Elite schools' quiet gatekeeping keeps racial patterns in place

An academic study into former Model C schools in the Western Cape has found that children from black African, coloured and Indian families are being kept out of these schools in various ways. By Samantha Kriger

- By Samantha Kriger

The researchers found what they call 'quiet mechanisms' that, in effect, serve to keep children from disadvantaged backgrounds out of many privileged public schools in the Western Cape. In this way, the racial profile of these schools remains overwhelmingly white.

(Photo: iStock)

In South Africa, children's admission to a particular public school is decided by province.

Each provincial education department manages its own digital admissions system.

The Western Cape introduced an online admissions portal in 2018 that became fully operational in 2024. The aim was to make school placement more transparent. This is important because historically, under apartheid, South African education was racially segregated and unequally funded. White schools received the best resources.

Education researcher Samantha Kriger took a closer look at what actually happens in admissions to schools in the Western Cape that used to be exclusively white (known as Model C schools). She set out her findings in a book coauthored with education academic Jonathan Jansen.

Though Who Gets In and Why was published in 2020, she says the circumstances remain the same in most of these schools. Here she answers some questions about what she found.

Parents apply online to a minimum of three and maximum of 10 schools via the Western Cape Education Department admissions portal. The schools receive the applications via the portal and assess them based on provincial guidelines. This implies schools can discriminate between applications.

Schools submit a list of accepted, declined and waiting-list learners to the province via the portal.

We wanted to find the reason for formerly white schools still looking much as they had under apartheid (with a high enrolment of white pupils).