Equal Education Law Centre

16/10/2026

📌 Important notice: Temporary closure to new matters

The Equal Education Law Centre Law Clinic will be pausing the intake of new matters from 19 October 2026 until the end of the year, while our practitioners attend to the current high volume of matters.

During this period, we will be unable to offer consultations or take on new matters. If you have an existing matter with us, your allocated practitioner will be in touch with you.

In the meantime, you can access our “Know Your Rights” materials via the link below for information to help you understand your rights and the steps you can take.

Know Your Rights materials: https://eelawcentre.org.za/resources/know-your-rights/

Thank you for your understanding and patience. 🙏🏾

16/10/2026

Today is World Food Day, a day meant to serve as a reminder to governments that safe, nutritious food is a right, not a favour.

In South Africa, we still have ECD practitioners who often have to feed young children from their own household budgets. They see children struggling to concentrate and work with families who cannot always afford enough food.

Yet the Department of Basic Education (DBE) has returned millions of rands meant for children’s nutrition to the Treasury. Some of that money was meant for ECD nutrition pilots. The Eastern Cape pilot was also meant to show government how to build nutrition programmes for children in every province. The tender for that pilot has now been postponed eight times, keeping children waiting during their most critical developmental years.

Real Reform for ECD’s new opinion piece asks the Minister and the DBE to explain.

Read the full article here: https://bit.ly/4yVCBnM

15/10/2026

13/10/2026

[Pride Month 🏳️‍🌈 ] 36 years ago, Africa’s first Pride march took place in Johannesburg, with around 800 people marching to assert their human rights and challenge discrimination.

Today, South Africa’s Constitution protects against discrimination based on sexual orientation. Yet, despite these progressive protections, LGBTIQ+ people and learners continue to face stigma, prejudice, exclusion and violence in their communities, families and schools.

Pride remains as important as ever. It is an opportunity to celebrate identity, build solidarity and challenge the injustices that persist. It reminds us that the struggle for equality, dignity and inclusion is far from over. ✊🏽❤️

13/10/2026

[Matric Examination] To the Class of 2026!💛🖤

We see the long nights, the early mornings, the work you have put in. Now it’s your time.

Good luck with your final exams! you’ve got this! 📚

09/10/2026

On 1 October, we joined fellow grantees at the first The Trevor Noah Foundation Khulani Nathi Innovation Fund (KNIF) Community of Practice

Khulani Nathi means “we grow together” in isiXhosa, a fitting theme for a gathering focused on sharing ideas, exchanging experiences and building connections that strengthen our collective efforts to advance education justice.

We valued the opportunity to learn from our partners’ approaches and strategies, reflect on our shared challenges and explore how we can translate new insights into meaningful change. By learning and working together, we can strengthen our impact and build a more just and equitable education system.

What does this work look like in practice?

For the EELC, it means investing in young people as leaders and changemakers in the fight for education justice.

Through our Education Justice Ambassadors (EJA) Fellowship, a year-long youth pathways programme for young people from under-resourced schools across South Africa, we aim to equip the next generation of youth leaders to challenge education injustice and drive change.

Through structured learning, practical experience and mentorship, the fellowship helps young people build the skills, knowledge and professional networks they need to enter the social justice sector and develop youth-led solutions to education injustice.

With KNIF, we look forward to strengthening and expanding pathways for youth leadership and justice nationwide. Because young people should not simply be included in conversations about the future of education, they should have the tools, platforms and opportunities to shape it.

07/10/2026

[Law in Action ⚖️] On Thursday, 1 October, our Junior Attorney, Hope Mokadi, and Candidate Attorney, Sithe’nkosi James, engaged with undergraduate LLB students at Stellenbosch University as part of the new Integrated Legal Studies module.

They introduced students to the work of the Equal Education Law Centre, from client engagement and case management in our Law Clinic to strategic litigation and movement lawyering.

Through practical case scenarios, students explored how legal advocacy can go beyond the courtroom to support community empowerment and meaningful social change. ✊🏾 📚

We are proud to create spaces where future lawyers can connect legal theory with practice and see how the law can be used as a tool to advance education rights and social justice.

05/10/2026

Every Foundation Phase learner deserves a teacher who is equipped and supported to teach them to read.

This World Teachers’ Day, the Right to Read Campaign celebrates the teachers who carry the enormous responsibility of building the foundations upon which every child’s education depends.

But celebrating teachers must also mean standing with them.

Teachers cannot be expected to solve South Africa’s literacy crisis without the training, resources and support they need. With 81% of Grade 4 learners unable to read for meaning, we must ensure that every Foundation Phase teacher is properly prepared, before entering the classroom and throughout their career, to teach children to read.

This is why Teacher Training is one of the Right to Read Campaign’s 4 Ts, alongside Time, Texts and Testing.

The right to read and the support we provide to teachers are inseparable. If we want every child to become a reader, we must equip and empower every teacher to help them get there.

Today, we celebrate our teachers. We value their work. And we reaffirm our call for an education system that gives them the support they need to shape South Africa’s future.

Stand with teachers. Stand for the right to read. Together, we can change how the story ends.


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