The LEAP Story

We know that South Africa is one of the most unequal societies in the world. More than a third of the people in our country live in need, doing whatever is necessary to survive from day to day with little hope of anything better.

At LEAP Science and Maths Schools we refuse to dismiss these communities as lost causes, simply because they are poor. We believe that we cannot remain authentically human while others are prevented, through circumstance, from enjoying the rights and opportunities that we enjoy. In fact, we feel morally obligated to work for change.

We have chosen to do this through a unique, self-liberating high school education programme for children who live in our most marginalised communities. We know that most schooling currently available to our children is inadequate, trapping them in self-limiting beliefs and a cycle of ongoing failure and victimhood. These schools perpetuate academic deficit and, more crucially, ignore the development of emotional intelligence, self-awareness and other life skills.

We call our LEAP learning programme unique and self-liberating because we purposefully lead our children on a journey of learning through which they discover the capacity to take charge of their own lives.

For more than ten years LEAP has worked with marginalised children through the only network of independent, no-fee schools in South Africa. Our results show that 95% of our students have passed matric and 79% of LEAP students have degrees or diplomas or are continuing with higher education. We are proving the impossible: that no matter how deprived, any child in South Africa can graduate from high school, obtain a tertiary qualification and look forward to a fulfilling future.

We know that we are not the only people who believe in the possibility of equal opportunity for all and invite others to join us in our efforts to make this goal a reality.