ABOUT US
We are a not-for-profit company that supports
no-fee public schools to provide high quality education.
Support schools to become beacons of hope.
Why we do this
Recent research shows that 78% of grade 4 learners are unable to read with understanding. This implies that nearly 8 out of 10 learners cannot read for meaning after four years of formal schooling. Reading with understanding is a prerequisite to learning. This is one of the main contributing factors that explains why so many of our children do not reach matric. Of 10 children who start grade 1, approximately only 4 will successfully complete grade 12. The other 6 have either dropped out or will not pass their grade 12 exams. This means that about 6 of the 10 children are likely to struggle to find employment as most employers require a minimum of a grade 12 certificate.
- Do not complete Grade 12
- Receive Grade 12 Certificate
The PIRLS data in 2016 showed that 78% of grade 4 learners could not read for meaning in at least one language. If you cannot learn to read you cannot read to learn.
The quality of education that SA children receive is predetermined by the money in their parent’s pockets. This has resulted in educational inequality in up to 88% of the schools in South Africa, which are no-fee public schools.
Due to their financial status, these children endure sub-standard education that denies them dignified employment and undermines their sense of self-worth. In fact, poorer South African students lag far behind much less wealthy countries in Africa, such as Tanzania, Kenya and Swaziland, placing them at a disadvantage locally and internationally. It is highly unlikely that a child who shows promise in an impoverished community receive the same opportunity as a child in an affluent school due to the very large inequality gap.
This gap in personal growth and frozen economic standing is why we do what we do. We are striving to change children’s destinies and breaking the cycle of social inequality one classroom at a time.
Further reading
- South Africa has one of the world’s worst education systems (The Economist)
- How collaboration can bring better prospects to children (dgmt.co.za)
- Op-Ed: Collaboration Schools – Trojan Horse or a Knight in Shining Armour? (dailymaverick.co.za)
- Schooling in South Africa: How low-quality education becomes a poverty trap (ci.org *PDF)
- The stories we tell ourselves about inequality (Nic Spaull)
- Literacy: You just can’t fake it (dailymaverick.co.za)
- The true cost of our failing education system (dgmt.co.za)
