Mandate, Vision and Aims

Mandate
The Nelson Mandela Institute is mandated to work globally to achieve Mr Mandela’s visions for education and rural development.

Vision
The Institute is inspired by a common future shaped by the minds and creativity of all our children.

Aims
The Nelson Mandela Institute has five aims:

School, community, and teacher development: To demonstrate the principles of ubuntu (“caring for one another”) and excellence in education and rural development, and to establish sustainable models of school, community, classroom and teacher development in a rural context .
Building public institutions for education and rural development: To build, support, and strengthen sustainable public institutions that support education and rural development.
Applied research – new knowledge and new possibilities: To work with schools, communities, scholars and researchers to build up a body of information and to create sustainable solutions to the challenges in the education sector.
Social dialogue for change:To promote social dialogue on issues of education and rural community development and to re-ignite our social commitment to education and rural development.
Community mobilisation and networks: To build alliances of people, communities and organisations working to transform education and rural community development.

It is not beyond our power to create a world in which all children have access to a good education. Those who do not believe this have small imaginations.
Nelson Mandela, 2006

Mother-tongue literacy founders on the lack of resources and other materials in learners’ home languages photo by – Gary Horlor

Outdoor classrooms are often fun, but come the harsh Eastern Cape winters, it is vital that learners have solid classrooms to work in

Rural homesteads often lack electricity, so learners’ often do their homework by candlelight