By Lebone Rodah Mosima
Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube has said that South Africa’s ability to prepare young people for work, citizenship and innovation depends on whether children learn to read, count and reason in their earliest years of schooling.
Speaking at the launch of the South African Education Accelerator, in partnership with the World Economic Forum, in the Western Cape on Thursday, Gwarube said the country had to build a stronger coalition between business, government and society to prepare young people for the future economy.
The launch was co-chaired by Gwarube and Phuthi Mahanyele-Dabengwa, Group Executive Director of Naspers and Prosus.
“The future does not begin when a young person enters the labour market. The future begins when a child learns to read, count, reason and dream,” Gwarube said.
She said Africa was standing on the edge of a profound demographic transition, with one in every four people on Earth expected to be African by 2050 and the continent set to have the largest working-age population in human history by the end of the century.
“A youthful population can become a dividend or a disaster. The difference is education,” she said.
Gwarube told the story of two ten-year-olds, Lindiwe and Nelson, who were equally bright, curious and deserving, but whose early learning experiences were sharply different.
“Lindiwe attended a quality Early Childhood Development Centre. She was read to from the age of two, exposed to books at home, and supported by trained ECD practitioners who could identify learning gaps early,” she said.
“By age ten, she reads fluently with understanding. She solves mathematics problems confidently. She asks questions. She experiments. She dreams boldly about becoming an engineer one day.”
Nelson, she said, did not have access to quality ECD.
“When he is supposed to start his first formal lesson, his teacher first has to teach him how to hold a pencil,” Gwarube said.
“He encounters structured literacy for the first time when he enters our school gates. He struggles to read for meaning in the Foundation Phase.”
“By age ten, he cannot yet fully engage with mathematics concepts because the language of learning itself remains a barrier. Slowly, confidence gives way to frustration.”
Gwarube said the curriculum moved ahead while Nelson fell behind, even though he would later still be expected to take on gateway subjects such as Mathematics, Science, Accounting, Engineering, AI and green economy skills.
“These two children will experience Africa’s demographic transition very differently,” she said.
“Lindiwe will experience opportunity and participate in the modern economy. Nelson risks exclusion and disconnection from it entirely.”
Gwarube said foundational learning was not one priority among many, but the priority that made all other priorities possible.
“AI, coding, advanced manufacturing, green energy, entrepreneurship, technical education and vocational training all rest on one foundation: a child who can read, reason, calculate, communicate and keep learning,” she said.
She said a child who reads with understanding can teach herself new knowledge, while a child who understands numbers begins to understand patterns and problems.
“Foundational numeracy is not simply about numbers in the early grades. It is the beginning of South Africa’s Mathematics and STEM pipeline, and of the technical, digital and scientific pathways our young people must enter,” Gwarube said.
“A child who loses confidence in numbers at seven may never choose Mathematics at fifteen.”
She said early numeracy opened the first gate to the future economy, which was why the administration had placed foundational literacy and numeracy at the centre of reform.
“That is why this administration has placed foundational literacy and numeracy at the centre of reform: reading benchmarks in all official languages through the Funda Uphumelele National Survey; stronger teacher coaching, structured pedagogy, and Early Childhood Development, so that every child can thrive by five,” she said.
Gwarube said the Accelerator would bring partners together around two connected streams of work.
The first would focus on foundational numeracy research, because early mathematics begins South Africa’s Mathematics, STEM and technical skills pipeline.
The second would focus on multiple learning pathways through Focus Schools, because strong foundations must lead into credible technical, vocational, digital, entrepreneurial and workplace-linked opportunities.
“Government cannot do this alone,” Gwarube said.
“The future is shaped by industry, labour markets, communities and families. Schools cannot prepare children for a world they are disconnected from.”
She said business could not wait at the end of the pipeline and complain about skills that had not been built, while philanthropy had to strengthen the system rather than create parallel projects.
“The future demands co-creation: evidence, alignment, investment behind what works, and priorities pursued with urgency and accountability,” she said.
“We need employers, universities, TVET colleges, innovators and schools to design the capabilities our economy needs, informed by real labour market realities.”
Gwarube said the second stream of the Accelerator would strengthen Focus Schools as credible routes into technical, vocational, digital, agricultural, arts, engineering, entrepreneurship and workplace-linked opportunities.
Through the Accelerator, she said, the department would work with industry partners to match expertise to relevant subjects, connect Focus Schools to workplace exposure, and support teachers and learners with the tools, equipment and practical experience these pathways require.
“We want these schools to become living bridges between the classroom and the economy – places where talent is not only discovered, but developed, directed and dignified,” she said.
“These cannot be second-class routes. They must be rigorous, respected, connected to real opportunity, and built on strong foundations.”
Gwarube called on partners to support both arms of the initiative: building the evidence base for stronger foundational numeracy and strengthening Focus Schools as credible pathways into opportunity.
“No company can flourish sustainably where children cannot read, young people cannot access opportunity, and education is disconnected from the economy it serves,” she said.
“Education is not charity. It is economic strategy, nation-building and an investment in the future workforce, future innovator and future citizen.”
She said South Africa had to become far more intentional about building an education-to-employment ecosystem.
“We need artisans, technicians, software developers, healthcare workers, renewable energy specialists, and young people with the skills to build industries still emerging,” she said.
But Gwarube said multiple pathways did not mean lower expectations.
“They mean more doors,” she said.
“What matters is that every pathway is credible, dignified, rigorous and connected to real opportunity.”
She said a strong society could not succeed by producing only one kind of graduate, but had to help every young person discover a pathway that matched their talent, effort and purpose.
“The artisan still needs mathematics. The coder still needs reading comprehension. The entrepreneur still needs problem-solving, communication and confidence,” she said.
“Foundations are not the opposite of future skills. They make future skills possible.”
Gwarube said children in Grade 1 today would inherit either an Africa of prosperity or an Africa of missed opportunity.
“So we must move beyond pilots that never scale, beyond fragmented interventions, and beyond working in silos,” she said.
“The clock is ticking. The child cannot wait.”
She announced that the Department of Basic Education, with its partners, would undertake research on Foundation Phase mathematics performance, including the relationship between mother-tongue instruction and mathematical understanding.
“We need to understand how children acquire mathematical reasoning, how language shapes conceptual learning, and how to help more learners build confidence with numbers early,” Gwarube said.
“Because if we are serious about the future economy, we must become serious about mathematics achievement at scale.”
She thanked the World Economic Forum team, the Department of Basic Education team and the Gates Foundation for making the launch possible.
“Today, through the South African Education Accelerator, we are not simply launching a programme. We are making a promise,” Gwarube said.
“That foundational learning will sit at the centre of reform. That multiple pathways will be credible, dignified and connected to opportunity. That government, business and society will act with shared purpose.”
