One of the greatest challenges South Africa faces is rural poverty and education. This title graphically illustrates the conditions that make the dreams of a better life for all virtually unrealisable in rural areas.

Being there - community voices, teachers' voices, learners' voices, ideas for an improved educational future; dust and deprivation - poverty and unemployment in the community, sources of income, literacy within rural households, the experience of rural poverty, histories of communities, the history, purposes and significance of education, conclusions; the road to school - the road to school, early childhood education, in school, learner: teacher ratios, class size, school fees and uniforms, hunger and school meals, health and HIV/AIDS, disability, teenage pregnancy, humiliation, bullying, sexual abuse and violence, traditional ceremonies, consequences of disrupted schooling patterns, conclusions; school and community together - services, school intrastructure, conclusions; experience of the classroom - curriculum, resources, approaches to teaching and learning, corporal punishment, improving rural classrooms, making the curriculum 'relevant', parents' perspectives - education for rural development, learners' perspectives - equal education, democracy and social justice, learners' educational and occupational aspirations, conclusions; democracy in schools - relationships between home and school, teachers and communities, teachers and learners, parents and schools, school governing bodies, community leaders and schools, education officials and rural schools, conclusions; rural education and development - education and rural development in historical context, the relationshiop between urban and rural development, democracy, development and rural education, why rural education?, a case for an extended notion of the right to basic education.