JOHANNESBURG, 29 November 2025 – As Funda Wande officially launches its expanded "Clips from Classroom" series at the Marriott Hotel today, a powerful, grassroots response is validating its approach to a critical national challenge: the shortage of practical teaching resources for African languages. A home-grown solution, the video series is enabling widespread, lecturer-driven adoption across South Africa's education faculties, demonstrating the system's clear demand for more.
The proven success of Funda Wande's "Clips from Classroom" video series is now forcing a major expansion into Sesotho and Setswana, responding to overwhelming grassroots demand from universities and provincial education departments.
Why This Matters Now
UNESCO research shows that children learning to read in a familiar language are 30% more likely to comprehend their reading before reaching high school. Yet South Africa has historically struggled to provide practical, mother-tongue teaching resources at scale.
"We are particularly encouraged by the overwhelming uptake at the university level," said Pernie Isaac, Head of Content and Training at Funda Wande. "It confirms a critical need: we know what works from a research perspective, but classroom practice doesn’t always reflect the evidence. This expansion is about closing that gap—it’s a direct, practical tool to help move evidence into consistent, daily implementation."
The series, initially released in isiXhosa and Sepedi, demonstrated such overwhelming demand that it has become a go-to tool across vernacular streams, compelling the creation of a massive new series comprising 120 new video episodes (60 per language) filmed in Sesotho and Setswana.
"This was the validation we needed," said Isaac. "When university lecturers who shape our future teachers independently adopt your resource, you know you've addressed a fundamental gap. This expansion isn't just an addition – it's a necessary response to a national need."
Closing the "Show and Tell" Gap
The resource addresses a crucial but often missing ingredient in teacher development: the "show." "The most common approach is 'tell,' but we're now bringing the 'show'," said Pernie Isaac. "Theory is still important, but teachers learn profoundly by seeing it in action. These videos bridge that gap between knowing what to do and seeing how to do it in a real classroom."
What Makes This Different
Democratising Access: Open-Source for Every Teacher
In a strategic move to democratise teacher development, the new series will be open-source, hosted on YouTube and accessible via QR codes – ensuring equal access for rural teachers and university lecturers alike.
"The clips teach the teachers," Isaac explained. "And now they're teaching the next generation of teachers at university. That's the scale of impact we're seeing."
The Bigger Picture
This expansion comes when only 28.5% of children up to age four attended early childhood development programmes in 2021, making foundational phase interventions crucial. The "Clips from Classroom" phenomenon demonstrates what happens when quality resources meet genuine need: organic adoption that crosses institutional boundaries, provincial divides, and economic barriers.
Media contact: Taynita Harilal - Taynita@jtcomms.co.za /media@jtcomms.co.za or +27 83 954 6133) +27 11 788 7632
Issued by JT Communication Solutions on Behalf of Funda Wande - https://fundawande.org/
About Funda Wande: Funda Wande works to ensure children can read for meaning and calculate with confidence by age 10, creating high-quality, mother-tongue materials and evidence-based teaching programmes
