In South Africa, the conversation of skills can’t begin without addressing a basic barrier first – having a place to learn foundational skills.
“Literacy is often a hard-won achievement when school children don’t have the basic tools they need to learn,” says Talita Boodhram, co-founder and chief impact officer at MiDesk Global. “Imagine having to sit on a cold, hard or muddy floor while you’re balancing a book on your lap and trying to write on an uneven surface?
“No child should have to learn like that – yet an estimated 2,4-million South African learners who still don’t have access to a school desk do every day – making it difficult to only talk about AI, coding or the jobs of tomorrow.”
Boodhram says South Africa cannot build a future-ready workforce while millions of learners lack a basic place to learn and while MiDesk Global, isn’t arguing UNESCO Skills for a Shared Future goal of “a balanced set of competencies that combines technical, digital, AI, green, social-emotional and civic skills with the human qualities that technology cannot replace”, it’s arguing about where the starting line is.
“The foundations of employability are laid long before matric, a learnership or a first interview. They are set in the early grades, when children form the confidence, habits and abilities on which every later skill depends.”
Boodhram points to statistics highlighting that only 30% of Grade 1 to 3 learners are reading at grade level in their home language, meaning seven out of every ten children are falling behind during the most critical years of learning.
Creating conditions for learning and thinking
While South African youth unemployment among those aged 15 to 24 at 60,9% is often described as a jobs crisis, MiDesk Global says it is also a pipeline crisis.
“A desk is one of the earliest investments we can make in a child’s future employability,” says Boodhram. “You cannot build a digital economy if children have nowhere to learn to read and write. Desks create the conditions needed for acquiring literacy, confidence, concentration and critical thinking, which are the foundational skills every employer depends on.”
Boodhram wants South Africa’s skills development conversation to start with the fundamentals. “Basic skills development does not start with coding classes or technical training. It starts with literacy and numeracy, and those skills are developed in classrooms equipped for learning, where every child has a desk.”
She explains that there is a positive association between education and GDP per capita. “The estimated impacts vary between studies, but the median value is that one additional year of schooling is linked to an 18% increase in GDP per capita.”
MiDesk Global argues that a desk, one of the cheapest possible interventions in a child’s education, sits directly at the start of that return.
“Every desk, chair and learning space contributes to the human capital our economy depends on. If South Africa is serious about building a future-ready workforce, improving productivity and driving inclusive growth, we must widen the lens on what skills readiness actually requires and invest in the foundations that get our youth to the starting line. Otherwise, today’s empty desks will become tomorrow’s empty CVs,” concludes Boodhram.