A video message from our Patron

South Africa is a country struggling to rectify two centuries of legislated inequality. The process of overturning the legacy of the Apartheid regime, and the ideology that lay behind it, is a lengthy one. One of the main challenges faced by reformers is to decide how much of the past to preserve, how much to overturn.

One consequence of historical discrepancies in funding for the education of black, coloured and white children is a divided school system. At the top of the league are former ‘white’ schools. Many of these, whether private or government-funded, are able to compete with any school in the ‘developed’ world. They may have been conceived in a racially divided society, but now their doors are open to all.

The greatest obstacle is money. Preserving standards at these schools costs money,and the danger is that access to them will remain in the domain of the moneyed classes. The Kay Mason Foundation is committed to supporting excellence in such schools, and also to sharing it.

Working closely with educators and families, the Kay Mason Foundation awards scholarships to exceptional high-school-aged children from disadvantaged backgrounds. These children are not only given access to the kind of education they deserve, but are also provided with wide-ranging support from adult and other children. Older scholarship recipients mentor younger ones, and the families of potential candidates are closely involved in the process. Scholarships are adjusted so that families may contribute, in however small a way, to their child’s education.

This contribution is vital. Parents or guardians must be given a stake and a say in what happens to their children. In this way, support for the child is provided not only by the Foundation or the school in question, but by those best placed to make a difference: the child’s extended family and home community.

THE BLUFFER’S GUIDE TO EDUCATION IN SOUTH AFRICA:

Under the old system of apartheid education, the ethos of state education was supposedly ‘separate but equal’. In fact, it was separate but far from equal: ‘white’ schools received far more funding than ‘coloured’ schools, which in turn received more funding than ‘black’ schools.

The result is a three-tiered system of state schools, with former ‘white’ schools dominating in terms of results and facilities. These schools are now compelled to accept anyone from their catchment areas, but are able to charge fees in addition to the subsidy they receive from the state. Because of massive discrepancies in funding, many former ‘white’ state schools (known as ‘former model C schools’) have facilities rivalling those of the most exclusive private schools in the West, and indeed of the country’s own elite private schools.

The Kay Mason Foundation funds scholarships to a range of schools, both private and public. Our aim is to make the best education available to all.

Click here to e-mail the Kay Mason Foundation