SPARK Schools was pleased to host India-based education consultant and fellow from the Global Schools Forum, Khyaati Jain, for the two months she was in South Africa.

During her time in South Africa, Khyaati visited 15 SPARK Schools to learn more about the work we do in the education sector, and how our model can expand access and improve learning outcomes for marginalised children and those from low-income backgrounds.

Initially, Khyaati didn’t know much about South Africa and its education system but expressed that what she loved about our country is how diverse it is. However, it was clear to her that there’s a huge skills development gap, that will take a combined effort from numerous stakeholders to address.

Interestingly, Khyaati explained how the Indian government has made significant progress in fixing its ‘broken’ education system since involving a greater spectrum of non-profit organisations and private institutions to help address the country’s challenges. As a result of the strong collaboration between government, non-profit organisations and the private sector, public schools in India started to outperform their private school counterparts. She believes a similar approach could help South Africa fix its struggling education system.

One of the U Nation’s top Sustainable Development Goals is to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education, and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all. If we are serious about meeting this goal, which SPARK Schools is, the importance of non-state provision in education locally and globally is simply too large to ignore.

Khyaati’s research has provided SPARK Schools with valuable insights and relevant recommendations to optimise school operations in order to best serve our scholars and their families. We can certainly take a page out of India’s book!