THE NEED: EDUCATION

Many primary and high schools proliferate the Mpumuza district, however, most are under resourced and under staffed. Class sizes are often much higher than the optimum size, especially in the high schools. The biggest problem is that most of the learners do not learn the required basic skills in their early childhood so constantly lack the building blocks to build on. For a child to move to the next level of their education they must first have achieved the necessary lower level skills, and knowledge at each phase. Without this foundation, authentic progress is highly unlikely.
Proper early childhood development is virtually non-existent in the community. In iThemba's target area, eleven registered preschool centres exist, with an estimated 700 children in total. However, the total number of preschool children is closer to the 5000 mark (Stats SA 2001). This means that the majority of children are not receiving early childhood development of any sort. Even those children who are in preschools are receiving very little developmental assistance. With this situation, it is no wonder that there is such a high dropout rate in school, and that grade 12 results are so poor.

The correlation between education levels, unemployment and types of jobs accessible to the community.
South Africa requires far more skilled labour, and at present the education system in Sweetwaters is not facilitating this need. More importantly, the people of Sweetwaters require employment, and for this to happen effectively there is no doubt that the average person needs access to a better quality of education.