<P> The Bantu Education Act , 1953 ( Act No. 47 of 1953 ; later renamed the Black Education Act , 1953 ) was a South African segregation law which legalised several aspects of the apartheid system . Its major provision was enforcing racially separated educational facilities . Even universities were made `` tribal '' , and all but three missionary schools chose to close down when the government no longer would help support their schools . Very few authorities continued using their own finances to support education for native Africans . In 1959 , this type of education was extended to `` non white '' universities and colleges with the Extension of University Education Act , and the internationally prestigious University College of Fort Hare was taken over by the government and degraded to being part of the Bantu education system . It is often argued that the policy of Bantu ( African ) education was aimed to direct black or non-white youth to the unskilled labour market , although Hendrik Verwoerd , at the time Minister of Native Affairs , claimed that the aim was to solve South Africa 's `` ethnic problems '' by creating complementary economic and political units for different ethnic groups . </P>
what was the purpose of the bantu education act
legalised several aspects of the apartheid system