Bantu Education Act, 1953

The Bantu Education Act was a law of the Parliament of South Africa, passed in 1953 and taking effect on January 1, 1954, that formed part of the apartheid system of racial segregation. It removed control of African education from provincial governments and mission churches and placed it under the national Department of Native Affairs, allowing the state to set a separate and deliberately inferior curriculum for Black South African children. The Minister who oversaw its implementation, Hendrik Verwoerd, argued publicly that Black pupils should not be taught skills that would raise expectations of employment above manual labor. Over the following decades, government spending per pupil under the systems the act created was far lower for Black children than for white children.