In the Mopani District, situated in the Limpopo Province, 81% of the population reside in rural areas^A with 33.2% of the population younger than 15 years old (Mopani District Municipality, 2022)^B. In 2016, 24.8% of adults (aged 20+) had a matric qualification with the official unemployment rate 39.4% in 2011 (Mopani District Municipality, 2022).

Kaross Foundation works in N’wamitwa village, within the Mopani District, where schools have very little to no support from the private sector. There are thirteen primary schools and seven secondary schools, with one circuit manager to manage and support them. Educators are continuously being appointed in new leadership roles and have not necessarily received the necessary training for these positions. In 2024, all schools appointed new School Governing Boards, consisting of educators and parents. Therefore, Kaross Foundation continue to focus on leadership development.

Most of these schools have little to no access to computers, and where they so they are often limited to administrative purposes. In 2024, classroom sizes for some were above 60 and for many schools above 50 learners per class.

N’wamitwa has no public library, with no schools having a functional school library. In South Africa, 81% of South African Grade 4 learners cannot read for meaning.^C The same is experienced in N’wamitwa. In addition, teaching and learning takes place in English from grade 4 onwards, even though children’s home language is Xitsonga. This challenge is seen in South Africa as a whole, where in most schools, English is the language of teaching and learning, with only 8,1% of South Africans speaking English at home.^D

Agriculture is a big contributor to the economy – N’wamitwa is surrounded by farms providing permanent or seasonal work. Despite this, learners in secondary schools are not adequately trained for the agriculture sector in terms of practical exposure. Even if agriculture is taken as a subject, the focus is not on the major crops in the area.

In order to holistically and systematically develop primary schools and secondary schools, we need to look at Early Childhood Development (ECD). In N’wamitwa there are 26 ECD centres. Many practitioners in the centres are unqualified and have limited resources. In Limpopo, 54.3% of children fall behind or very behind the expected standard for Early Learning.^E

Our approach strengthens the full journey of education, beginning with daycare centres and extending through to primary and secondary schools.