Every year, we see headlines highlighting the intensity of some of these challenges and how they continue to keep many young people in a cycle of poverty and exclusion. Research indicates that by Grade 3, two out of ten learners have already exited the schooling system, and by Grade 9, that number increases to four out of ten. By Grade 11, nearly seven out of ten have left.
These figures paint a picture of a system under continuous strain, stretched beyond what schools alone can address. It is clear that South Africa has a learning support crisis; children are failing because they do not have the right support in place to ensure that they are successful. We lose them in the hours when the system goes silent. After School Programmes (ASPs) are the country’s most overlooked solution to this gap.
The Missing Middle in Learning
After School Programmes have quietly emerged as South Africa’s “missing middle” in education reform, the critical layer that strengthens what happens in classrooms while supporting what learners face outside them. These programmes hold the space where learning is deepened, confidence is rebuilt and learners access the academic, emotional and social scaffolding they need to thrive.
For learners in communities with limited resources, the hours after school can become a “make-or-break”. When children return to homes that lack academic supervision, quiet spaces, or supportive adults, they fall further behind. Many also face social risks including substance abuse, crime exposure, domestic pressure and gender-based violence.
ASPs intervene at the exact point where the system loses young people. They offer extracurricular activities including academic tutoring, homework support, mentorship, enrichment activities, reading and numeracy interventions, safe spaces for recreation, psychosocial support and trusted relationships with caring adults.
These are the conditions that build resilience and improve learning outcomes. They are also the conditions that Quintile 1 to 3 (low to no fee) schools cannot consistently provide at scale, simply because teachers are overextended and the system is operating beyond capacity.
ASPs operate in the space between what schools can provide and what families are able to sustain. This is the missing middle – the layer of support that determines whether a child keeps up, catches up or drops out.
Building the Sector Behind the Impact
For the past fifteen years, The Learning Trust has played a catalytic role in building and professionalising the after-school sector in South Africa. Through the provision of funding, capacity support, research and evaluation support and professional development, TLT works with community-driven after-school organisations to deliver quality and measurable after-school programme impact.
To date, The Learning Trust has invested more than R145 million in grant funding and capacity support, reaching over 215 after-school organisations across the country. These programmes work at grassroots level, where school fences stop but learning must continue.
TLT has built a diverse pipeline of community driven after-school programmes, with a national footprint that spans rural villages, townships, informal settlements and urban communities – helping to build a stronger more connected sector.
The impact of the After School sector lives within community organisations that have been quietly showing up for children long before funders or policy frameworks arrived. We believe that strong organisations deliver strong outcomes; therefore, we invest in ASPs, their systems, people, and capabilities, and overall organisational wellbeing. When these organisations thrive, our children thrive. This is why capacity building is not an add-on – it is central to our work.
TLT’s approach is anchored in long-term development. Financial systems, M&E practices, programme design, data use, leadership and governance, and staff capacity are strengthened so that organisations become sustainable, resilient and able to deliver consistent quality, regardless of external funding cycles or political changes. As a result, the after-school ecosystem is not only growing in scale, but growing in maturity and evidence.
Outcomes from the Sector
Across the sector, we see proof that after-school programmes are shifting outcomes for learners who would otherwise be left behind. OLICO Maths, a TLT alumni and implementing partner under The Learning Trust’s Catch-Up Coalitions’ Social Employment Fund (SEF) project, managed by the Industrial Development Corporation (IDC), is a strong example of what consistent after-school support can achieve.
In 2024, OLICO’s matric learners achieved:
- 97 percent matric pass rate
- 93 percent pass rate in core mathematics
- More than half of quintile 1 to 3 learners scored above 60 percent in maths, compared to fewer than 10 percent nationally
- One in ten learners earning a distinction
These results are not statistical anomalies. They show what becomes possible when learners receive sustained support beyond school hours. When the system allows time and space for consolidation, struggling learners catch up, future pathways reopen and confidence is restored.
What makes the after-school sector even more powerful is that it addresses two national challenges at once. It improves learning outcomes for children while creating employment and skills development opportunities for young people themselves, and we have witnessed the power of the after-school sector as a critical youth employer through the SEF project.
Thousands of young people have gained meaningful work opportunities, life skills, professional development and career pathways. Many have gone on to pursue teaching and education degrees after discovering their passion for teaching, mentorship and supporting children within their communities.
For young people who have been locked out of the labour market, the after-school sector offers a starting point. It provides an opportunity to give back while gaining the necessary skills needed to pursue a more promising future.
Youth development is one of the most meaningful investments we can make as a country. When young people step into roles as tutors, mentors and role models, they don’t only gain work experience, they become part of a community’s social fabric. They contribute to safer schools, stronger learning cultures and renewed hope for children, very much like themselves.
For 15 years now, we have seen young people discover their purpose, many going on to study teaching, childcare, sports coaching, or being absorbed into the ASP sector in permanent positions. In this way we are creating pathways for young people who were previously excluded from formal employment. This is why we see youth skills development in after-school programmes as an investment in our country’s future workforce, not a stop-gap solution.
A Call to Reimagine the System
If South Africa is serious about improving literacy rates, reducing dropout and preparing young people for economic participation, after-school programmes must move from the margins of the system to its blueprint. We cannot continue expecting schools to carry the entire weight of learning recovery and social development on their own.
We need a system that recognises learning as a continuum that extends beyond formal school hours and into the environments where children grow, play, struggle and develop identity.
We need stronger cross-sector partnerships between government, civil society, the private sector, philanthropy and funders that invest not only in service delivery but in the infrastructure and organisations that make quality after-school work possible.
Fifteen years of experience makes one thing clear. When children stay connected to learning after school, they thrive and that is our mission as an organisation. To meaningfully shift learning outcomes, and reduce learner drop out, after-school programmes must become a core pillar of the education system – not a parallel system, not a project.
For more Information:
Email Tirelo Makwela at tirelo@thelearningtrust.org | Communications & Advocacy Officer, The Learning Trust