EDUCATION15 JUL 2026South Africa is skipping a step in the skills pipeline: access to a school deskOn World Youth Skills Day, South African social enterprise MiDesk Global highlights a critical, often overlooked…MiDesk Global4 min read

MiDesk Global calls for access to desks to be recognised as foundational skills infrastructure this World Youth Skills Day As countries around the world recognise World Youth Skills Day under the theme “Skills for a shared future,” South African social enterprise,MiDesk Global, is calling for greater attention to one of the most overlooked barriers to skills development in the country: millions of children learn to read and write while sitting on the floor, with no access to a desk. Observed globally on 15 July, World Youth Skills Day focuses on equipping young people with skills for employment, decent work and entrepreneurship, but MiDesk Global says that conversation can’t begin without addressing a more basic barrier first. Talita Boodhram, co-founder and Chief Impact Officer at MiDesk Global confirms an estimated2.4 millionSouth African learners still don’t have access to a school desk.

Across Africa, over 95 million children do not have proper desks or chairs. “A desk is a basic learning tool that not only underpins literacy, concentration, critical thinking and the skills needed for future employment but also provides an important sense of dignity to learners.” “Literacy is often a hard-won achievement when school children don’t have the basic tools they need to learn,” says Boodhram. “Imagine having to sit on a cold, hard or muddy floor while you’re balancing a book on your lap and trying to write on an uneven surface?

No child should have to learn like that.” As developed countries strategise how to help their youth take advantage of rapidly advancing technology to develop their skills for job market eligibility, for the Global South just getting the basics of literacy right remains a core challenge, says Boodhram. WithUNESCOadvocating for “a balanced set of competencies that combines technical, digital, AI, green, social-emotional and civic skills with the human qualities that technology cannot replace”, Boodhram says South Africa cannot build a future-ready workforce while millions of learners lack a basic place to learn. It’s arguing about where the starting line is.

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“We have to accept that a successful career starts in the classroom, where children learn to read, write, solve problems and think critically,” says Boodhram. She points to statistics highlighting that only30%of Grade 1 to 3 learners are reading at grade level in their home language, meaning seven out of every ten children are falling behind during the most critical years of learning. “This early learning gap is not only an education concern, but an economic warning sign.

The foundations of employability are laid long before matric, a learnership or a first interview. They are set in the early grades, when children form the confidence, habits and abilities on which every later skill depends,” says Boodhram.

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