ABSTRACT
Most of the studies of the current education struggle in South Africa begin with an analysis of Bantu Education policy. Some recent writings, however, have adopted a conceptual framework in which attention is focused on the important role of Bantu Education in the social reproduction of cheap African labour and in the political control of Africans. This in itself is an important development, but because of the static and unchanging way in which these studies concentrate on the effect of Bantu Education policy on the reproduction of the African labour force, they often fail to bring about a better understanding of the Bantu Education system itself. As a result, important developments in the system, which have a crucial bearing on the education struggle, are left unaccounted for. Where changes in Bantu Education policy are considered, too much emphasis tends to be placed on drawing comparisons between the urban labour force and migrant labour, for example, in the argument that in the 1970s the urban labour force produced by the Bantu Education system not only differed from, but was also better trained than migrant labour. Furthermore, most of the literature portrays Bantu Education policy (before the period of overt and highly-organized mass struggles, school boycotts and strikes, starting in the 1970s) as falling on a helpless and passive people who made no attempt to mould the reproductive role of education, and who failed to achieve results that were in any way different from those expected by the state.
