UNIVERSITY OF SOUTH AFRICA
College of Education
⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄⋄
HED4805: History of Education
Assignment 4 — Semester 2, 2026
⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄⋄
HED4805
Module Code:
History of Education
Module Name:
Assignment 4
Assignment:
18 September 2026
Due Date:
100
Total Marks:
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for HED4805 — UNISA 2026
,UNISA | HED4805 History of Education – Assignment 4
Question 1: Student Opposition to the Bantu Education Act of 1953 During the
1976 Uprisings
The 1976 student uprisings in South Africa were not spontaneous eruptions of frustration.
They were the cumulative product of over two decades of deliberate educational oppression
under the Bantu Education Act of 1953, and the students who marched on 16 June 1976 un-
derstood that clearly (South African History Online, 2021). To examine how students opposed
this legislation in 1976, it is necessary to first understand what the Act imposed and why it
provoked such fierce resistance.
1.1 The Bantu Education Act: Design and Intent
The Bantu Education Act (Act No. 47 of 1953) was not simply a piece of school policy. It
was an architectural intervention in the social order, engineered by Dr Hendrik Verwoerd,
then Minister of Native Affairs. Verwoerd was candid about the purpose: he argued pub-
licly that there was no place for the African child above certain forms of labour, and that
education which created expectations of equality was, from his perspective, a social danger
(South African History Online, 2021). The Act brought African schooling under central gov-
ernment control for the first time, stripped churches of their schools unless they registered
with the state, and redesigned the curriculum to prepare Black children for subordinate roles
in a white-controlled economy (South Africa Gateway, 2024).
The funding gap was stark. The apartheid government was spending approximately R644 per
white child annually, compared to R42 per Black child (Africanews, 2016). White schooling
was compulsory and free; Black schooling was deliberately deprived of resources. Independent
schools for Black children were made illegal. The message embedded in the system was that
Black intellectual development beyond basic labour training was something the state was
determined to prevent.
Critical Consideration
The Bantu Education Act did not merely limit access to quality education; it
weaponised education itself. The curriculum was designed to reproduce racial inequal-
ity by shaping the aspirations of Black children from their earliest years of schooling
(Verwoerd, as cited in South African History Online, 2021).
Page 2 of 18
, UNISA | HED4805 History of Education – Assignment 4
1.2 Immediate Trigger: The Afrikaans Language Decree
The spark that set 1976 alight was the Afrikaans Medium Decree of 1974, which mandated
that Black secondary schools use both Afrikaans and English as languages of instruction in
subjects such as mathematics and social studies (Wikipedia, 2026). For Black students in
Soweto, this was not merely a pedagogical inconvenience. Afrikaans was the language of the
apartheid state, the language of the police who enforced pass laws, the language of a system
that had dispossessed their parents and grandparents. Being required to learn in that lan-
guage felt like a deliberate act of humiliation (Morningside Center, 2019).
It is worth noting that very few residents of Soweto spoke Afrikaans at home. The language
instruction decree therefore created an immediate practical crisis: students struggled to under-
stand lessons, teachers struggled to deliver them, and the already fragile quality of education
deteriorated further (Wikipedia, 2026; Zinn Education Project, 2025).
1.3 Organised Student Resistance
The student response was not disorderly. It was coordinated, deliberate, and politically in-
formed by the rising influence of the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) and the South
African Students Organisation (SASO), which had done much in the early 1970s to raise the
political awareness of young Black South Africans (South African History Online, 2021).
On 13 June 1976, Teboho Mashinini, a student from Morris Isaacson High School, proposed
a meeting to discuss a collective response to the language decree. Students formed an Action
Committee, which later became the Soweto Students’ Representative Council, and planned
a peaceful march for 16 June (Wikipedia, 2026). The route was designed to pass Orlando
West Junior School, where students had already gone on strike on 30 April 1976, as an act of
solidarity (Wikipedia, 2026).
On the morning of 16 June, between 3 000 and 20 000 students marched from their schools
toward Orlando Stadium (Wikipedia, 2026; Zinn Education Project, 2025). They carried
placards and intended to deliver a memorandum of grievances to the Department of Bantu
Education offices. The march was peaceful. What the state did next was not.
Page 3 of 18
College of Education
⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄⋄
HED4805: History of Education
Assignment 4 — Semester 2, 2026
⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄ ⋄⋄
HED4805
Module Code:
History of Education
Module Name:
Assignment 4
Assignment:
18 September 2026
Due Date:
100
Total Marks:
Submitted in partial fulfilment of the requirements for HED4805 — UNISA 2026
,UNISA | HED4805 History of Education – Assignment 4
Question 1: Student Opposition to the Bantu Education Act of 1953 During the
1976 Uprisings
The 1976 student uprisings in South Africa were not spontaneous eruptions of frustration.
They were the cumulative product of over two decades of deliberate educational oppression
under the Bantu Education Act of 1953, and the students who marched on 16 June 1976 un-
derstood that clearly (South African History Online, 2021). To examine how students opposed
this legislation in 1976, it is necessary to first understand what the Act imposed and why it
provoked such fierce resistance.
1.1 The Bantu Education Act: Design and Intent
The Bantu Education Act (Act No. 47 of 1953) was not simply a piece of school policy. It
was an architectural intervention in the social order, engineered by Dr Hendrik Verwoerd,
then Minister of Native Affairs. Verwoerd was candid about the purpose: he argued pub-
licly that there was no place for the African child above certain forms of labour, and that
education which created expectations of equality was, from his perspective, a social danger
(South African History Online, 2021). The Act brought African schooling under central gov-
ernment control for the first time, stripped churches of their schools unless they registered
with the state, and redesigned the curriculum to prepare Black children for subordinate roles
in a white-controlled economy (South Africa Gateway, 2024).
The funding gap was stark. The apartheid government was spending approximately R644 per
white child annually, compared to R42 per Black child (Africanews, 2016). White schooling
was compulsory and free; Black schooling was deliberately deprived of resources. Independent
schools for Black children were made illegal. The message embedded in the system was that
Black intellectual development beyond basic labour training was something the state was
determined to prevent.
Critical Consideration
The Bantu Education Act did not merely limit access to quality education; it
weaponised education itself. The curriculum was designed to reproduce racial inequal-
ity by shaping the aspirations of Black children from their earliest years of schooling
(Verwoerd, as cited in South African History Online, 2021).
Page 2 of 18
, UNISA | HED4805 History of Education – Assignment 4
1.2 Immediate Trigger: The Afrikaans Language Decree
The spark that set 1976 alight was the Afrikaans Medium Decree of 1974, which mandated
that Black secondary schools use both Afrikaans and English as languages of instruction in
subjects such as mathematics and social studies (Wikipedia, 2026). For Black students in
Soweto, this was not merely a pedagogical inconvenience. Afrikaans was the language of the
apartheid state, the language of the police who enforced pass laws, the language of a system
that had dispossessed their parents and grandparents. Being required to learn in that lan-
guage felt like a deliberate act of humiliation (Morningside Center, 2019).
It is worth noting that very few residents of Soweto spoke Afrikaans at home. The language
instruction decree therefore created an immediate practical crisis: students struggled to under-
stand lessons, teachers struggled to deliver them, and the already fragile quality of education
deteriorated further (Wikipedia, 2026; Zinn Education Project, 2025).
1.3 Organised Student Resistance
The student response was not disorderly. It was coordinated, deliberate, and politically in-
formed by the rising influence of the Black Consciousness Movement (BCM) and the South
African Students Organisation (SASO), which had done much in the early 1970s to raise the
political awareness of young Black South Africans (South African History Online, 2021).
On 13 June 1976, Teboho Mashinini, a student from Morris Isaacson High School, proposed
a meeting to discuss a collective response to the language decree. Students formed an Action
Committee, which later became the Soweto Students’ Representative Council, and planned
a peaceful march for 16 June (Wikipedia, 2026). The route was designed to pass Orlando
West Junior School, where students had already gone on strike on 30 April 1976, as an act of
solidarity (Wikipedia, 2026).
On the morning of 16 June, between 3 000 and 20 000 students marched from their schools
toward Orlando Stadium (Wikipedia, 2026; Zinn Education Project, 2025). They carried
placards and intended to deliver a memorandum of grievances to the Department of Bantu
Education offices. The march was peaceful. What the state did next was not.
Page 3 of 18
