Ministries of Education have committed to the measures described in the CSTL Policy Framework to ensure that every school in the region becomes a rights-based socially inclusive CSTL school that addresses the barriers that exclude children from accessing quality education for agency. The required transformative measures are organised across various pillars that are the foundational building blocks of a CSTL school.

The CSTL Policy Framework describes the pillars necessary to ensure that every child accesses quality, inclusive education to become active citizens who will sustain social and economic development, peace and security of the SADC region.

A CSTL school is built on 12 foundational pillars that are necessary to ensure that every child attends schools and receives a quality, inclusive education so that they may become agents of sustainable development. Every CSTL school will, once it has these pillars in place, address common access barriers faced by children and provide quality, transformational education that will equip all learners to be active citizens.

The 12 CSTL pillars and associated services respond to the specific barriers excluding SADC’s vulnerable children from accessing quality education. They are the foundations of a CSTL school and represent the elements that are necessary to ensure that a CSTL school provides transformational, quality, inclusive education.

The following 12 pillars must be in place for a school to become a rights-based, socially inclusive CSTL school that is an effective engine of transformation that develops the potential of every child to be an active agent of sustainable development: