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Abstract
One of challenges facing higher education in South Africa since 1994 as outlined in the White Paper is "to redress past inequalities and to transform the higher education system to serve a new social order, to meet pressing national needs, and to respond to new realities and opportunities."(White Paper,3;1). Access to higher education and education in general has been a problem particularly for African people. This is important to understand the present challenges facing higher education as South Africa enjoys its second decade of democracy. In order to meet these challenges, the post-apartheid government enacted new policies to redress past inequalities in higher education. This article analyzed how new policies have transformed and democratized the higher education system and what challenges it still faces. Whether higher education institutions are ready to meet these challenges remains to be seen. The article, despite new policy initiatives, assumes higher education continues to face a number of challenges ranging from transformation, redress and equity, to having an inclusive curriculum.
Keywords: Higher Education Act, Redress, Transformation, Redress, Equity
1.Higher education policy approaches to transformation in post-apartheid South Africa.
One of the legacies of apartheid that led to the lack of development of the black people was the Bantu education system enacted in 1953. It was an education system organized along racial lines with vastly inferior institutions catering for black students. The policy of racism also shaped its policies and higher education landscape. This led to the creation of 36 higher education institutions in South Africa with sharp racial divisions, cultures and languages of the coloured, Indians and whites. Education was considered to be own affairs by the 1984 constitution.
In 1994, South Africa became a democratic country and it inherited a divided and racial higher education system. This was the situation as new education policies were formulated and implemented to reshape the system so that it can meet the challenges of a democratic, equitable and non-racial society. On the eve of South Africa's first democratic elections in 1994, the African National Congress (ANC) circulated A Policy Framework For Education and Training which was its vision for higher education, as well as the foundation on which the new, transformed education system was to be built. It counteracted key features...