Post-Apartheid, equity has yet to be achieved: almost 58.5% of whites enter into higher education, while the rate for blacks to enter into higher education is only around 12%. The reason for this is generally understood to come from poor quality primary and secondary schooling.

The skewed distribution of education is mainly attributed to higher and more rapid dropout rates among the poor, rather than from a lack of initial access to schooling. The formerly white Model-C schools uniformly produce better results and their governing bodies are able to raise substantial private funds used to get resources that are then unreachable by the rural and township schools which survive on the commitment of their teachers.