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Thinking Schools South Africa helps schools to build critical thinking into the curriculum. This way, pupils learn to do more than simply learn by rote. Instead, the students graduate with thinking skills necessary for problem solving.

The large food garden at Chapel Street Primary School in Cape Town produces 10kg of fresh produce daily, which supplements the school feeding scheme. The garden is also used in the biology curriculum, to offer gardening as an extramural, and as a way to teach the children about caring.

School pupils with an aptitude for maths and science are helped with their studies and personal growth to get into university. The mentoring does not stop there; the students are helped throughout their journey all the way to landing a job as a graduate.

Sakha Ingomso Lethu helps to feed the resilience and hunger many rural youth have to get an education, despite the many challenges they face, such as a lack of infrastructure, lack of trained teachers, and no facilities such as libraries or computer labs.

Collect-a-Book, an offshoot of Collect-a-Can, donated thousands of books to underprivileged schools, in exchange for cans the schools had collected for recycling. It was a win-win exercise for Mandela Month.

Long-time friends Thato Kgatlhanye and Rea Ngwane have come up with an idea to make life easier for children in poor communities: bags made from upcycled shopping bags that have built-in solar technology. The bag charges up in the day, and transforms into a light at night.

Two schools in Observatory, Johannesburg are helping the children of refugees to integrate into their new lives in South Africa. Three2Six offers bridging lessons, literacy and numeracy classes, sport and care, as well as everyday items most children take for granted.

Born in Spain but of African descent, Bisila Bokoko was so moved by a trip to discover her roots that she set up the Bisila Bokoko African Literacy Project. Through it, she builds libraries, donates books to African children, and runs a scholarship fund.

A 90-year-old Kenyan midwife may be the oldest person in primary school. Priscilla Sitienei took up classes at a village school – where she is a boarder – for two reasons: to motivate her grandchildren to stay in school and to learn to read her Bible.

Teachers across South Africa are turning away from the traditional blackboard and are plugging into technology in their attempts to become better educators. Along the way, they have found that learning is more fun, and that children are keener to get to grips with their education.