Decolonising Schools in South Africa: The Impossible Dream? by Pam Christie

The fundamental question posed by the author in this path-breaking book is whether, in 21st-century postcolonial/post-apartheid democratic South Africa, the idea of a quality education for the average child in the rural backyard of colonialism represents an “impossible dream”? Whatever one’s assessment of this new study by Pam Christie, it is hardly deniable that it scores highly on ambition, originality and innovation. It represents a brave attempt to confront a wide range of highly complex global social and economic problems that are captured through a unique study of the very specific local context of the small, isolated town of Carnarvon in the Karoo hinterland of South Africa.