By Thapelo Molefe
President Cyril Ramaphosa has issued a stark warning about the future of education, stating that artificial intelligence and automation are changing the job market at an unprecedented pace.
Speaking at the 2025 Basic Education Lekgotla in Ekurhuleni on Thursday, the president urged education stakeholders to rethink how young people were being prepared for the workforce of the future.
“Artificial intelligence is cutting a swathe across many types of work,” Ramaphosa said.
“We now have tools that can build a website in 10 seconds and compile a fully referenced research paper in about a minute. If we do not transform our education system, we will be preparing learners for jobs that will no longer exist.”
The annual lekgotla, now in its 10th year, is a critical platform for shaping education policy in South Africa.
This year’s theme, “Strengthening Foundations for Learning for a Resilient, Future-Fit Education System”, reflects growing concerns about whether the country’s education system is keeping pace with global technological advancements and economic demands.
Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube delivered a sobering assessment of the challenges facing South Africa’s education sector.
She warned that budget constraints, teacher shortages and increasing class sizes were threatening the quality of learning.
“We are operating in a fiscally constrained environment,” Gwarube said.
“Provinces have retained the same number of teaching posts for the past five to 10 years, while learner enrolment has steadily increased. This has pushed up class sizes and is impacting learning outcomes.”
Despite these financial hurdles, Gwarube reaffirmed her department’s commitment to strengthening early childhood development, literacy and numeracy.
The minister also highlighted the impact of the Government of National Unity on education, stating that collaboration across political parties was essential.
“Bringing together 10 different political parties, each with its own priorities, has required unprecedented political maturity,” she noted.
“The private sector must play a more active role — not by taking over education, but by investing in partnerships that bring innovation and sustainability to the sector.”
Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Blade Nzimande echoed the president’s concerns about AI and automation, urging education leaders to integrate STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education more deeply into the curriculum.
“The world is changing rapidly, and science, technology and innovation are the drivers of this change,” Nzimande said.
“We need to ensure that learners are not only consuming technology but are also equipped to create it.”
Nzimande highlighted several initiatives aimed at preparing learners for the future, including National Science Week that engaged over 4000 learners annually to spark interest in STEM careers.
He also emphasised the importance of STEM Olympiads, which fostered problem-solving, computational thinking and innovation.
To ensure that educators were equipped to teach digital skills, coding and computational literacy, programmes have been introduced to provide teachers with the necessary training.
Additionally, the government was investing in computer laboratories at schools, particularly in rural areas, to enhance access to technology and digital learning resources.
“Our goal is to build a generation of learners who are ready to take advantage of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, not be left behind by it,” Nzimande said.
While Ramaphosa acknowledged the 81.7% matric pass rate achieved by the 2024 matriculants, he warned that these successes at the end of schooling contrasted sharply with the struggles at the foundation phase.
“More than 80% of Grade 4 learners in South Africa cannot read for meaning,” he said, referring to the 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study.
“We must fix this at the earliest stage, or our later achievements will mean little.”
Both Ramaphosa and Gwarube stressed the importance of mother-tongue-based bilingual education, saying that learners grasped numeracy and literacy concepts better when taught in their home language.
“We cannot afford to let another generation fall behind because they were not given the proper foundation,” Gwarube said. “Early childhood development is the great equaliser in our society.”
Following South Africa hosting its first G20 Education Working Group in 2025, Ramaphosa emphasised that the country had a unique opportunity to shape global discussions on inclusive education.
“The G20 is not just about high-level diplomacy; it’s about ensuring that the voices of learners, teachers and communities are heard on a global stage,” the president said.
The alignment of the Basic Education Lekgotla’s priorities with the G20 education agenda is expected to elevate South Africa’s role in global education reform and attract international best practices into the country’s schooling system.
With discussions set to continue this week, stakeholders from government, civil society, business and education institutions will work on concrete plans to improve foundational learning, enhance teacher training and integrate new technologies into classrooms.
“The education system of today must serve the world of tomorrow,” Ramaphosa concluded.
“If we do not act now, we will be failing not just this generation, but all those to come.”
INSIDE EDUCATION
