Opinion Pieces | Proteus Advisory

South Africa is data rich but insight poor: New platform aims to turn fragmented education data into action

5 August 2026

South Africa has large amounts of education data, but much of it remains fragmented, difficult to access and challenging to interpret. PULSE, the Platform for Understanding Learning and Systems in…

Provincial Financial Analysis 2026 – The Structural Trap

9 April 2026

This report presents a comparative analysis of the financial health and spending patterns of South Africa’s provincial education departments over the 2023–2025 period. It examines how provinces allocate and manage…

Bridging the gap between Corporate Social Investment Spending and National Education Priorities

26 June 2025

Corporate Social Investment (CSI) in South Africa occupies a unique space at the intersection of private sector responsibility and public development needs. As the country continues to grapple with stark…

Provincial Financial Health

26 May 2025

This report presents a comprehensive quantitative analysis of the financial health and spending patterns across South Africa’s provincial education departments from 2021 to 2023. The study employs comparative methodologies to…

Breaking Down the BELA Bill: Key Changes to Education in South Africa

11 September 2024

Education reform is on the horizon in South Africa with the introduction of the Basic Education Amendment Bill (BELA) of 2022. This bill aims to address long-standing challenges in the…

School Governance reform: Part 3

31 July 2024

South Africa’s education system is teetering on the brink, with weak governance a key contributing factor. Strengthening parental and state capacity is critical to sustained and incremental improvements in school…

Priorities for the Incoming Minister of Education

24 July 2024

After 15 years, South Africa has a new Minister of Education – and she has been tasked with arguably the most challenging portfolio in the new administration. The office is…

School Governance reform: Part 2

17 July 2024

Good governance: The system School Governance is a critical feature of effective schools, and the majority of School Governing Bodies (SGB’s) in South Africa are dysfunctional. Provincial education departments (PEDs)…

School Governance reform: Part 1

13 May 2024

School Governing Body (SGB) elections took place last month. During this process, nearly 150,000 parents were elected and sworn in as school governors, taking on responsibility for developing key policies,…

The National Reading crisis: Radical reform required

26 February 2024

Last year, the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) revealed that 81% of 10-year-olds in South Africa could not read for meaning. That four out of every five children…

Reduce drop out rates: Teach children to read

7 February 2024

The matric exam does not serve as a reliable barometer of the health of the basic education system because it does not give us an accurate assessment of performance. The…

Data Driven Decision making: South Africa’s need for Education Assessment reform

23 January 2024

South Africa’s education system desperately needs regular standardised assessments with rigorous diagnostics that can be used to track progress and inform curriculum delivery and learning interventions.

Public fiscal constraints: Reforming South Africa’s teacher pay and conditions

14 November 2023

World Teachers’ Day was celebrated last month, and much of the media coverage focussed on South Africa’s teacher shortage crisis, with many asking what needs to be done to produce more, and…

Good Governance: Why we need to reform South Africa’s School Governing Body policy

28 September 2023

South Africa’s education system is failing, and it’s primarily due to governance issues. To bring about meaningful change, we must explore radical reforms in our governance policies and structures. Our…

Reading for meaning: Why South Africa needs a systemic overhaul

23 May 2023

This week, the results for the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (Pirls) 2021 assessment were released. This is an international assessment and research project designed to measure reading performance, and…

Matric is too late: Why South Africa needs earlier, regular, standardised assessments

2 February 2023

The wait for learners, teachers, parents and anyone with a vested interest in our education system is over: Matric results are out, and the 81% pass rate is the best we’ve ever…

A matter of Principals: Why South Africa needs radical school leadership reform

8 November 2022

The big policy discussion in South African education right now, is how we address the looming teacher shortage crisis. The quality of an education system can never exceed the quality of its…

Collaboration Schools: Why we need public private partnerships

6 October 2022

In 2018, prior to the pandemic, 98% of school-aged children were attending some form of education in South Africa. There had also been gradual gains in quality. Reading scores in primary school…

Teacher retirement crisis: Why we need to focus on those who are staying

21 September 2022

South African education is facing a severe teacher shortage within the next decade. More than half the current workforce is over the age of 55 and due to retire by…

The BELA bill: Why this represents an opportunity for innovative PPP reform

10 July 2022

Apartheid education policies deliberately under-resourced schools in African, coloured and Indian communities. White schools were allocated almost five times more funding than schools for other races – establishing a disparity…

South Africa’s reading crisis: Why South African Education needs accountability reform

4 May 2022

South Africa’s illiteracy levels are well documented. For years, the damning statistics and devastating impact illiteracy will have on young people’s lives and our economy has made headlines. For years,…