Table of Contents

Being there - community voices, teachers' voices, learners' voices, ideas for an improved educational future; dust and deprivation - poverty and unemployment in the community, sources of income, literacy within rural households, the experience of rural poverty, histories of communities, the history, purposes and significance of education, conclusions; the road to school - the road to school, early childhood education, in school, learner: teacher ratios, class size, school fees and uniforms, hunger and school meals, health and HIV/AIDS, disability, teenage pregnancy, humiliation, bullying, sexual abuse and violence, traditional ceremonies, consequences of disrupted schooling patterns, conclusions; school and community together - services, school intrastructure, conclusions; experience of the classroom - curriculum, resources, approaches to teaching and learning, corporal punishment, improving rural classrooms, making the curriculum 'relevant', parents' perspectives - education for rural development, learners' perspectives - equal education, democracy and social justice, learners' educational and occupational aspirations, conclusions; democracy in schools - relationships between home and school, teachers and communities, teachers and learners, parents and schools, school governing bodies, community leaders and schools, education officials and rural schools, conclusions; rural education and development - education and rural development in historical context, the relationshiop between urban and rural development, democracy, development and rural education, why rural education?, a case for an extended notion of the right to basic education.

About the Author

Human Sciences Research Council is the largest social science research organization in Africa, conducting large-scale, uses-driven, policy-oriented social science research. The Educational Policy Consortium is made up of various South African university faculties.

Reviews

"This study . . . acknowledges the voices of members of rural communities across South Africa, and ensures that policies undertaken to improve the quality of rural education are informed by the powerful insights of the people in those communities." --Nelson Mandela, from the preface