the government also assumed control over the education of Coloured and
Asian children. Verwoerd was frank on the subject of African education:
"Native education should be controlled in such a way that it should be in
accord with the policy of the state....
If the native in South Africa today in
any kind of school in existence is being taught to expect that he will livehis
adult life under a policy of equal rights, he is making a big mistake ....
There is no place for him in the European community above the level of
certain forms of labour."18
Under government control, the number of black children at school in-
creased considerably. By 1979, 3,484,329 African children in the entire
country including the Homelands (21.4 I percent of the African population
of the country) were officially listed as attending school. Substantial dif-
ferences remained in the quality of education provided fat different
"races," however. Education was compulsory for white but not black chil-
dren. White children had excellent school buildings and equipment; black
children, distinctly inferior facilities.Most African children were in the pre-
primary and the primary classes. In 1978, when there were five times as
many African children as white children in South Africa, only 12,014