From classroom innovation to system transformation in South Africa’s foundation phase

Date Released: Thu, 2 April 2026 13:30 +0200

By Siyamthanda Hobo

 

Across South Africa, small acts of foundation phase teaching innovation are already changing how children learn to read, count and make sense of the world. Yet many remain unseen beyond the classrooms where they began. The newly launched Seeds of Transformation initiative begins with a powerful recognition: these practices are seeds with the potential to reshape the education system.

Yet the challenges facing early learning remain significant. Persistent inequalities in literacy and numeracy outcomes shape learners’ educational journeys long before they reach the senior years of schooling. By the time many learners enter the intermediate phase, gaps in reading for meaning and basic mathematical understanding have already formed. These gaps rarely close on their own. Instead, they deepen over time, shaping how learners move through the rest of their schooling.

It is within this context that the Seeds of Transformation initiative emerges as both timely and necessary. Rather than focusing on remediation later in schooling, the initiative directs attention to the foundation phase, recognising that lasting educational change depends on strengthening learning at its earliest stages.

Just as importantly, the initiative signals a shift in how educational change itself is understood. Instead of searching for solutions outside the system, it centres the knowledge, practices and innovations already present in South African classrooms, communities and teacher education programmes.

Recognising innovation that already exists

Seeds of Transformation is a national initiative led by Rhodes University’s Faculty of Education in partnership with the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust. Its purpose is to identify, document, connect and strengthen innovative practices in foundation phase schooling and teacher education across South Africa.

As Deputy Dean of Education and project leader Dr Kavish Jawahar explains, “These are not isolated examples of innovation, but thoughtful, contextually grounded practices already taking place.” By beginning with what educators are already doing, the initiative shifts the conversation away from decontextualised solutions and towards recognising the strength within the system itself, challenging the usual deficit narrative.

The initiative unfolds in three connected phases. The first focuses on identifying and documenting innovative practices across provinces. The second creates opportunities for educators, researchers and institutions to engage with one another and share insights across contexts. The third supports the sustainability and growth of these practices so that they can adapt and extend beyond their original settings.

In this way, Seeds of Transformation functions both as a platform for visibility and as a process for strengthening relationships and practice across the sector.

Why the initiative matters now

The significance of Seeds of Transformation lies in how it repositions innovation, knowledge and responsibility within the education system.

First, it challenges the tendency to rely on external or imported solutions to address local challenges. As Professor Ingrid Schudel, Head of Primary and Early Childhood Education at Rhodes University and a fellow leader in the project, emphasises, innovation must be “contextually responsive, practice oriented, and evidence based.” This means engaging directly with the linguistic diversity, resource conditions and social realities that shape South African classrooms.

Second, the initiative addresses a longstanding gap in how knowledge circulates within the system. Many effective practices remain confined to individual classrooms or institutions. By documenting and connecting them, Seeds of Transformation creates conditions for system-level learning grounded in lived experience rather than abstract theory.

Third, the initiative places teacher education at the centre of transformation at a time when South Africa’s teaching workforce is undergoing significant change. As Ms Tracey Webster, CEO of the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust, explains, the goal is to “flood the system with young, dynamic, competent teachers who can inspire the next generation of children.”

The initiative also responds to the consequences of delayed intervention across the schooling system. Professor Sizwe Mabizela, Vice-Chancellor of Rhodes University, captures this urgency clearly: “Every child who completes Grade 4 without the ability to read for meaning is a child deprived of the foundation to dream.” This work is therefore not only about improving outcomes, but about expanding what becomes possible for learners.

Through Seeds of Transformation, Rhodes University contributes to a broader shift in how universities participate in educational change, acting not only as producers of knowledge but as convenors of collaboration across classrooms, communities and institutions.

Building an ecosystem for change

As Dr Jawahar explains, transformation depends not only on innovation itself, but on “how that innovation is recognised, shared, and sustained within the system.”

Seeds of Transformation is not designed as a short-term intervention. It reflects a longer-term commitment to rethinking how educational change happens in South Africa.

Across classrooms and communities, practices that strengthen early learning are already taking root. Some are visible. Others remain largely unseen beyond their immediate contexts. Seeds of Transformation creates the conditions for these practices to be recognised, connected and supported as they grow.

The initiative has already begun to catalyse wider sector engagement. Following its local launch, Seeds of Transformation was presented at the national Education Deans’ Forum, opening up a collective conversation among faculties of education about how such practices might be recognised, shared and advanced across institutional contexts. Early participation from multiple faculties signals a growing appetite for more connected, system-level approaches to strengthening foundation phase education.

Ultimately, its impact will be measured not only in documented cases or expanding networks, but in the everyday experiences of children learning to read with confidence, engage with mathematics meaningfully and imagine wider possibilities for their futures. Through this initiative, Rhodes University’s Faculty of Education is helping to ensure that the earliest years of learning become a stronger foundation for what follows in every child’s educational journey.

 

Source:Communications