ABSTRACT
The education narrative in Eastern Cape is characterised by a number of fault lines exacerbated by the province's history, poor and under-developed economic situation and reputation for having the poorest education system in the country. This chapter focuses upon a period of sabbatical leave spent as a senior visiting research fellow at Rhodes University in the Eastern Cape during the spring of 2012. The numbers of students of different races admitted to Rhodes University in 1977 and 2010 shows a marked increase in the numbers of black students. The chapter examines the causes of the educational malaise and looks at the challenges facing South African education in 2013. The ANC Government's first White Paper on Education and Training established an educational narrative. Schools in former white areas, such as the city of Grahamstown, have inherited significantly better facilities than black schools in terms of buildings, grounds, educational equipment, materials and sport provision.
