About

The Nelson Mandela Institute has been some years in the making. The Institute is based on Mr Mandela’s belief that a nation’s worth can judged by how it treats its children and that all children deserve a quality education.

Mr Mandela’s vision initially led to a number of upgrades and renovation projects at 140 schools across South Africa. Following these renovation projects it became clear that, despite the beautiful buildings and top-notch facilities, most of these schools were still struggling to produce confident young adults capable of becoming productive members of society.

The Nelson Mandela Foundation thus commissioned research into the rural learning experience, which resulted in the publication of a book titled Emerging Voices. The research and the report highlighted the need for an organisation dedicated to addressing the challenges of rural education.

To this end, the Nelson Mandela Institute was founded in 2007.

Since then, the Institute, which is based at the University of Fort Hare, has been conducting research and pilot projects to gain an understanding of what does and does not work in the rural education setting.

Read more about our work and the role and purpose of the Institute here.