BASIC EDUCATION

This is the tenth edition of this blog. This covers a set of ideas to improve basic education. Our unemployment crisis is multifactorial (such as crime, corruption, failing infrastructure, restrictive policies, neglect of our major trading partners and so forth) but at least in part it is because the educational level of school leavers in other countries is better that our own. Jobs go the country with not just the cheapest, but also the most capable workforce.

This was posted to Facebook on 4 October 2025. This website isn a repository of the weekly blogs posted.

What?

South Africa should outsource the building, upgrading, maintenance AND RUNNING of the lowest three categories (quintiles) of schools to private enterprise.

Why?

1)              We can no longer afford to waste all the talent available in the huge majority of children who attend very poor schools.

2)              37 percent of scholars drop out before matriculation.

3)              In standardised tests for Literacy (PIRLS) South African grade 4’s test worst out of 57 countries.

4)              In standardised tests for numeracy (TIMSS) we came 56^th out of 65 despite the fact that our scholars tested were a year older than competitor countries.

5)              The government does not have cash available to maintain these schools, many of which were built long, long ago and have not been maintained.

6)              Government does not have cash available to build new schools or extend existing schools to accommodate our growing population.

7)              Most of these schools are hopelessly under- resourced. They have no IT equipment, no science or biology labs and no sports fields. Shamefully, many still have pit latrines.

8)              As government does not have the money (CAPEX) to pay for all this, the only option is to get private education companies to upgrade and run the schools. They will use their money or money they can borrow to fix all these problems. This means that they must be able to run them at a profit.

9)              Evidence exists for the benefit from Successful Public Private Partnerships (PPP’s) in running schools in Developing Countries: Programs like Pakistan's Foundation Assisted Schools and Uganda's voucher subsidies have increased enrolment by 20–30% in low-income areas while improving test scores through private management. In Liberia's Partnership Schools for Liberia, private operators boosted learning gains by 60% in math/reading via similar tech-enabled models, at comparable per-student costs. This shows outsourcing can deliver quality without inflating budgets.

10)   In the lowest quintile schools, the children need schools more than any other children. They come from the homes with the least resources, have the least educated parents and school is their only way out of poverty.

11)   The South African government spends approximately R23000 per learner per year. This is an amount that should allow a private service provider to take over a school, refurbish and upgrade and extend it and supply a vastly superior educational product – at no extra cost to government.

How?

Firstly, it must be acknowledged that the budget available for school education per child is insufficient to supply first world schools – using the traditional model.

Secondly, home language education is vital to allow all children to progress easily.

In order to achieve these, a video data base of lessons (particularly in mathematics and the sciences) needs to be created in all languages. The content and educational goals of classes (particularly in STEM subjects) do not change very often. Not every teacher has the gift to explain a complex concept in a way that a child can understand. We all have experience of teachers who made things seem clear and easy and others who left us in the dark. We need the didactic part of teaching to be designed and word – for - word created by those gifted teachers. Consider this: mathematics from grade R to matric involves just about 2000 lessons. The content has been unchanged for many years.  Fortunately, most of the necessary lessons (taught by the very best teachers) is already available online (such as Khan academy and Dr William Smith’s work). All that needs to be done is to have a language - proficient teacher translate these lessons and record them for each language. Two different ways of teaching each lesson can be available – in case a student needs an alternative explanation in order to understand.

Even the most remote rural school equipped with solar panels, satellite internet and screens in every classroom can thus become a world class teaching environment without having to hugely increase the number or education level of the teachers.

Bridging the Digital and Skills Divide: Equipping schools with screens/solar/internet not only enables lessons but builds digital literacy, crucial for future jobs. South Africa's 4IR strategy emphasizes this; better-educated youth could cut unemployment by enhancing employability in tech/agri sectors, attracting FDI as a "capable workforce”.

Tests written online and assessed by AI – particularly in mathematics may identify exactly the scholar’s misperception and direct teaching individually.

Biology and science labs are a nice - to - have, but if scholars can watch experiments online by the very best science teachers – they are not absolutely essential and money can be saved.

Tests on the subject matter can be prepared centrally (by the content creators) to make their quality better and to unburden teachers further. With didactic lessons given by the internet lessons, teachers will have time to mark tests (according to a rubric) to determine where students need to repeat a lesson or watch a different version of the same content or have personal assistance from the teacher.

Lessons should go on into the afternoon so that homework is unnecessary and to allow time for revision by rewatching lessons or doing practices. (KIPP schools have shown the advantage of longer school days in schools serving underprivileged communities).

All of the above content and practice and test materials can very likely be obtained free of charge from NGOs. Khan academy is funded by the Gates foundation.

Government can negotiate with the ten largest private school groups and pre-qualify them. School governing bodies (headed by parents) can listen to presentations from these groups as to what they could provide at their school for the budget and choose who they wish to contract for the next 30 years. A three-way contract between the SGB, Government and the company will be drawn up.

The budget for the school will consist of an amount to cover the cost of CAPEX (to be supplied or borrowed by the private provider) required for that school and a cost per child with escalation.

Failure to supply an adequate product as determined by the SGB can result in cancellation of the contract, but with the new service provider having to take over the residual CAPEX debt.

Each high school will be the central entity contracted, but with several feeder primary schools and with a few preschools feeding into each of these. The entire ecosystem in one community being the responsibility of one contracting service provider.

All schools will be required to provide two meals a day (breakfast and lunch) and school uniforms. Providing meals/uniforms improves attendance (e.g., nutrition boosts cognition by 10–15%) and reduces dropouts. Extended days allow for extracurriculars like sports/coding clubs, fostering soft skills—evidence from KIPP shows this builds resilience in underprivileged kids, leading to higher tertiary enrolment.

Government’s role will be reduced to school inspections (which are no longer done) and setting external examinations to monitor progress perhaps at the end of primary school and matric. Government needs to be the ref only and not the player and the ref. Data shows that well -regulated PPP’s yield 15–20% better outcomes than pure public models.

As education delivery is a provincial competence in our constitution, government will need to offer the possibility to provinces. Some will choose to try this – perhaps only in the very worst schools at first, but global examples (e.g., India's PPPs in 10,000+ schools) show rapid expansion if contracts include data-sharing for continuous improvement. This minimizes risks while demonstrating quick wins, like refurbished schools in 1–2 years.

Why Not?

1)              The cheapest private schools are currently around R36000 per child per year for the starting years. This is true, but it includes an amount for building the school from the ground up, from scratch. At most schools, this will not be necessary – some infrastructure exists. A “distance learning within a school” model will be far cheaper. This is not dissimilar to the Varsity college model.

2)              Making all these schools into modern connected schools will be expensive.

This is true – which is why we need private capital, but the future running costs will be far lower and running costs are the main expense of education.

3)              SADTU will oppose this initially.

This is probably true, as they fear private enterprise, but in the long-term teachers (educators) will enjoy having proper facilities and teaching children who have not missed out on the earlier education – in particular the most vital pre-school parts of education (and are not hungry).

Referendum

If you would support the lowest three tiers (initially) of schools being outsourced to the private sector as “distance learning within a school”) please give this blog a “Like” on Facebook.

Please share this with other people motivated to try and improve the future of our country to get them debating and thinking.