As a lawyer Enver Motala was involved in the defence of workers rights during the 1970s, a period of intense struggle for the recognition of trade unions in South Africa. From the 1980's he has acted in various capacities in the alternative education movement, especially in relation to issues relating to worker's and community-based education. John Pampallis has been the Director of the CEPD for the past four years. A former school teacher, he has taught in South Africa, Botswana, Canada and Tanzania. In Tanzania, he spent 8 years at the Solomon Mahlangu Freedom College, a school established by the African National Congress for young South Africans exiles.

’Anyone interested in a critical perspective and alternative to dominant education policies in South Africa will be interested in this book. It shows how the fiscal austerity model driving education policy undermines the wider goals of social justice and equity and how more expansionist policies may provide an alternative. A book that is essential reading for education scholars and activists.’ Linda Chisholm, Professor of Education, University of Natal, Durban, South Africa

• Contents: Introduction, Enver Motala and Mala Singh; Educational law and policy in post-apartheid South Africa, Enver Motala and John Pampallis; The South African State in transition: a question of form, function and fragmentation, Sophie Oldfield; The link between macroeconomic policies, education policies and the education budget, Katerina Nicolaou; Transforming education and training in the post-apartheid period: revisiting the education, training and labour market axis, Nisaar Mahomed; A critical examination of the development of school governance policy and its implications for achieving equity, Jenni Karlsson, Gregory McPherson and John Pampallis; The rationalization of teachers and the quest for social justice in education in an age of fiscal austerity, Salim Vally and Console Tleane; On bureaucracy: South Africa in transition, Enver Motala; Bibliography.