60 Education “MASTER HAROLD”...and the boysis set in 1950, five years before major apartheid-related reforms in education such as the Bantu Education Act were added.  Prior to 1955, Africans were offered no means of mass public education.  Sam and Willie demonstrate that they have no access to any education other than what Hallie teaches them.  Some black South Africans were educated in schools run by Christian  missionaries while other public schools existed in delapidated buildings and attendance was often sparse.  The interest Sam and Willie display in Hally's studies and their willingness to learn from him second-hand illuminate the fundamental inequities of education between blacks and whites. The school system under apartheid became the basic means by which the government ensured that its racial philosophy was reflected by and imparted to South African whites - that is, apartheid philosophy was both taught and practiced in schools.  As a student enrolled in a Port Elizabeth school, Hally's daily lesson plans were infused with formal apartheid policies that colored his view of black South Africans such as Sam and Willie. Hally’s studies focus on European culture and history, and not much more.   The National Party built a great deal of its initial support by capitalizing on existing fears of racial integration in the schools.  Once the NP gained control, it mandated that all high school graduates be proficient in both Afrikaans and English.  The National Party introduced Christian National Education as its guiding philosophy, which  proposed to justify apartheid through religious doctrine.