TEGS announces the date and location of its education workshop to address South Africa's education crisis

TEGS says it aims to bring together leading voices to confront one of the country's urgent challenges with the aim of moving beyond awareness by enabling meaningful dialogue, diagnosis and shared accountability that leads to progressive impact-based solutions.

From budget allocations that do not match returns on investment to systemic reforms that do not contribute to quality education and outcomes. Although efforts have been made across the region, progress remains uneven, highlighting the need for greater alignment and coordinated action.

So it's clear that the education system is still not meeting the needs of many young people, especially those from black and economically disadvantaged communities, TEGS says.

In response to the national appetite for a transformed education system, TEGS is convening a cross-sector group of stakeholders through its upcoming Education Workshop, taking place on Saturday, May 9 at Ameris, Sandton Campus.

The education workshop aims to serve as a starting point rather than a stand-alone solution. TEGS says it is designed to bring together education practitioners, learners and parents, institutions, government, non-profit companies, social impact entrepreneurs and private sector leaders to collectively examine the ills of the current system, identify and diagnose key challenges and then identify actionable pathways.

To end the crisis, we have to reimagine a new education system.

South Africa's education ecosystem is supported by a wide range of committed actors. However, these efforts often work in silos and address a systemic problem. This is limiting their collective influence.

The TEGS Education Workshop says it aims to address this gap:

• Creating a neutral platform for cross-sector engagement to rethink existing models
• Enabling shared understanding and system-level diagnostics that go beyond minor repair adjustments
• Facilitate collaborative problem solving among stakeholders, and
• Identifying practical areas for alignment and action.

By bringing together diverse perspectives in a structured environment, TEGS seeks to support more coordinated and sustained system change.

Establishing a structured, results-oriented engagement

Titled, “SA’s largest and most important brainstorming education workshop”, the workshop will be delivered in two parts:

Part One: Insight and Perspective

• Keynote speeches from leading voices in education and policy, and
• Panel discussions explore lived experiences, system challenges, and ongoing interventions and innovations.

Part Two: Work Session

• Facilitated group sessions focused on examining and uncovering key issues
• collaborative diagnosis of systemic disruptions, and
• Identification of priority areas for action and continued engagement.

TEGS states that participants will participate not as observers but as active contributors to the collective process.

An invitation to be a visionary who sets direction

Education is at the heart of South Africa's socio-economic challenges, to truly attempt to solve these, TEGS says a comprehensive education transformation must be re-imagined.

That is why TEGS is creating a platform of collaboration, aimed at enabling the willing and right stakeholders to come together rather than dictate individual solutions.

Bogosi Motshegwa, founder of TEGS, is encouraging South Africans to be brave enough to imagine a new education system.

Motsegwa says, “Now is the time to pass the grade, which actually means something fundamentally important. If the country is to rely on producing education for a future that is economically stable, socio-politically strong and globally relevant, we cannot afford to treat our education challenges as routine, distant or abstract. We must overcome our suspicion that overhauling means chaos.”

The Education Workshop is part of a wider journey that will continue through The Education and Graduates Summit (TEGS), where the insights and outputs from this engagement will be further developed and expanded into action.

participants and contributors

According to TEGS, the workshop will bring together a diverse group of stakeholders, including:

• Education professionals and institutions
• Students, parents and engaged community members
• government representative
• Nonprofit and Social Impact Organization
• researchers and academics, and
• Private sector and innovation leaders.

Confirmed contributors include Bogosi Motsheva, founder and originator of TEGS, Dr Andre Abraham, Executive Dean: Academic at Ameris, Hana Yoshimoto, Chief of Education at UNICEF South Africa, Khuselwa Mxatule, Assistant Director of Impact and Learning at the Trevor Noah Foundation, and Onye Obiokoye Nwaneri, Managing Director of South Africa and Sub-Saharan Africa at Sesame Workshop.

TEGS says it has worked with the Department of Basic Education (DBE), and Higher Education and Training (DHET) to participate and contribute to education workshops. Although it awaits their respective responses, TEGS recognizes the important role of government in shaping and enabling systemic education outcomes.

Participation in the workshop has been planned with the aim of ensuring meaningful engagement and high-impact dialogue. TEGS says that at this stage, places are limited and interested individuals and organizations are encouraged to sign up.

Participants and contributors must sign up for free or visit the TEGS website.

The TAGs Education Workshop aims to represent the first step in a long-term effort to strengthen collaboration across South Africa's education ecosystem. By creating this platform for alignment and collective action, TEGS aims to contribute to a more coordinated, inclusive and results-driven approach to education transformation.

TEGS acknowledges and thanks its partners and sponsors for making this milestone possible: Ameris for providing the Sandton campus and for its commitment to providing an education that works in the real world, and Seopsongo Training Consultancy for pioneering a learner-centred approach based on individual strengths.

For more information visit www.thinkerneur.co.za.

*Image courtesy www.thinkerneur.co.za