Poor quality education and other barriers to learning faced by children from poor
backgrounds represent a fundamental challenge to social mobility. In South Africa
this is one of the key channels through which the socially engineered, racially based
inequality of Apartheid continues to be reproduced, more than twenty years after
the establishment of a fully inclusive democracy. The linkage between improved
education outcomes and social justice therefore has both an individual and a societal
aspect. Although poor quality schooling is a significant factor in explaining poor
educational outcomes, there are a range of other challenges that children from poor
backgrounds face, including a lack of access to resources such as home computers
and the internet, as well as home and community environments that may not be
conducive to learning due to overcrowding, noise or violence. Interventions during
out-of-school time (OST) may attempt to address some of these challenges, thereby
supporting positive educational outcomes and, ultimately, enhanced social mobility.