Mail & Guardian
Mail & Guardian
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Success story: Children in Sobral participate in reading time. Sobral has undergone a transformation from one of the poorest places in Northeast Brazil to a municipality that regularly hosts visits to schools regarded as among the best in Brazil. Photo: Centre for Reinventing Public Education
BETWEEN THE LINES SERIES

The politics of literacy

In November 2025, the R50 million Funda Uphumelele National Survey (FUNS) delivered the first comprehensive measurement of early-grade reading in all official languages. The…

  • Rod Amner
  • Lucas Nowick
8 min read
Literacy: Some of the nearly 400 delegates who attended the 2024 Makhanda Education Summit. They adopted a vision for the city to become the country’s leading educational hub by 2028. Photo: Rod Amner
AFRICAN LANGUAGE LITERACY

How a broken city doubled South Africa’s literacy rate – without the government

Civil society cannot solve the country’s literacy crisis on its own, because the scale is too vast and the resources required too substantial

  • Rod Amner
  • Simphiwe Xaka
9 min read