Anglo American South Africa Education Programme

The AASA Education Programme, an initiative of the Anglo American Sustainability Strategy, was launched in 2018. The programme focuses on early childhood learning and a whole school development (WSD) approach to facilitate a significant positive impact on the educational outcomes of children in at least 100 ECD sites, 70 primary schools and 30 secondary schools local to the Anglo American operations in Mpumalanga, Limpopo and the Northern Cape.

JET Education Services is a proud partner of the Anglo American South Africa (AASA) Education Programme in collaboration with the Department of Basic Education.

The AASA Education programme is an initiative of the Anglo American Sustainability Strategy, was launched in 2018. In 2019, work focused on two key components:

Whole School Development (WSD): Programme design and detailed theory of change for primary and secondary schools.
Early Childhood Development (ECD): Situational analysis in 200 ECD sites and design of the ECD component.

The first phase of the programme focused on early childhood learning and a whole school development (WSD) approach to facilitate a significant positive impact on the educational outcomes of children in at least 100 ECD sites, 70 primary schools and 30 secondary schools local to the Anglo American operations in Mpumalanga, Limpopo and the Northern Cape.

In 2022, Anglo American launched the second phase of its education programme in South Africa. The second phase of the programme will see a further R510m investment to support an additional cohort of 84 schools and about 80 early childhood development centres in Limpopo, the Northern Cape and the North West over the next five years. It will also provide food gardens, career guidance and pupil support beyond matric.

The launch was held on 22 July 2022 at the Sci Bono Discovery centre, Johannesburg.

Over the past four years, the education programme has made good progress in improving the quality of education for 222 000 learners and 3 391 teachers at 109 schools and 110 early childhood development centres – investing more than R 100 million per year - within Anglo American’s host communities in South Africa through a partnership with the Department of Basic Education.

“By doubling our investment and targeting specific outcomes, we are going far beyond simply acknowledging the fundamental right of every child to quality education – we are making it happen. Supporting access to better education and school infrastructure, creating sustainable jobs, and contributing to brighter and healthier futures is one of the many ways we are delivering a lasting positive contribution, supporting communities to thrive beyond the life of our mines. Our partnerships with the Department of Basic Education and other key stakeholders are fundamental to the success of the programme and the transformational impact we can have as a responsible business,” said Nolitha Fakude, Chairperson of Anglo American's Management Board in South Africa. Source

To learn more, visit the 2021 Anglo American Foundation report

Learner and teacher assessment forms part of the monitoring strategy of the programme and in 2019 learner and teacher assessments were successfully developed, piloted and analysed. JET CEO James Keevy, talks about the direct benefits of coming into a child's life with a structured education programme.

"What we decided as we planned this roll out of the Anglo American South Africa (AASA) Education Programme was to start with early childhood development (ECD) and to catch the kids early while we work with the primary schools and a bit further up. ECD is critical and we have to work in that kind of value chain from the bottom up."

Watch the AASA Education Programme Phase 2 launch (2022) highlights video below: