‘If you don’t get early years right, children are unlikely to catch up’: why South Africa is trying to reboot its school system

An early learning centre in De Doorns, South Africa, March 2022. More than 90% of such centres in the country are fee-paying. Photograph: Nic Bothma/EPA-EFE

When she noticed children hanging around with nothing to do after school in the sprawling Johannesburg township of Soweto in 2016, Faith Nedoboni decided to start an after-school programme. But as she helped them with their homework, she realised many, some as old as 13, were struggling to read and write.

Nedoboni, a 57-year-old single mother of three adult children, had never been a teacher. But she was an entrepreneur, first taking over her father’s restaurant and grocery store business after his death and then also selling secondhand clothes.