ABSTRACT
This chapter analyses one aspect of social policy - that is, policy regarding the education and training system. It provides a background for a critical study of the process of education and training policy formation and its application in the period 1994–99. The chapter explores the most important elements and stated objectives of national and other levels of government, and will enable interested persons to evaluate the practices of government against the backdrop of its stated policy intentions. The most important policy pronouncement of any legislature is its national Constitution. In South Africa an Interim Constitution was passed by Parliament in 1993, and was replaced by the final Constitution of 1996. In South Africa, the form of the negotiated political settlement was based on compromises that enabled the opposing parties and interests to reach consensus about the nature of the transition from apartheid.
