In support of the 2026 Youth Month commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the 1976 Soweto Uprising, a National Learner Leadership Summit will be taking place in the Gauteng Province from 24 to 26 June 2026, under the theme: “Born of Resistance, Driven by Purpose: Leading the Future of Learning”. This strategic annual national platform is aimed at empowering Representative Council of Learners (RCL) members towards advanced learner agency, democratic participation, and leadership development within the South African education system.
Fifty years later, the Summit seeks to move beyond symbolic remembrance by positioning learner leaders as active contributors to educational transformation. It integrates historical reflection with contemporary leadership practice, innovation, and wellbeing. The first day’s focus will be on Leadership, Innovation and Youth Voice, highlighting Contemporary Youth Agency and Innovation. The day will include an African Renaissance Dialogue Intergenerational panel discussion on “Afro-centric Youth Agency in the 21st Century” with a focus on youth activism, African leadership values, and democratic participation and a theatre performance on “1976: Voices that Shaped the Nation”. The second day will focus on History, Democracy and Representation, including visits to the Hector Pieterson Memorial, as well as a facilitated dialogue on youth activism and resistance leading up to the National RCL Executive Elections, which will be taking place including an overview of the national RCL structure; candidate presentations and debates; voting process and the announcement of results. The focus of the third and final day will be on learner wellbeing and social development.
Although RCLs are formally institutionalised, their functionality and impact remain uneven. Learners often encounter limited opportunities for meaningful participation in governance; insufficient leadership development support; constrained platforms for national engagement; and growing social challenges including violence, mental health pressures, and inequality. The Summit therefore seeks to strengthen both the structural capacity of RCLs and the personal and social development of learner leaders, particularly in relation to wellbeing and social cohesion.
The Summit is convened in collaboration with the Departments of Basic Education and Women, Youth and Persons with Disability (DWYPD); the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC); the National Education Collaboration Trust (NECT); Agape Youth Movement, and other strategic partners including Haleon and SRHR Africa Trust. Participants will include Provincial RCL representatives; the National RCL Executive; Provincial Education Development (PED) officials; Teacher Liaison Officers (TLOs); civil society and development partners; and private sector partners.
The objectives of the Summit are to: Strengthen Youth Leadership Capacity to equip RCLs with practical leadership, innovation, and governance skills and to institutionalise learner representation through national elections to establish a National RCL executive structure. The Summit will assist in promoting innovation in education to enable learners to design and present learner-led solutions to addressing school-based challenges, whilst advancing Youth Wellbeing by supporting learner health and psychosocial wellbeing in alignment with the National Strategy on Accelerated Action for Children (NSAAC); and fostering historical consciousness, youth agency and national youth civic participation.