Without better understanding and accommodating children who often need to read and learn in languages other than their mother tongue, all of our collaborative negotiations may not bear the fruit of our labour. Current problems include alarmingly low literacy levels with 81% of Grade 4 learners unable to read for meaning. 

This calls for also adapting our teaching methods for literacy and comprehension and knowing when to use technology to help us and when we don’t need it.

A holistic approach to anything right now is what seems be moving us forward as a nation. We are seeing this with South Africa’s first coalition government. Whether we will experience positive transformation from this will surely keep us on the edge of our seats. Leading political parties’ manifestos are generally aimed at improving education. From the ANC’s approach to enabling better access to quality early childhood development by 2030, to the DA’s focus on tripling the number of Grade 4 learners who can read for meaning and ensuring teachers’ competence, we just need to see if they can be held to their promises. 

With all of this said, one thing remains sure: government alone cannot address all the needs of the sector. 

Partnering with corporate leaders who operate outside the educational landscape actually works. For example, we (Oxford University Press South Africa) partnered with MTN to launch the “Learn with Oxford” subscription model in 2022. The service provides MTN subscribers and app users access to our learning material at an affordable fee at R5 per day. Designed to help learners prepare for tests and exams, the app features interactive lessons in key subjects such as Mathematics, Physical Science, and English for Grades 10 to 12, without incurring additional data costs. This gave us the opportunity to tap into their 37.4-million-strong customer base and make high-quality learning material accessible to more South Africans who have access to WiFi or some data outlet. The model onboarded 289 275 subscribers from June 2023 to May 2024. This doesn’t cover the entire spectrum, but it’s a notable step towards enabling young people to read with fewer limitations such as distance, transport and the costs of books. 

While technology is important in initially drawing the youth’s attention, it is a vehicle for making pretty excellent educational resources available to people. We’ve seen this with our Oxford Reading Buddy, which presents an English and Afrikaans learning library in the form of e-books and e-readers. Still in its initial launch phase with plans to cover multiple South African languages, it helps young pupils read for comprehension, supporting their transition to more complex reading levels, and eventually a mainstream language like English. In the last financial year, the programme saw 11 625 subscribers from 24 schools.

International partnerships with organisations like UNICEF have enabled us to establish a Literacy Intervention Programme in the Northern Cape. The project is now in its fourth month, delivering real impact to over 23 000 learners and over 600 teachers. The programme involves supplying books in Setswana and English, designing lesson plans, training teachers, coaching teachers in their own classrooms, providing teaching support through a dedicated mobile app, and monitoring the impact of the programme over the next 18 months. 

Collaborations may not be the immediate answer to our problems, but they can nudge us towards better outcomes and maybe even better living. Education changes lives. To truly transform our educational landscape, we need comprehensive policy reforms focusing on improving literacy, upgrading school infrastructure, and aligning higher education with market. Working together, we can leverage our strengths to create impactful and sustainable solution and ultimately bridge educational gaps.