Abstract:

Culture of the people is reflected in the education system they use. In the event education system and culture are incompatible, the system will not provide learners with values that support their behaviour whilst at school. This assertion is supported by number of findings in South African township schools on lack of discipline by learners, gangsterism and drug addiction. The paper therefore, seeks to highlight problems that emanate from a disjuncture between cultural values and education system in the township secondary schools in South Africa. The demise of apartheid in South Africa ushered in democratic values which enforced new education programs on South African indigenous communities. The programmes are listed in their order of implementation: The Outcome-based education; Curriculum 2005; Revised National Curriculum Statement; and currently, Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements. These new programmes were implemented and utilised within a space of twenty one years. There seems to be sceptism whether these programmes have yielded positive results. These curriculum programmes, as argued in the analysis of this paper, failed to serve the needs and aspirations of the people, and consequently moral corrosion amongst the youth has become the order of the day. Confusion and absence of well-defined moral standards supported by strong cultural values has brought along disciplinary problems for teachers in schools. It is argued in this paper that lack of defined moral standards create a complex and a chaotic learning environment which leaves the learners to do as they please. The paper employed post-modernism framework in order to elucidate lack of values embedding South African education system. The findings and conclusion reveal that lawlessness and moral corrosion are the results of cultural disruption brought about by the new education systems that are incompatible with the culture of people.

Keywords:

Moral degeneration, disjuncture, cultural values, education, curriculum, township schools.