Rural Development

The Nelson Mandela Institute focuses its work on two areas that are close to Nelson Mandela’s heart: education and rural development.

These focus areas were established as the primary areas of the Institute’s research and work when the NMI was founded in 2007. Here we elaborate on what education and rural development mean in the South African context and how this understanding informs the work of the Institute.

Education

South Africa has remarkable participation rates of children in primary education, reflecting a commitment to education. Despite this eagerness to learn, systematic research indicates that the South African schooling system is not teaching young people to think, read, write and enumerate with any confidence, and that young people are growing disillusioned with a schooling system that leaves them unable to succeed and function in the workplace.

The figures for South African education are dismal. In 2003, of all school leavers with a matric certificate, only 7% achieved results that made them eligible for tertiary education. And of those who do enter tertiary education institutions, the large majority struggle to read and write at an undergraduate level.

Despite the best intentions it seems that the schooling system is reproducing the patterns of poverty and apartheid South Africa, which goes on to cause frustration – not only for policy makers but most importantly for educators and learners. They are surrounded by negativity and failure and it becomes more and more difficult to succeed in these conditions. The cycle of poverty and oppression continues.

Mr Mandela has always been committed to education. His belief is that the rural education setting limits children, not because of its geographical setting, but because it is excluded from the education process by policy makers who do not see, let alone understand, its unique challenges.

With these challenges in mind we have cast our attention to what matters most, to help us start getting it right for the millions of children who deserve the opportunity to succeed.