Decentralisation and the construction of inclusion education policy in South Africa

Abstract

This paper critically reviews the ways in which the policy of education decentralisation in post‐apartheid South Africa results in both forms of inclusion and new forms of exclusion. Drawing on a two‐year research project carried out in three provinces in South Africa, it shows how in the governance of schools, new forms of exclusion are being generated. It thus throws into sharp relief the policy effects of education decentralisation in South Africa, illuminating through case study data the disjuncture between policy intention and effect. It argues for the need to re‐examine some aspects of post‐apartheid education policy given the historical apartheid legacy. It suggests that often, in practice, policies of education decentralisation may exacerbate rather than reduce inequities in society; they may exclude more than include.

Acknowledgement

The authors are grateful to the Department for International Development for funding the Education Inclusion and Exclusion in South Africa and India Research Project. The views in this paper do not reflect those of DFID.

Notes

This paper emerges from a research project on inclusion and exclusion which Yusuf Sayed led while he was at the University of Sussex. The article is written in a personal capacity and does not reflect the views of DFID and its partners.