| Title | Chapter 1: South African education: Promise and challenges |
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| DOI | https://doi.org/10.4102/aosis.2025.BK501.01 |
| Landing page | https://books.aosis.co.za/index.php/ob/catalog/book/501 |
| License | https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/ |
| Copyright | Vusi Mncube, Mzuyanda Percival Mavuso, Winston Hendricks & Charl Wolhuter (eds.). Licensee: AOSIS (Pty) Ltd. The moral rights of the editors and authors have been asserted. |
| Publisher | AOSIS |
| Published on | 2025-09-01 |
| Long abstract | This chapter begins with the global rise of education expansion over the past 80 years, as education has come to be regarded as a panacea for societal issues and a means to achieve various societal visions. South Africa is no exception to this trend. The second part of the chapter outlines how education – encompassing both basic and higher education – has simultaneously become a pivotal component and a key instrument in the socio-political reconstruction project initiated in 1994. The chapter then evaluates the current state of education 30 years after the reconstruction process began, identifying key challenges. This sets the framework for subsequent chapters, which explore issues such as blended teaching and learning approaches in higher education, improper staff-student relationships at universities, the use of technology to enhance educational efforts, the education-employment nexus, early childhood education, leadership, rural education, democracy and education and learner discipline. |
| Print length | 19 pages |
| Language | English (Original) |
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Vusi Mncube is the Dean of the Faculty of Education at the University ofFort Hare. Mncube has extensively published on democracy and education, focusing on good governance, school governance, democracy in education and social justice. Within the realms of good governance and democracy, Mncube has authored numerous research articles in reputable academic journals. Additionally, he has supervised several MA and PhD studies. Mncube is also an expert on violence in schools, having published various research reports, articles and a book, with a second edition released in 2023. Mncube co-authored three books, the most recent being Violence in Schools: South Africa in an International Context (with CR Harber, 2018, Unisa Press), which won the prestigious Hiddingh-Currie Award at Unisa in 2018. In 2012, Mncube published Education, Democracy and Development: Does Education Contribute to Democratisation in Developing Countries? (with CR Harber, Symposium Books, Oxford, United Kingdom). That same year, Mncube and Clive Harber co-authored a Unisa report titled The Dynamics of Violence in South African Schools, published by Unisa Press in Pretoria. In response to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, Mncube published several articles on integrating information and communication technologies (ICTs) into teaching and learning in higher education institutions. Mncube also serves as a peer reviewer for various national and international journals.
Charl Wolhuter studied at the University of Johannesburg, the University of Pretoria, Unisa and Stellenbosch University, South Africa. Wolhuter obtained a PhD in Comparative Education from Stellenbosch University. Wolhuter served as a junior lecturer in the History of Education and Comparative Education at the University of Pretoria, a senior lecturer in the same fields at the then University of Zululand, and as a professor of Comparative and International Education at the Potchefstroom campus of North-West University, South Africa. Additionally, Wolhuter has held visiting professorships at several institutions, including Brock University in Canada, the University of Crete in Greece, the University of Queensland in Australia, the University of Modena and Reggio Emilia in Italy, Matej Bel University in Slovakia, Boris Grinchenko University in Ukraine, the University of Zhengzhou in China, the University of Namibia, The Education University of Hong Kong, Eberhard Karls University of Tübingen in Germany, the University of Latvia, the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia, the University of Tarapacá in Chile and National University of San Martin in Argentina. Wolhuter is the author and editor of numerous books and articles on the history of education and comparative education.