Rewiring the Budget to fight stunting in the first 1,000 days
OPINION: South Africa’s shift toward early-stage interventions – including pre-birth care – offers a vital chance to break the cycle of stunting, which entrenches learning disadvantages and structural inequality.
Shifting Funds, Sidelining Schools: How will Godongwana’s ‘mini-budget’ deliver?
OPINION: With a staggering R140-billion infrastructure backlog and shrinking grant allocations, Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana’s upcoming “mini-budget” must be judged on whether it protects the resources desperately needed by vulnerable schools.
Godongwana’s moment: Strong Foundations or out-of-reach promises?
OPINION: Yet another reading and early learning report has reconfirmed the urgent call to action. When Finance Minister Enoch Godongwana tables his “mini-budget” in parliament on Wednesday, will funding be unlocked to deliver national development and poverty-reduction promises?
The R1.6bn procurement saga: Politics, catalogues, and literacy
The messy R1.6bn Foundation Phase catalogue saga reveals how legal flaws, compounded by political clashes and mixed messages, jeopardise 2027 literacy goals — leaving teachers in limbo and learners the potential losers.
For 1.3 million children, the caregiver is the curriculum
OPINION: As Literacy month ends, we need to focus on how we close the gap for all children and put the spotlight on the pre-schooling years, where caregivers are often the primary drivers of development.
What it takes for principals to keep the lights on
Delayed state funding is forcing principals into personal debt to keep classrooms running. Facing severe administrative burnout, on top of a R140 billion infrastructure backlog – educators need the government to deliver resources timeously – and then get out of the way.
Could the pencil be mightier than the laptop in class
OPINION: Responding to research on the harms of heavy tech use, Sweden is putting down touchscreens and picking up pencils in classrooms. This about-turn from a digitally innovative European country raises an urgent question for South Africa about our relationship with technology in education, and how to ensure digital solutions complement learning.
Should schools ban cellphones?
OPINION: It is hard to keep up with fast-paced digital developments, and policies are always lagging. How should South African schools approach social media, cellphones, Artificial Intelligence in classrooms, and codes of conduct around communication between learners and teachers? In Finland, a year-long cellphone ban is yielding positive results.
The fixers: Inside journalism’s new Education Desk
OPINION: South Africa cannot afford to prevaricate when it comes to fixing schooling. The latest Stats SA figures are stark: overall unemployment has climbed to 33.6%, with youth unemployment at 47.4%. The Education Desk has launched to cover the schooling issues that can make a difference. We know the remedies start not at the end of schooling, but during the foundational years — and earlier, in Early Childhood Development. Join us on this journey.
Finland-SA varsity project rethinks teacher education
OPINION: South Africa’s unemployment rate stands at 33.6%, according to the latest Quarterly Labour Force Survey, with the youth jobless rate rising to over 47%. How do we turn things around? Coinciding with a visit to South Africa by Finland’s Education Minister, a decade-long Finnish-South African university collaboration looks at vocational teacher education to provide solutions.