South Africa

How do you teach students about Covid-19 at schools? How do you explain the concept of a pandemic? And how to do you get across guidance around prevention? What does this look like for a six-year-old as opposed to a 16-year-old? These are some of the issues Cambridge University Press grappled with as we developed a series of worksheets to explain the virus and the situation we find ourselves in globally and in South Africa.

Working with Life Orientation specialist and author Edna Rooth, we have published these worksheets for use at home or in the class. The worksheets are a response to Covid-19 and function as a Social and Emotional learning (SEL) curriculum.  We divided the worksheets by the four phases in the curriculum, covering all twelve grades. Each pack has between ten and fifteen worksheets with extensive teaching notes. The worksheets are printable, and we are encouraging users to share them via email or WhatsApp, so they reach the teachers and learners who needed them most. Parents can also use these worksheets with their children. Topics covered include information on pandemics, facts about the Covid-19 virus, prevention, stigma and depression. There are many practical tasks included in the worksheets, such as guidance on how to make a mask.

Sample Worksheets for teaching Covid-19 at schools

They are really brilliant! What great work, and clearly a lot of work. This is the most comprehensive set of materials for schools I have seen – probably the best in the world right now.

Dr James Lees.  Senior Lecturer, HIV & AIDS Programme, University of the Western Cape

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The Incremental Implementation of African Languages (IIAL) is a programme by South Africa’s Department of Basic Education to introduce the learning of an African language as a second or third language for pupils at schools. This programme will start learning-language in grade 1 and then follow it through to the end of schooling in grade 12 – that’s where the incremental implementation part comes in. While a laudable initiative, there are not enough trained African languages teachers in schools currently. The public broadcaster SABC has attempted to assist with a terrifying puppet-show series, but it fails to provide adequate support to teachers and guidance on how to structure a lesson. With Yizani, we’ve attempted to bridge this gap.

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This page is a reading of digital learning in South Africa against a State of the Nation framing: skills, work and schooling, not a live commentary on the latest speech. Infrastructure, teacher skill and curriculum still decide whether digital tools matter.

Last reviewed: 31 August 2026. Figures quoted from older reports are historical. Do not treat them as this year’s census.

State of the Nation

SONA speeches have repeatedly named education, skills and the digital economy. Naming them is not the same as delivery. Read any speech against what schools can actually do with devices, data and time.

The future of work

Work is more digital than it was. That does not mean every learner needs the same software stack. It does mean literacy, numeracy, and the ability to learn a tool, remain the base.

Skills needed in South Africa

Technical and vocational routes, workplace learning, and science and mathematics teaching at school level still carry more of the load than a new app. Digital learning helps when it extends those, not when it replaces them on a weak connection.

How might this look?

Blended use in schools that already have power and a teacher who can run the class. Offline or low-data materials where they do not. National platforms only help if teachers are trained and the content matches CAPS or the school’s curriculum.

Related: benefits of digital education and are South African schools ready?