405,000 South African children were not enrolled at school in 2024... That is the deeply concerning figure highlighted in a new report – and behind that number are hundreds of thousands of children whose education, future employment prospects and opportunities are potentially being affected.
The figure, contained in the Department of Basic Education’s recently released General Household Survey 2024: Focus on Schooling, represents far more than a statistic. Behind it are hundreds of thousands of young people whose education has been interrupted, delayed or stopped altogether.
There is no single reason why children find themselves outside the schooling system. Unfortunately, issues such as financial pressures, family circumstances, relocation, health challenges, learning difficulties or disengagement from education can all play a role. And, for some families, simply securing a place at a suitable school close to home can be difficult. The extraordinary demand for places in some provinces ahead of the 2027 academic year gives another view of the pressure on the system.
When Gauteng’s online admissions platform opened at 08:00 on 5 August, more than 200,000 Grade 1 and Grade 8 applications had already been submitted by midday. Within days, the number was approaching half a million applications.
High application numbers do not automatically translate into hundreds of thousands of learners without places, but they do demonstrate the enormous scale of demand that provincial education systems must manage each year. The immediate priority must, of course, be to get children into education.
But placement is only part of the challenge. We also need to ask what happens after a child has entered the education system. How do we keep learners engaged through primary and high school? And what happens when circumstances change and the conventional schooling route no longer works for a particular learner or family?
“Getting a child into Grade 1 is enormously important, but our responsibility does not end there,” says Louise Schoonwinkel, chief commercial officer at Optimi, of which Impaq is a registered trademark. “Every learner needs a credible route all the way through their school career to complete matric. We need to become equally concerned about the child who enters the system successfully but falls out somewhere along the way.”
Education should not depend on one route
Home education and online schooling have become increasingly established choices for South African families. They may be considered because of geography, sport or cultural commitments, family circumstances, a learner’s individual needs, relocation, or because the conventional school environment is no longer suitable for that child.
Parents considering one of these learning models need to understand the curriculum being followed, how teaching takes place, how progress is assessed, what support is available and, particularly in the senior grades, how the learner will progress towards a recognised National Senior Certificate (matric).
“Leaving a school environment should not have to mean leaving education,” says Schoonwinkel. “If a learner cannot continue along one route, families need to know what credible alternatives exist and what is required to keep that child progressing academically.”
Preventing learners from disappearing later
The conversation about access to education tends to intensify at the beginning of the school journey, particularly during Grade 1 and Grade 8 admissions. But the risk of leaving education does not disappear once a learner has secured a desk. The later high-school years can present their own pressures. Academic difficulty, financial circumstances, family responsibilities, health challenges or significant changes at home can make completing Grades 10 to 12 difficult. This is where greater awareness of alternative education pathways becomes particularly important.
A learner experiencing a difficult year should not automatically conclude that the only options are to cope with the existing situation or abandon matric altogether. Instead, home schooling can allow learners to follow a structured curriculum outside the conventional school environment, while online schooling can provide a teacher-led school experience remotely. The appropriate choice will depend on the learner, the family and the level of academic support required.
Matric does not always have to happen in one year
For Grades 10 – 12, families may not realise that there can be another pathway when completing the full subject load in one year becomes difficult. Through Impaq, South Africa’s largest provider of home and online schooling, Grade 10-12 learners can divide the subject load between the two years and, provided the combined results meet the National Senior Certificate requirements, request that the statements of results be combined through SACAI into a single matric certificate at the end of their Grade 12 journey.
This is not an easier matric. The learner must still meet the required academic and certification standards. What does change, is the time available to complete those requirements. For a learner dealing with serious sporting commitments, health circumstances, family disruption or simply an academic load that has become unmanageable, knowing that such a route exists can be the difference between continuing and giving up.
“We sometimes speak about education as though there is only one acceptable timeline,” says Schoonwinkel. “There are learners for whom completing seven Grade 12 subjects in one year is entirely manageable, and there are others whose circumstances make that extremely difficult.”
Parents need information before a crisis arrives
Alternative education pathways should not only become part of the conversation when a family reaches crisis point. Parents should understand their options before they need them. That means knowing the difference between home education and online schooling, understanding whether a programme follows CAPS or another curriculum, checking how assessments are managed and establishing what support is available.
When a child's circumstances change, do families know where to turn?
No single education model will be right for every child. Equally, we should be cautious about suggesting that alternative learning models can solve the complex socio-economic and structural reasons that hundreds of thousands of South African children are outside education.
But recognising that education does not always have to take place in exactly the same way, in exactly the same environment or according to exactly the same timeline.
Registrations for Impaq’s 2027 academic year are open. Parents who want to secure a clear learning plan for the year ahead can begin the enrolment conversation now, rather than waiting for placement uncertainty to determine their next step.
