The spread of neoliberalism in the South African education system provides a template for ways that regimes co-opt the values of excellence and equality while implementing policies that contradict these values. Specifically, South Africa’s education system is “cloaked” in equality, although institutionalized inequality persists long beyond the end of the Apartheid system. Neoliberal education policies legitimize the expectation that “excellence” (i.e., quality) and “equality” are synonymous, which is what leads to the development of a “cloak of equality.” But, in practice, these equivocations become mutually contradictory, as the South African context suggests. This paper examines selected elements of neoliberalism as they are embedded within the South African education system and connects those elements to the development of a symbolic “cloak of equality” that masks institutionalized inequities within the broader system.

新自由主义在南非教育体系中的传播为各国政权在执行与这些价值观相抵触的政策时选择卓越和平等的价值观提供了模板。具体而言，尽管制度化的不平等现象在种族隔离制度结束之后仍持续了很长时间，但南非的教育系统在平等方面“隐蔽”。新自由主义教育政策使“卓越”（即质量）和“平等”是同义词的期望合法化，这正是导致“平等斗篷”发展的原因。但是，实际上，正如南非的情况所暗示的那样，这些模棱两可变得相互矛盾。