Partners for Possibility (PfP)

The fact that most school leaders in South Africa have not been equipped for the role they are expected to fulfill. This has resulted in South Africa being placed last or near last in the Global Education Rankings.

The Partners for Possibility Programme pairs business leaders in South Africa with school principals to enhance principals' leadership and management capacity and therefore foster improvement in schools' educational outcomes. While South Africa’s education system is in crisis, the country accounts for 24% of Africa's GDP and has the second-largest economy in Africa - behind Nigeria. There are thousands of business leaders in South Africa who have been very well-equipped by their various organisations to assume leadership positions and manage change. Instead of developing an expensive consultant-led solution, PfP leverages this national resource onto the education system by partnering well-trained business leaders with school principals to help support and equip those principals with the knowledge and skills to lead change in their schools and communities. When business leaders, many of whom want to make a contribution to public education, are partnered with school principals in a facilitated and structured development process, principals get the kind of support that they need in order to lead change at their schools. PfP is recognised as an innovation in Corporate Social Investment, leadership development, education reform and principal support because it is not a coaching or mentoring process. Business leaders become partners to principals with the expectation that they will learn from each other in a reciprocal process.

Reaching more than 1,000 schools across South Africa, PfP has significantly improved education outcomes in under-resourced schools by enhancing the leadership capacity of principals and fostering cross-sector collaboration. The programme has strengthened school leadership, positively impacted teachers and learners in under-resourced communities, and fostered public-private partnerships.