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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

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 findings confirmed what researchers suspected: only 31% of Grade 1 learners can identify 40 letter-sounds per minute — the minimum threshold for reading readiness. By Grade 3, 15% cannot read a […]

  • Library
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

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

  • Eyaaz
9 min read