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Education: Each one, teach one


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AL2446_2567  REMEMBER JUNE 16 Freedom or death; Victory is certain 1987. Militant township youths demand people's education rather than gutter education, and that June 1976 not be forgotten.

Remember June 16 (Hector) 1984 AL2446_2611

On 16 June 1976 secondary school students of Soweto decided that they would not submit to the imposition of Afrikaans as a medium of instruction. They had also had enough of racist and inferior education. Under the banner of the 'Action Committee' of the South African Students Movement (SASM) pupils organised a protest march. Groups from the different Soweto schools gathered and moved towards Orlando stadium to hold a mass meeting. Units of the South African Police moved in swiftly, firing live ammunition. This protest and the resulting deaths marked the beginning of an uprising which spread rapidly throughout South Africa; hundreds of school students were killed. Education had become a terrain of violence, and has remained so.


Education

Segregated schooling has been fundamental to apartheid education policy. When the white Nationalist government steered the Bantu Education Act through parliament in 1953/1954, their intentions were clear:

I will reform education so that Natives will be taught from childhood that equality with Europeans is not for them.

                                                                                        Hendrik Verwoerd

We should not give the Natives any academic education. If we do, who is going to do the manual labour in the community?

JN le Roux 

AL2446_2626 AWAY WITH THIS TERRIBLE SYSTEM YES TO DEMOCRATIC SRC'S 1985. Students in occupied Namibia echo the demands made by students in South Africa. Silkscreened poster produced by NANSO at CAP, Cape TownAL2446_0097 DEMOCRATIC EDUCATION: Education Charter. The Doors of Learning and Culture Shall be opened. Free and Compulsory Education 1985. The call for a democratic education system.  Silkscreened poster produced at a training workshop at STP, Johannesburg10 fighting years: 1976-1986 :People's education for people's power. AL2446_1254 	This poster is an offset litho in black, red and yellow, produced by the STP for the UDF, Transvaal. This poster refers to the UDF commemorating the tenth anniversary of Soweto Day, 16 June, when Soweto students rose up against bantu education and the system of apartheid. STAY-AWAY : JUNE 16 : S.A. YOUTH DAY 1987  AL2446_0145  produced by the UDF and COSATU, Cape Town. This poster depicts a joint UDF and COSATU stayaway on 16 June, to commemorate the death of Hector Pieterson and others in 1976.

Each one, teach one...

REMEMBER JUNE 16 : MEETING METHODIST : 2PM SATURDAY : VICTORY IS CERTAIN AL2446_2561 This poster refers to the youth and students reaffirming their determination their determination to fight until victory is received.

KHUMBULA UNGANIKEZELI ONTHOU REMEMBER JUNE 16 AL2446_2612  produced in Cape Town. This poster recalls the significance of 16 June in English, Xhosa and Afrikaans.

 

The events of 1976 were not merely local protests against inadequate schooling. The uprising spread so rapidly throughout the country precisely because it was directed at an educational and political dispensation which had oppressed black people for over a quarter of a century.

The commemoration of 16 June became a central focus of resistance in student and youth politics in South Africa. The youth of the 1980s, the 'young lions' of the townships as they dubbed themselves, forged their political consciousness in the schools of the post-1976 period. By 1985, 16 June had become a de facto public holiday, reluctantly called Soweto Day by the white establishment, and officially proclaimed South African Youth Day by the liberation movement inside and outside the country. The posters of the 1980s continually affirm the significance of this day for students and youth throughout the country.

 

	JUNE 16 : PRAYER SERVICE 10 a.m 1986   AL2446_2145 produced by the WPCC, Cape Town. This poster was produced to advertise a prayer meeting to observe 16 June.

KAGISO REMEMBERS : JUNE 16 : NO PEACE UNDER APARTHEID AL2446_1205  produced by the Kagiso Youth in 1986. This poster depicts the people of Kagiso, a township next to Krugersdorp near Johannesburg, remembering 16 June

In strategic terms, the events 1976 brought to the fore the central contradiction which was to shape and dominate educational politics in the 1980s: this was the conflict between the inferior education provided in separate schools for black children by the state, and the progressive education demanded by, and increasingly practised by, organised students, parents and teachers.

The Congress of South African Students (COSAS) was formed in 1979. It was to become the largest mass-based student organisation South Africa had ever seen. By August 1985, when COSAS was banned by government decree, it had mobilised a support-base of hundreds of thousands of secondary school students spread across 71 branches nationwide. There is no doubt that COSAS played a significant role in the period from 1980 to 1985: its networks, organisational structures and the popular support it commanded politicised many thousands of people, carrying the message of national democratic struggle into townships everywhere.

 

 FORWARD WITH DEMOCRATIC SRC'S : DOWN WITH APARTHEID EDUCATION 1985 	AL2446_0534 produced by COSAS at the STP, Johannesburg. This poster consists of the face of the late Bongani Khumalo, a student who was killed in 1984. COSAS placed his face on the upper right-hand corner of this poster, to support their struggle against apartheid education. COSAS: CONGRESS OF SOUTH AFRICAN STUDENTS WENTWORTH BRANCH CULTURAL LAUNCH: UNITY ; ALL STUDENTS WELCOME  AL2446_0407  produced by COSAS, Wentworth branch, Natal. This poster was produced by COSAS to advertise the launch of a cultural committee in a local branch. 1985

On the education front, COSAS's programme of action sought to achieve dynamic, free and compulsory education for all. The organisation was in the forefront of educational protest, consistently demanding the abolition of the harshest features of black education — inferior and segregated schooling, poor facilities, textbook shortages, exclusions of students for political reasons, age limits, corporal punishment, sexual harassment and the like.

COSAS was the driving force behind mass educational struggles of the first half of the 1980s, but other organisations also made important contributions to the democratic movement in this period. Two of the most prominent were the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS), and the Azanian Students Organisation (AZASO), which was later to change its name to the South African National Students Congress (SANSCO).

JUNE 16 : THE DOORS OF LEARNING AND CULTURE SHALL BE OPENED TO ALL : COSAS SAYS: SADF OUT OF OUR SCHOOLS AND TOWNSHIPS 1985 AL2446_1198   produced by the STP for COSAS in 1985, Johannesburg. This poster refers to COSAS and how they used the occasion of the 16 June to emphasise the Freedom Charter's call for an open education system. Additionally it called for a demand for the SADF to leave the townships- shortly after this poster was produced,UMHLA KA-JUNE 16 USUKU LWETHU : Basebenzi nentsha HLANGANANI : Cosatu ne Sayco PHAMBILI  1987 AL2446_2451  produced by COSATU, Johannesburg. This poster celebrates the youth-worker alliance and commemorates the 16 June

 

AZASO concentrated on organising black students at tertiary institutions, and established branches at universities, teacher-training colleges and technikons throughout the country.

AZASO structures were pivotal to student resistance on black campuses. They highlighted the authoritarian educational practices and apartheid-oriented curriculae which characterised these institutions. On the mainly-white campuses such as the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) and the University of Cape Town (UCT), AZASO powerfully articulated the grievances of black students who experienced particular difficulties and inequalities at these institutions.

AZASO CULTURAL FESTIVAL 31 MAY . 2 JUNE : ORGANISING FOR A PEOPLES EDUCATION AL2446_1033 produced by AZASO in May 1985, Cape Town. This poster was produced to advertise a cultural event that would promote people's education.END OF TERM SCHOOL CONCERT: COME GRAB SOME FLOOR WITH LOCAL SCHOOL BANDS AND DISCO: JORL OF THE YEAR! 1986 AL2446_0306 produced by the ECC at the STP, Johannesburg. This poster advertises an anti-military 'jorl' (party) for school pupils in the white areas of Johannesburg.

NUSAS concentrated most of its energies on winning the active support of white students at English-medium universities. In recent years, however, it has managed to establish a presence on some Afrikaans campuses as well. NUSAS campaigns tended to focus on bringing struggles of the factories, townships and rural areas onto campus. It advocated the need for a less eurocentric and more politically critical content in university courses in all faculties. Much of the media and other propaganda produced had an impact far beyond NUSAS, as it was often used in educational activities of other organisations such as COSAS and AZASO.

 

 

 

AL2446_0776 FOR A TOMORROW FREE FROM OPPRESSION AND EXPLOITATION 989. Poster by the Black Students Interim Committee (BSIC), set up at Wits in 1989 after the Black Students Society (BSS) was banned.

THE FUTURE IS OURS WE WANT ENGLISH MEDIUM AT OUR SCHOOLS AL2446_2563   produced by Produced by the Namibian National Students Organisation (NANSO) at the Community Arts Project (CAP), Cape Town. This poster depicts Namibian students demanding an end to Afrikaans as the medium of instruction at schools. Most activities undertaken by COSAS, AZASO and NUSAS were reactive, and characterised by protest action. However, the Education Charter campaign taken up by these three organisations in February 1984 actively expressed a need —widely recognised by student leaders at the time — to formulate concrete alternatives to apartheid education. During 1984 and early 1985 all three student organisations worked hard at popularising a campaign to draw up an Education Charter. By the end of 1984, the progressive teachers' union, the National Education Union of South Africa (NEUSA), had joined the alliance.

EDUCATION CHARTER CAMPAIGN TRANSVAAL LAUNCH : FORWARD TO A PEOPLE'S EDUCATION AL2446_1105 1984. The launch of a joint campaign by COSAS, NUSAS, NEUSA and AZASO for an Education Charter.

National Education Conference: people's education for people's power. AL2446_0234  1986. Conference held to address the education crisis in black schools at a time when students were boycotting around the country.

 

 

The Education Charter was conceived of as an elaboration of the Freedom Charter's assertion that 'the doors of learning and culture shall be opened'. It aimed to put forward a detailed view of a viable alternative to apartheid education. A specific aim of the Education Charter campaign was the creation of a document around which students could organise.

 

 

Oliver Tambo : "CENSORED IN TERMS OF THE INTERNAL SECURITY ACT" : WHAT IS THE REALITY? : A National NUSAS Campaign AL2446_1240 produced by the National Union of South African Students (NUSAS). This image, which includes a picture of Oliver Tambo, relates to the suppression of information through censorshipHANDS OFF OUR TEACHERS!: DROP CHARGES NOW!   	AL2446_0148   produced by WECTU in 1986, Cape Town. This poster refers to the teachers' union demanding that the state stop harassment of teachers.

When it joined the Education Charter campaign, NEUSA was relatively small. In the early 1980s it ran subject workshops for teachers and built programmatic alliances with student organisations. By 1985 significant numbers of teachers throughout the country began to actively identify with the anti-apartheid struggle. NEUSA experienced a rapid growth in membership in the Eastern Cape, Transvaal and Natal, and similar progressive teacher associations were launched in the Western Cape — the Western Cape Teachers Union (WECTU), and the Democratic Teachers Union (DETU) — and in the Border Region the East London Progressive Teachers Union (ELPTU).

 

AL2446_1031 SA's THREAT TO PEACE : A NATIONAL NUSAS Campaign 985. NUSAS comments on the impact that President PW Botha and Law and Order Minister Louis le Grange had on South African society

NATIONAL EDUCATION CRISIS COMMITTEE AND FREE THE CHILDREN ALLIANCE: HANDS OFF! our students and our teachers 	AL2446_0736 1987. A call for the police and SADF to stay out of the schools.  Offset litho poster produced by Free the Children's Alliance and NECC, Cape Town

Despite these developments, a serious impasse arose during 1985 in the struggle against apartheid education. Student organisations had come to rely too heavily on the boycott tactic. Schooling was at a standstill. While this was testimony to COSAS's political power, it dispersed students onto the streets and made further, more constructive organisation virtually impossible.     

The declaration of a State of Emergency in July 1985 and the subsequent banning of COSAS only served to exacerbate the problem. There was talk of 1986 being a year of no schooling. Many students spoke naively of 'liberation before education', which caused widespread alarm in the townships.

 

EDUCATION IN CRISIS : MEETING WITH MICHAEL GARDINER (HEAD OF ENG.DEPT. J.C.E.) SOWETO PARENTS CRISIS COMMITTEE AN ALEXANDRA TEACHER : WHAT CAN WE DO? AL2446_0591 1985. NEUSA meets to discuss the crisis in black education.  Silkscreened poster produced by NEUSA, Johannesburg at STP

100 years of Workers' Day MAY DAY : NUSAS salutes SA's workers  AL2446_1212 produced by NUSAS in 1985, Cape Town. This poster, which was produced by NUSAS celebrates May Day.

During September, representatives of all sections of the Soweto community met to discuss possible solutions to the growing education crisis in the township. They formed the Soweto Parents Crisis Committee (SPCC), which represented a new form of political organisation in the education terrain. For the first time ever, an alliance of parents, teachers and students was established to tackle problems in education. The SPCC achieved widespread support throughout Soweto, and the establishment of parent-teacher-student alliances was soon on the national agenda.

 

 

GET THE FULL BENEFIT  AL2446_0609  produced by NUSAS in 1987. This poster depicts the various ways in which NUSAS plays a role in the lives of university students.

'I WAS SHOT IN THE FACE' : Students under attack : why are we Silent? : Eyewitness accounts; Debate; ACTION? 	AL2446_2077    produced by the University of Cape Town students. This poster refers to the University of Cape Town and how they met to discuss police violence against students.

With this in mind, an historic national education conference was convened in Johannesburg in December 1985. The National Education Crisis Committee (NECC) was launched at this conference. It adopted the slogan 'People's Education for People's Power' to express the strategic objective of future educational struggle. The conference resolved to call on students to return to school immediately, while continuing the struggle for proper education.

At a later conference, held in March 1986 in Durban, this call was reiterated, with a resolution that people's education programmes should be implemented immediately. Progressive educational organisations have successfully drawn attention to the problems of education in South Africa, and have made significant contributions to the process of working out possible solutions. But the black education system remains in crisis. 

REMEMBER JUNE 16 1976 FROM MOBILISATION TO ORGANISATION AL2446_0144 AL2446_0144

GET YOUR HEAD OUT OF THE SAND! : JOIN PROJECTS  AL2446_2039  produced by the Projects Committee, Wits,Johannesburg in circa 1985. This poster refers to a call on students to become involved in the affairs of their society.

A recent government report proposes compulsory primary school education for children of all races, but retains existing apartheid-created inequalities in teaching and resources, within a supposedly non-racial framework. Indeed, rather than open up under-utilised white schools to relieve over-crowded and dilapidated township schools, the government plans to close them down. The government continues to evade taking the only rational course — that of integrating education — by developing elaborate procedures for modifying the present system.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of black children continue to receive inadequate education with few prospects.

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