Abstract

150 THE SOCIAL STUDIES Volume LXI, No. 4 Bantu Primary and Secondary Education In The Republic of South Africa1 BACKGROUND Dr. Ralph R. Ireland is Professor of Soci- ology and Department Chairman at Blooms- The Republic of South Africa truly pre- bzi~g, Pennsylvania. He spent the szimmer of sents a mosaic of mankind in terms of race, 1968 in Sozith Africa as an ofJicial guest of ethnicity, linguistics, and socio-cultural de- the Africa I~zstitz~te. velopment. Its present population of almost 18,750,000 includes only slightly more than Tswana (West Sotho) 1,335,000 3,500,000 Whites of whom 60 % are Afrikaans- Bapedi (North Sotho) 1,125,000 speaking and about 40 % are English-speak- Shangaan (Tsonga) 590,000 ing. The remainder of the population consists Swazi 400,000 of three major non-White groups: the Ndebele 350,000 "Coloureds" who are a mixture of White, Venda 280,000 Malay, Hottentot and Bantu ancestry, are Others 280,000 primarily White in language and culture, and number about 1,860,000; the Asians who are Basic to South African politics and gov- primarily descendants of the Indians (both ernment is the policy of (separate Hindu and who were brought in development). In particular this policy pro- over a century ago to work as laborers