A Critique of the Efficiency Case for Increasing Government Expenditure on Schooling in Post Apartheid South Africa

Abstract

Under the policy of apartheid Blacks are widely perceived to have had less government expenditure on their schooling than would have been efficient and it is deduced that the economic case for increasing this expenditure in post apartheid South Africa is almost overwhelming. The education policies of the National Party were influenced by this line of reasoning during the 1980s and 1990s, and the African National Congress rationalise their Reconstruction and Development Programme on education in this way. In this paper a critique of the case is presented: it is shown to be inconclusive rather than overwhelming.