Chandru Kistan
Education and the status of e-learning in a post - apartheid South Africa

Prior to 1994 the South African education system at both school and higher education levels was run on racial lines with no attempt at co-ordination and collaboration. The unequal funding and different resource policies of the State resulted in huge discrepancies in the quality of education offered to the various race groups. 1994, heralded a new democratic Black majority government which had the daunting task of dismantling the segregated education system in order to create a single coordinated system for all, irrespective of race and colour. Several Acts, policies and structures were put in place to address the huge inequalities and discrepancies in the education system. The first priority was building schools and classrooms and providing the basics, suck as water, electricity and sanitation. Even now, ten years after democracy, the government is still struggling to level the education field. Consequently, computer studies, online and e-learning are not on the priority list of the Department of Education. However, the previously advantaged schools and universities have computer facilities which could match the best in the world. Thus, a decade later, the majority of the education institutions are still trying to address the ills of apartheid.

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