Challenges and Prospects for Achieving Diversity: The Case of South Africa

Education systems are subject to periodic reviews that may be undertaken as part of a process of quality enhancement or are necessitated by some shift in ideological orientation. In countries where social and political roles have remained more or less unchanged, these reviews rarely result in sudden and fundamental change. However, any change in a system engenders positive and negative reactions. In this day and age, there are examples of countries emerging from repressive systems of governments to relatively freer, more transparent and democratic systems. In order to keep pace with the new political dispensation and to ensure its survival, it becomes essential that the education system of such a state is transformed and reengineered to respond to and reflect the aspirations of the changing society.