School Choice in South Africa

Abstract

In this article, the author investigates the basic elements of choice and markets theory. In recent years, children were moving from rural and township schools to suburban White schools. This trend emerged in the late 1980s and simmered after the demise of apartheid. At face value, school choice appears to be happening merely for the reason of accessing resources in the former Model C1 schools. The author argues that school choice is not simply driven by a lack of resources in local schools or by the motivation to gain access to educational opportunities. It happens because of several factors, which the author analyzes through selected theories. In the conclusion, the author argues that school choice is a complex phenomenon with many ambiguities and dilemmas.

Children's daily travel to school in Johannesburg-Soweto, South Africa: geography and school choice in the Birth to Twenty cohort study

“…School finance policies provide schools with an incentive to enrol as many fee-paying children as possible, regardless of where they live, while admissions policies provide schools with some control over which learners they enrol (although this control is often de facto rather than de jure, is subject to legal constraints, and is increasingly coming under fire). When combined with national history, the geographical distribution of schools with different resource levels, and the fairly slow pace of residential desegregation, the policy environment results in a context in which many children and families engage in school choice and, in particular, pursue enrolment in schools fairly far from their homes (Pampallis 2003;Maile 2004;Woolman and Fleisch 2006). 4 Typically, however, enrolling at a school far from home comes at a fairly marked financial cost, driven by both school fees and the cost of transport.…”

Choosing for quality or inequality: current perspectives on the implementation of school choice policy in Sweden

“…The more critics, the more openness for alternative solutions, including the competition. Thus the proponents of this position -e.g., Brighouse (2000), Maile (2004), Viteritti (1999), Benveniste, Carnoy and Rothstein (2003), Plank and Sykes (2003), Nechyba (1999Nechyba ( , 2000, Noreisch (2007) -accept the imposition of school choice as an irreversible process and since it has such a strong endorsement by different parental groups (Fusarelli 2003), it is pointless arguing for its abolishment. The focus ought to be shifted, according to this position, from the paralyzing and meaningless dichotomies for or against school choice policy to the more fruitful debate on how to regulate and organize an essentially new educational system with regard to a broadly defined concept of social justice.…”

“…But he also asks what will happen to those left behind, regarding the equity of their education? Maile's (2004) research from South Africa shows how school choice can play a role as a contributing factor to achieving school integration in a country up to recently tormented by state-sponsored racial segregation. Nevertheless, she criticizes the whole system as being negligent to the culture and native language of black children, particularly those enrolling in all-white schools.…”

The Controlled School Market and Urban Schools in Sweden

“…I argue that the specific features of the Swedish urban school market create noteworthy new opportunities and new difficulties. KEYWORDS school choice, urban schools, resignation, segregation, efficiency In response to a public education system deemed to be in deep crisis, freedom of choice policy has been one of the main remedies offered by liberal thinkers and politicians across the developed world during the past decades (e.g., Aasen, 2003;Beach, Gordon & Lahelma, 2003;Benveniste, Carnoy & Rothstein, 2003;Fiske & Ladd, 2000;Friedman, 1962;Karsten, 1999;Maile, 2004;Merry & Driessen, 2005;Plank & Sykes, 2003;Rabrenovic, 1998;Whitty, Power & Halpin, 1998). Although we cannot talk about one system of school choice even within the same country (Merrifield, 2008), it is possible since it nourishes a strong market-oriented educational policy representing one of the most decentralized educational systems in the world (Blomquist & Rothstein, 2000;Daun, 2003).…”