International Journal of Educational Development 26 (2006) 352–362 Education rights, education policies and inequality in South Africa Carol Anne Spreen à , Salim Vally University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA Abstract In this article we explore education policy changes in South Africa through a rights-based framework. We situate our analysis in the context of deepening poverty and inequality arguing that progress (or the lack thereof) in schools cannot be divorced from poverty and its consequences. We show that education reform in South Africa has been situated within a policy frame that results in a tension between cost recovery and redressing historical backlogs. We argue that the introduction of user fees and the burden of other costs have rendered abstract the idea of education as a ‘right’. The definition of rights is extended to include the quality of education and educational opportunities. We question the constitutional and legislative romanticism surrounding a rights-based discourse and encourage a re-conceptualisation of human rights in education. Finally, we examine the resurgence of education social movements in relation to democratisation, educational transformation and human rights in South Africa. r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. Keywords: Poverty and education policy; Education rights; Cost of education; Education social movements; Social justice and education; Post-apartheid education policy 1. Introduction A founding principle of the South African Constitution is common citizenship and equal enjoyment of an array of rights including freedom of belief, religion, expression, assembly and associa- tion. A range of socio-economic rights including the right to basic and adult education and the rights of children are also emphasised in the Bill of Rights. The lyricism of the phrases in the Constitution and the promise of these words of justice, after decades of apartheid, has become a symbol of hope for advocates of social justice the world over. Yet, despite new laws, social protections and many progressive changes in the 10 years of South Africa’s democracy, social injustice remains pervasive. This article represents a significant departure from much of the post-apartheid education policy analysis in South Africa, which remains lodged within a liberal conception of rights. We argue that collective human rights—as opposed to the liberal conception of rights which is based on the notion that those who succeed in society do so because of their own individual attributes and those who fail do so because of their deficits and weaknesses—better illuminates the struc- tural and contextual conditions of poverty and inequality that remain in South Africa. In ‘Taking Suffering Seriously’ Felice describes the discrepancy between the existing normative ARTICLE IN PRESS www.elsevier.com/locate/ijedudev 0738-0593/$ - see front matter r 2005 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.ijedudev.2005.09.004 à Corresponding author. Tel.: +1 301 405 1000. E-mail address: caspreen@stanford.edu (C.A. Spreen).