Education MECs and representatives from all nine provinces gathered in Cape Town for the National G20 Basic Education Indaba, where they shared key lessons from provincial izindaba and outlined the actions they plan to take forward.

The gathering, held under the theme “Taking the G20 to the People – A National Indaba for Advancing Quality Foundational Learning through Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) and Education Professional Development”, aims to strengthen the sector’s drive to ensure South Africa’s G20 participation has an impact at every level.

Insights from the indaba will feed into the Ministerial Meeting of the Education Working Group, set for October 2025.

The panel discussion, themed “Quality Foundational Learning – From Dialogue to Impact in 2026 and beyond”, included Gauteng Deputy Director-General for Education Policy and Planning Albert Channe, Free State MEC Dr Mamiki Julia Maboya, Mpumalanga MEC Lindi Masina, Eastern Cape Deputy Director-General for Curriculum Ray Tywakadi, North West MEC Ntsetsao Viola Motsumi, Limpopo MEC Mavhungu Lerule-Ramakhanya, Western Cape MEC David Maynier, Northern Cape MEC Abraham Vosloo, and KwaZulu-Natal Deputy Director-General for Curriculum Management and Delivery Mbongiseni Mazibuko.

Channe said the highlight of Gauteng’s indaba was the consensus that the province faced a foundational phase problem that required collaboration to resolve.

“There was also an acknowledgement that in our models, we are not factoring parental participation sufficiently.”

On multilingualism, Channe said: “Gauteng has a dominance of almost all the official languages, and Soweto (specifically) was historically demarcated by languages, and a lot of schools would deal with specific languages that are underpopulated.

“We do find, especially in Soweto, a school where a language is dominant – be it IsiZulu or Sesotho – that does become de facto the language of choice. What we’ve seen over the last 10–15 years is parallel medium starting to creep into schools.

“So they do have three to four languages in the bigger schools, but then at least two languages running parallel in the foundation phase.”

He added that English is increasingly becoming the language of choice.

“Figures from the latest report show that 68% of Grade 1s – irrespective of home language – are learning English… (Only) 31% of IsiZulu learners are learning in IsiZulu. So either we’re sitting with this issue where either they are getting spaces (at schools), but the language choice (at the school) was already pre-determined, but, for example, if you take English home language in Grade 1, 25% of English home-language learners are IsiZulu-speaking children.

“This challenge that we are having is tremendous. It has a high impact on the acquisition of language because in single classrooms, you are also finding multiple languages being managed by a teacher.

“Sometimes we accuse teachers of code-mixing and code-switching, but in actual fact, I think, they are just trying to cope with their situation. We’re not always understanding what the mechanics are.

“If there are multiple languages, it means that the available time is split to acquire the language in that school.”

Maboya said the Free State indaba enabled them to mark a “conceptual shift” from a supply-driven approach to a demand-driven one, where role players help direct their interventions.

She said systemic and contextual challenges in the province, saying: “It will be impossible for us to improve the quality of numeracy and literacy in the foundational phase, in dysfunctional schools. Schools have to be functional… it is only then that we will be able to improve the quality of numeracy and literacy.”

Mr Godwin Khosa reflected on insights and opportunities from the G20 Provincial Izindaba, highlighting the urgent need to strengthen Early Childhood Care and Education by investing in the first 1,000 days and beyond, building professional pathways for teachers, and embracing… pic.twitter.com/mVlSI7V5rx

— Dep. Basic Education (@DBE_SA) August 25, 2025

Masina said Mpumalanga will focus on ECCE outcomes and improving Grade R enrolment, particularly in rural and under-resourced areas.

She added that the province is making progress in school connectivity: “We are distributing tablets to Grade 12s, and planning to roll that out to Grade 10 learners next year.”

Motsumi said sustainable funding models remain a priority in the North West.

“I don’t think we have to be hard on ourselves as a sector. We’ve done well. We are collaborating well with our stakeholders; the problem is coordination. There is serious duplication. They are all over the place.”

She said the department will continue to strengthen ties with municipalities and sister departments.

“We identified ECDs where they are picking 10 centres per district to help build infrastructure, service delivery, and how they can assist, and then in the next five years, they hope to roll that out to a minimum of 200 ECDs.”

Ramakhanya said Limpopo has identified a need for properly qualified teachers at special needs schools and better provision of Learning and Teaching Support Material for both teachers and learners.

“The second issue that we have identified as a challenge was the insufficient provisions for the professionals, because you need your social workers, and other professionals besides a teacher.”

theolin.tembo@inl.co.za

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