Advancing SDG4 in South African Schools: Promises and Pragmatics of Technology-Enhanced Learning

This desk study examines how Sustainable Development Goal 4 (SDG4) is being advanced in South African schools through technology-enhanced learning (TEL), with attention to both its promise and practical constraints. SDG4 seeks to ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and to promote lifelong learning opportunities for all, with targets linked to learning outcomes, equity, school environments, and teacher supply. In South Africa, TEL has increasingly been positioned as both a post-COVID-19 recovery mechanism and a long-term strategy to improve access, quality, governance, and teacher preparedness. The implementation context has become more dynamic due to the state’s move to update the 2004 White Paper on e-Education through a Digital Education Strategy, the rollout of SA Connect Phase 2, and school-connectivity initiatives linked to UNICEF and ITU’s Giga partnership. At the same time, evidence continues to show that digital inequality, weak infrastructure, uneven educator digital competence, and unresolved questions about quality assurance complicate the scaling of TEL. Using a PRISMA-style rapid review design, this study synthesises evidence from the South African school sector published between 2019 and 2025. Sources include Scopus, ERIC, AJOL, Google Scholar, and selected organisational repositories. The paper argues that TEL can support SDG4 targets 4.1, 4.5, 4. a, and 4.c, but only when implementation is underpinned by meaningful connectivity, device access, curriculum alignment, teacher support, and coherent governance. TEL, therefore, should be understood not as a technological fix but as a system-level reform agenda that requires careful attention to equity, quality, and context.