THENEWSOUTHAFRICA
children attended school, because the government could not fulfill its
commitment to provide free education for all South Africans. A culture of
learning was not restored in the black schools, where it had been lost dur-
ing the struggle against apartheid. Students were unruly and intimidated
their teachers, 26 percent of whom were un- or underqualified in 1998,
and many teachers were lazy, incompetent, and often drunk or drugged.
Morale among teachers was very low, and fewer and fewer South Africans
were choosing the teaching profession-South
Africa was facing a serious
shortage of teachers."! In 1998, only 49 percent of the 551,000 candi-
dates passed the South African school-leaving examination ("senior cer-
tificate"), and only 1 3 percent did so with sufficient credits to qualify for
admission to university. These figures represented a decline since 1994,
when 58 percent of the half million candidates passed the senior certifi-
cate, and
18 percent did so with university entrance qualifications. The
African rate was especially low.72 African students were particularly weak
in mathematics and the sciences; as one academic report noted, "Scientific
literacy levels [still] reflected the hierarchy of inequality of apartheid edu-
cation policies" -a