parents and principals as partners in creating a culture of learning

[ 25 I
Ramphele (1992:15-16); Gelderblom & McKay (1995:23-24) and Van Niekerk &
Meier (1995:75) distinguish the following as economic factors that played a role
in the erosion of the culture of learning.
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Most black people in South Africa are of the opinion that they were
deliberately impoverished by the white regime. This perception led to
intense conflict between parents and children because children felt that their
parents had not done enough to throw off the yoke of the apartheid system.
Having lost respect for their parents because they failed to protect them
against poveny and the consequences of the apartheid dispensation,
children made common cause with militant subcultures that challenged the
machinery of state in various ways.
Unemployment mainly affected those who had been disadvantaged and
denied education, training and other essential resources for successful
economic performance. Those who have been kept out of the cities and the
poorly educated are hardest hit. They are therefore also very angry and
resentful of those who seem to succeed. Conflict between the "haves" and
the "have-nots" is common.
The migrant labour system further eroded morale in the black community.
Black workers were usually housed in migrant labour compounds where
women and children were not admitted. This had a disruptive effect on
family life.
The system of Bantu education introduced in 1953 only produced "hewers
of wood and drawers of water". South Africans with a matric certificate
obtained through black education were met at best by an indifferent job
market, and at worst by a hostile one which sought to keep them in their
place. Job reservation also contributed considerably to unemployment,
which fuelled the cycle of illiteracy and consequent crime and violence.