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KALK BAY PRIMARY SCHOOL

Roger Goodwin

Introduction

The history of schooling in Kalk Bay affords us something of a microcosm of the education
system obtaining in the Cape Colony during the last quarter of the nineteenth century - a time

marked by exceptionally rapid demographic growth, particularly from Britain, which

quadrupled the population of Cape Town during this period.

The arrival of newcomers had been spurred by the mineral revolution in South Africa, and the

bulk of them would, in some way, have been beneficiaries of the system of compulsory
elementary education instituted for the first time in England in 1870.

It is clear that many who came were upwardly mobile socially and that their sense of class
fitted conveniently with racial views which encouraged them to define those whose skin was

darker than theirs as elements of a lower, less educated, social class who should be kept in

their place through their exclusion from a variety of social, cultural and economic
opportunities.

The schooling system that developed was to reflect this divide. Those regarded as ‘European’
would attend ‘Public Schools’ where the prospect of some secondary education existed and in

which teachers were to be properly qualified. In addition, the communities served by such

schools were expected to meet half of the building costs as well as half of the salaries paid to
teaching staff. The remainder were to be accommodated in Mission Schools such as Holy

Trinity (Anglican) and St. James (Catholic), both of which were founded before the Public
School.

The racial divide that this system sought to perpetuate was neither clear-cut nor simple. Who
was to carry out the racial classification? How effective would this be in poorer communities

where the ‘lower classes’ had little sense of such subtleties?