Post-Basic Education and Training and Poverty Reduction in South Africa: Progress to 2004 and Vision to 2014. Post-Basic Education and Training Working Paper Series - Nº2
Abstract
It has become axiomatic that there is a strong relationship between basic education and poverty reduction. This has tended to overshadow the role of other components of education and training in efforts to reduce poverty. In this paper, the authors seek to illustrate the importance of a holistic focus on the role of education and training in poverty strategies through an exploration of the case of South Africa. South Africa is crucial to the reduction of poverty in Sub-Saharan Africa, both as a country where approximately 20 million people are considered to be in poverty and as the most likely engine of pro-poor growth for the rest of the region.
A focus on post-basic education and training (PBET) as a major tool in poverty reduction in South Africa requires a consideration of the specific pattern of development of South Africa through colonialism, Apartheid and ten years of democracy in order to better understand the nature of poverty, inequality and unemployment. Such an analysis also requires links to be made between these broader issues of underdevelopment and inequity and the evolution of education and training over the last century.
Citation
Centre of African Studies, University of Edinburgh, Edinburgh, UK, 47 pp.
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