to be sure that it never happens again. So, the house still stands as a reminder for what SA once was, and what it should never be again.
In 1994, everything changed for SA. The New Democratic Republic of South Africa was born. The new constitution became supreme, the law changed - adopting traits from Dutch, British, American, Indigenous, and International law. All of the old pictures were taken down, and African tapestries were hung on the wall instead. The official symbolic tools, the gold mace and the black rod, were redesigned to reflect the new SA and everyone's part in it. It became a democracy built on the principles of forgiveness and reconciliation.
So - a very interesting look at the governemental side of things here in South Africa.
From there, we caught a train and headed just out of the city to visit with a college professor named Peter, the head of the education department at the school. Since the timing of my trip coincided poorly with the school term, it wasn't possible for me to visit any. But, I've been able to see many from the outside, and talking with this knowledgeable professor of education was the next best thing!
This conversation brought yet another snapshot into the experience of another South African - this time with an added focus on the education side of things that I'm so interested in. We talked for hours, but I'll try to share objectively on some of my biggest insights:
- Peter attended a segregated school, growing up in the Western Cape. He described that the white school was on one side of a valley, the black/coloured school was on the other, and "never the two shall meet." He finished his schooling in 1983.
- In the segregated schools, the quality of education in the white schools was far superior to the education received in black or coloured schools.
- Peter referenced the uprisings in Soweto, 1976 as a pivotal point in education in SA. At the time, he as teaching in a segregated school. For him, this was the beginning of many changes to come.
- In 1992, schools became open to all races. Peter described this as intentional desegregation. When pushed further, he said this usually meant that black or coloured students would "cross the road" and join the white schools. It rarely went the other way around. Additionally, it was often only the upper class black or coloured students who would be able to afford the fees needed to actually switch schools. (Even government/public schools in South Africa require uniforms and text books to be purchased and school fees to be paid) Peter also shared the pattern than often followed "desegregation": the students of color would come to the school, and it would be multiracial only briefly, until the white families left the school, and moved on to a more white school. In this way, many of the schools that used to be "white" have few white students left in them. What was supposed to bring everyone together, just shifted everyone one school "up the ladder"
- This observation was also shared by the teacher I talked with during my visit to the Slave Lodge musuem
- In 1994, with the new government, everything changed. Education policy was "passed around like a football," and the curriculum underwent major revision. Whereas formally, each province would set their own curriculum (differening not only by province but also by race group), now there was a push for a more universal curriculum shared by the entire country - the same for all children regardless of race. Peter feels that this has generally lowered the quality of education across the countries (the score required to graduate on the national exam is only 30%), and now many private schools are being created to teach a "more rigorous" (and expensive) curriculum. So, a divide still exists...As in America, wealth gives access to resources - plain and simple.
- The post apartheid years also brought about painful changes for Peter. As schools were combined, losing their unique identities but becoming more open to all, staffing ratios intended to diversify the teachign staff left Peter (a white male) without a job. He dealt with unemployment three different times during that period, finding it nearly impossible to find or keep a job based on his race. He speaks without biterness about this, but acknowledges the difficulty it brought to him and his family.
- Peter shared that today, there is a direct line between wealth (which, in SA, also breaks down along racial lines) and success in school. The more expensive the school, the better resources, the better perform the students. While good education is now legally open to all, the realities of what one can pay and how one gets admitted still excludes many people from an ability to access quality education.
- I also learned some disheartening statistics from Peter - of the 1 million South African children in the system each year, only half make it from kindergarten all the way through grade 12. Of those, only 67% pass the graduation exam nation wide. Although school is compulsory until age 15, millions of kids leave school long before that.
- Peter has a lot of hope for the younger generations, known here as "born-frees" because they have not lived under the Apartheid system. He feels that they are the most open when it comes to race issues, and it will be them who will bring even more change to SA.
- When I asked Peter to speak from his experience in SA and share advice for America's educational system, he emphasized learning from the example set here. He emphasized the importance of reaching out to families and teaching students the values of diversity at a young age. He shared that when jobs must restructure, people must move on. He said that everyone benefits personally from a more open society.
So - lots to think about and absorb. I have lots of thoughts about what I learned and how I percieve the information I've gathered, but I'll just save those for another night.
We ended our evening at the home of a college acquaintance, who shared a great meal with us and yet another picture into another life lived here in South Africa.
Tomorrow we'll head to Robben Island, and later spend some time with the president of a local university. I know I will continue to see new perspectives, have more stories shared, and absorb these experiences. What a crazy great learning adventure!
~emily~
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