Investment in effective learning and quality education is critical in developing the country’s potential to perform economically, employ its people and compete internationally.

The lack of early childhood development services seriously hampers foundation-phase education, because learners have not developed the basic skills required to read, write and do simple sums.  Unless these deficits can be tackled in the first few years of schooling, the long-term potential for children is poor.

There is huge drop-out in the senior phase of schooling, with about half of all school entrants not completing Grade 12. The quality of education is very poor, with South Africa, with educational outcomes extremely poor relatively to the national investment.¹ Preliminary findings from the Annual National Assessments of literacy among learners found that only 45% of Grade 3’s and 35% of Grade 6’s could read and write at levels expected for their grades.²

Effective education requires the combined efforts of families, communities, schools and the educational system to ensure both good supply and demand for quality. We aim to build demand for a high-quality national literacy strategy that starts at birth and continues through childhood, laying the basis for active learning and education.