Why We Exist

To mobilise and apply private sector resources and expertise to public schools to offer all learners, irrespective of learning ability, a pathway to employment and out of poverty.

Who We Are

Lodestone Ed-Support (NPC) is a registered and compliant public benefit Not-for-Profit Company established as a formal collaboration partner for public primary and secondary schools.

Lodestones’ purpose is reframing of public education in service of five priority outcomes:

  1. Academic, extra-curriculum, and context relevant NQF 2 -4 technical innovation directly linked to context relevant social and economic outcomes.
  2. School leadership and management better equipped to navigate the complexity of school leadership, governance, and management for which they are accountable but inadequately equipped for or supported.
  3. School communities take ownership of their schools as strategic assets as a result of strategic alignment of the schools with their needs and aspiration.
  4. A collaboration school community of practice where collective learning will contribute to programme scaling, replication, and real-time progress tracking.
  5. Contribute to planning, building, and establishment of additional public schools and innovative learning in high demand underserved communities.

The goal is to create an environment where motivated learners can forge career paths irrespective of learning ability, financial resources, or when leaving school may be the last qualification they receive.

We cannot seek achievement for ourselves and forget about progress and prosperity for our community. Our ambition must be broad enough to include the aspirations and needs of others, for their sake and for our own.
Cesar Chavez.

Our Mission

From Blissful Bubble to a Longer Table

Stop tolerating a system that gives up on our youth and their aspirations by relentlessly challenging the disparities of public education and the low expectations of learners and teachers for inadequate outcomes and results.

What We Believe

We believe in EDUCATION. We believe that context relevant education is the key to an inclusive and empowered future for South Africa.

  • We believe everyone can realise their potential irrespective of, and often despite, challenging circumstances. It is about opportunity, grit, and determination.
  • We believe education is about relevance and context. It is about broad collaboration and harnessing the gifts of individuals and resources of  organisations  that recognise the significance of the role of public education and its potential when developmentally outcomes directed.
  • We believe that, at its core, education is about creating an environment that encourages and equips determined learners for the challenges of Artificial Intelligence,  a rapidly changing economy, and evolving world of work.
  • We believe that individual school leadership and their communities are best positioned and legally empowered to chart the best course for the future of their school.
  • We believe in the strategic capability and good will of the private sector and civil society to appreciate and embrace the mutual interest, inherent in outcomes based education.

We believe in COLLABORATION. We believe that social enterprise and collaboration can reframe and sustain an education system better able to respond to and serve all learners irrespective of learning ability or environment.  

  • We believe that public schools are the beating heart of a community and a microcosm for transformation to the South Africa we aspire to.
  • We believe that public private partnerships provide context, ownership, and sustainability for the education a community aspires to.
  • We believe that collaboration and competition with other schools will inspire continuous improvement within the public-school sector.
  • We believe that subsidiarity principle of collaboration at the local level inspires and mobilises efficient and effective governance, ownership of outcomes, and the targets the unique needs of communities.

Why We Are Here

We are offering an internationally tried and tested and locally adapted, public / private sector basic education alternative. One that can better serve the 75% of all learners that leave the public education system every year without a pathway out of poverty.

The 2026 KZN matric pass rate hit a record 90,6%, but less than half of Grade 1 starters will reach matric, 2% will get a tertiary qualification, and 38% of those will get a job. The reality is that 90% of learners will leave school with the last qualification they will ever receive and, at a 30% academic threshold leaving them completely unprepared for tertiary academia, the world-of-work, or able to contribute in any way to their community.

The brutal truth: Free or low-cost public basic education isn’t just failing—it’s irrelevant. Enrolment is high but outcomes are catastrophic. Massive dropouts, youth without pathways to employment or out of poverty, communities in a perpetual downward spiral of migration, welfare dependency, and all the social challenges that despair and hopelessness will bring.

After extensive research, Lodestone Edsupport NPC is piloting a public education approach and model that is legally tested and predicably able to offer all learners, irrespective of learning ability, a context relevant pathway, to jobs, enterprise and community transformation.

Public schooling lacks capacity and is stretched to its limits to meet basic constitutional obligations, let alone the aspirations and potential of students capable of and deserving more. The result is growing social inequality and the economic and political challenges that brings

While some public schools provide a lot more, they rely heavily on the support of parents paying ‘top-up’ school fees and the generosity of past students, community, and businesses. While some schools have managed in this way for decades they are few and far between and, only by improving the financial viability, relevance and quality of all public schools will real change be realised.

A reliable and effective system to raise, manage, and account for donations and technical and operational support will enhance a school’s ability to excel. One where,  a continuously improving, context relevant standard of education and co-curriculum activities can be offered. One where  motivated learners irrespective of circumstances can forge a productive pathway.

How We Work

Lodestone recognizes that each school has its own specific needs and challenges and its own distinct characteristics which must be acknowledged and respected. So rather than a one-size-fits-all approach, Lodestone tailors its support to align with each school’s context and culture.

Working closely with a school to leverage its existing or potential capabilities, Lodestone contributes to the necessary support, resources, and expertise in a way that compliments and supplements the school and empowers it to take ownership of outcomes it identifies as critical to its’ reframing for change and ongoing success.

Lodestone operates a ‘hub and spoke’ organisational structure to minimise costs but, more importantly to expand the resource bass needed to respond to the diverse needs of a school. This structure allows, encourages and enables ring-fenced project based corporate social responsibility and professional outreach without expectations of long-term commitment. The structure and the development of a Community of Practice enables  effective replication and scaling