South Africa’s private education entrepreneurs who built new models, tuition-free coding schools, blended-learning primary schools, franchise childcare, around a specific gap in the system have largely proven durable, even as government education spending has continued rising without closing the outcomes gap they were built to address.
Government spending hasn’t solved the demand for alternatives
South Africa’s education spend has continued to grow as a share of the national budget, yet the demand for private alternatives, from coding bootcamps to blended-learning primary schools, has kept expanding alongside it. That combination, high public spending tracked by the Department of Basic Education and persistent private-sector demand, is the clearest evidence that the gap these entrepreneurs targeted was structural, not simply a funding shortfall.
The models that scaled
Tuition-free, corporate-funded coding schools like WeThinkCode built a model that removed the upfront cost barrier for students by having employers invest directly in training pipelines. Blended-learning school networks combined traditional classroom teaching with online instruction to manage costs while still improving outcomes, a model that has since been adopted more broadly across the private schooling sector.
What still works about the “make it personal” model
The founders who built businesses out of their own frustration with existing options, inadequate childcare, a bad school experience, tended to build something more attuned to real parent and student needs than founders working purely from market research. That founder-market fit remains one of the more reliable predictors of which education startups survive.
Frequently asked questions
Why has private education demand grown despite rising government education spending?
The gap these entrepreneurs target is largely structural, quality and relevance, not simply a shortage of public funding.
What is a tuition-free coding school model?
A model where corporate partners fund training costs directly, removing the upfront cost barrier for students, as used by WeThinkCode.
What is blended learning in a private school context?
A model combining traditional classroom teaching with online instruction to manage costs while maintaining educational outcomes.
Do founder-led education startups perform better than others?
Founders solving a problem they personally experienced, rather than one identified purely through market research, tend to build more durable education businesses.
Is the South African private education sector still growing?
Yes, the number of private schools and alternative education providers has continued to grow steadily since 2016.
Further reading
Originally published in October 2016. Updated September 2026 to confirm WeThinkCode has scaled its tuition-free, employer-funded coding model well beyond its 2016 pilot, and that demand for private education alternatives has kept growing alongside rising public education spend.
