South Africa: Education transformation – South African schools try to navigate the nuances of racial clashes in the classroom

Two schools. Two provinces. Two racism rows. And two quite different governmental approaches. Racism-related sagas engulfing Cape Town’s Pinelands High School and Pretoria High School for Girls in recent weeks have highlighted contrasting stances from the Western Cape and Gauteng provincial education departments.

With a school governing body (SGB) investigation having cleared 12 white learners from Pretoria of racism after the leaking of WhatsApp messages expressing racial frustration,…