South Africa: Racism and xenophobia in South African schools

A critical review of Literature and experiences on Racism, Prejudice and Xenophobia in South African Schools.

The Soul Buddyz series is a television programme under Soul City Institute for Health and Development in South Africa and is aimed at young people (school going age) in South Africa. It explores critical topics and aims to educate and inform youngsters on issues such as peer pressure, sexuality, health, rights, discrimination and racism.

Due to its success in reaching the youth, Soul City commissioned Jonathan Jansen to write a paper on Racism and Xenophobia in South African schools with the following stated objectives:

1.to describe the nature and state of racism and xenophobia in schools
2.to document children's experiences, attitude and behaviour with respect to racism and xenophobia
3.to identify existing policy priorities with respect to racism and xenophobia in the current school context
4.to highlight 'best practice' locally and internationally for dealing with racism and xenophobia in schools
5.to list stakeholders and major players in the field in terms of racism and xenophobia especially as it relates to educational and training contexts.

South Africa has come from a history of a segregated education system and with such a heritage what does the integration of schools mean with respect to racism and xenophobia?

Jansen focused this paper on racism and to a lesser extent xenophobia. His findings were that South African schools, true to legacy, expressed difference to intolerance, prejudice and discrimination towards the following groups:

- black children,
- children with disabilities or special needs,
- poor children in affluent schools,
- immigrant children,
- children who speak different langauges other than English/Afrikaans,
- girls in co-ed schools,
- Muslim/Hindu children in schools claiming a Christian ethos
- over age children,
- children with HIV/AIDS.

For the research Jansen used the number of complaints as received by the Human Rights Commission as a first measure. The second measure used was taken from a study undertaken by Vally and Dalamba in 1999. This study showed that 62% of learners sampled from 60 schools reported positively for racial problems at school. The third measure was 'high profile' media cases.

Taken together the above three measures still signal a serious problem in schools with respect to racism, notes Jansen. The report by Jansen elaborates on the different experiences of children from disadvantaged and advantaged schools.

* Summarised from the full report by Mandlakazi Motsoeledi, Fahamu, student intern. The full report by Jonathan Jansen is available from: http://www.soulcity.org.za/11.02.asp