The report examines the critical factors that affect rural schooling in South Africa, focusing on the three provinces KwaZulu-Natal, the Eastern Cape and Limpopo. The report argues that the historical development, contours and consolidation of power relations between urban and rural, and within rural areas, have resulted in neither formal nor substantive equality for people living in rural areas. It states that for rural development strategies to be sustainable they need to integrate both educational issues as well as community participation.

A selection of issues are examined: the historical and contemporary conditions that shape interactions with schooling; the barriers to schooling; the physical and infrastructural conditions of schools; how access to and participation in schooling and education are limited; and the experience of rights and democracy within schools with the realities of teachers’ lives and experience, and adult and learner perspectives on what needs to change and how.

The paper recommends that an integrated approach is required that centres on access to quality basic education for all. It should include:

• integrated regional and rural development strategies that address the food insecurity and health of families
• access to good quality, equitable, well-managed and democratically organised education for all, including early childhood education, giving special attention to the conditions that exist for girls
• development of non-formal educational opportunities for adults and out-of school youth, giving special attention to women and girls
• rural development policies that give priority to basic education and strategies that recognise the special needs of rural environment
• an approach that involves the democratic mobilisation of communities to assess and act upon their needs.