Education

South Africa needs educated, skilled and literate citizens to help it grow and thrive. Investing in education will provide people with the resources they need – from properly-trained teachers and up-to-date books, to modern classrooms and recreation facilities – to reach their full potential and become productive, stable members of society. Investing in education is an investment in South Africa’s future.

Education is a basic human right that is enshrined in international and national laws. Alleviating poverty, improving health and addressing inequalities are all influenced by educational policy and practice. No country has ever reduced poverty without creating sustained economic growth, and education plays a critical role in generating productivity and accelerating this growth. Its primacy is reflected in the commitment to achieve universal primary education in Goal 2 of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Education has an important role to play in the realisation of other MDGs: a skilled, educated population is far better equipped to escape cycles of poverty and hunger, and the impact of education on the promotion of gender equality has been widely documented. Education is crucial for improving individual incomes, child and maternal health, and environmental sustainability.

Education is the foundation for development.

The Current Situation

International

• Globally, 80 million children are not in school.
• Almost 1 billion adults are illiterate.
• 1 in 5 people in the world are denied their fundamental right to an education.
• At current rates of progress, at least 75 countries will not achieve the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education by 2015.
• Almost half of the children in Sub-Saharan Africa do not attend school.

South Africa

• 40 years of apartheid education did an enormous amount of damage to education in South Africa, the effects of which are still being felt today.
• Access to education in South Africa is not the principal problem: quality is. While South Africa is on track to meeting the Millennium Development Goal of universal primary education by 2015, South African learners perform far worse than their peers in other developing countries – including African countries – in international tests.
• Illiteracy costs South Africa up to R550bn annually in potential gross domestic product, according to a recent report by Stellenbosch University academics.
• Lack of quality teachers, poor functioning of schools, poor teacher retention, absenteeism from both students and teachers, and a lack of management and leadership at schools are all contributing factors to the challenges faced by the South African education system.
• Less than one sixth of South African children between 0-7 receive any form of Early Childhood Development (ECD)
• 79% of South African schools do not have libraries and 60% do not have laboratories.
• If a South African learner drops out of school before completing Grade 12, the chances of them finding employment are not significantly higher than someone without any schooling at all.
• 30,000 teachers in South Africa leave the profession annually, with only 7,000 new teachers entering it each year.
• According to the World Bank, 32.8% of South African businesses cite labour skills shortages as a major constraint to growth

SASIX considers investment in projects that:

• Promote partnerships between provincial and national departments of education to undertake research and promote models of best practice.
• Build the leadership, management and governance capacity of school governing bodies, principals and senior teaching staff through training and mentoring.
• Support teacher training, including supervision or mentoring, to equip teachers to manage classes, particularly in the under-resourced areas of mathematics, science, technology and African language teaching.
• Provide financial assistance to learners to access FET and HE and the acquisition of skills that prepare learners for the job market.
• Build bridges between FET and the labour market for learners, in the form of apprenticeships and learnerships. Also, those programmes, which address gaps in life skills teaching, including teaching learners about HIV/AIDS, career guidance and values.
• Provide additional infrastructure to under-resourced schools, enabling access to classrooms, books, laboratories, toilets, water-wise gardens, electricity and safe drinking water.
• Equip schools and train teachers in Information and Communications Technology, particularly computer laboratories with internet connectivity for learners to gain ICT skills and use computers for cross-curricular learning.
• Assist school communities in supplementing children’s nutrition through the establishment of school vegetable gardens and cooking programmes.
• Teach literacy, numeracy and life skills to adults through community- and workplace-based Adult Basic Education.
• Increase the access of previously disadvantaged people to reading and books through community libraries and library initiatives, particularly those providing books in the mother-tongue.
• Focus on education for parents, caregivers and communities, to transfer knowledge and skills in ECD.
• Provide quality in-service training in ECD, care and development for those working in pre-school centres, crèches, playgroups and home-based ECD facilities.
• Promote access to quality, sustainable, holistic ECD for girls and boys aged 0-6 in vulnerable communities, and raise awareness of the need for children to achieve the outcomes of the Grade R curriculum in preparation for schooling.