The Department of Basic Education's 2026 Foundation Phase National Catalogue for Grades 1–3 has been approved and endorsed. This follows a decision endorsed by the Council of Education Ministers (CEM) on 18 September 2026. A triple-layer review, comprising an Auditor-General of South Africa (AGSA) audit, an independent investigation, and legal opinions from both internal legal services and external Senior Counsel have confirmed the integrity of the process.

The new Catalogue offers important educational and financial benefits. Through economies of scale with coordinated procurement reducing printing costs, it will cost the State R1,6 billion to fully implement as opposed to the R4,6 billion of the pervious Catalogue, resulting in a savings of R3 billion.

The Catalogue will be providing updated, curriculum-aligned materials; stronger resources for foundational literacy; and provision for newer curriculum areas such as Coding and Robotics, making way for the future.

Overall, the new Catalogue strengthens the resource base for the systematic development of decoding, vocabulary, fluency and comprehension to respond to poor literacy outcomes. On early grade reading, one of the sector priorities, the new catalogue strengthens access by providing for 40 readers per class and a Core Reader per learner, whilst reducing the number of listed titles from eight to three to enable more focused teacher development and subject-advisory support, promoting equal participation.

The 2026 Catalogue is a strategic renewal of the learning-materials framework in response to evolving curriculum and pedagogical priorities, bringing together strengthened foundational literacy resources, updated curriculum content, greater system coherence, coordinated procurement and improved cost efficiency. Ultimately, the Catalogue will translate improved learning materials into improved learning outcomes for every child.

Another benefit of the Foundation Phase Catalogue will be improved coordination, delivery coordination and monitoring. Procurement is underway, with November and December 2026 identified as the key delivery period ahead of the 2027 academic year.