CSI & Education
What we heard when we asked why
Engagement on our app fell in Term 3 of a 2025 pilot. We asked teachers why before changing anything, and the answers pointed away from the content.
Kole Montano · 8 November 2026Read more →
Insights
Research, stories, and thinking on Foundation Phase education.
From the evidence base behind our approach to the voices of the teachers using kolab. every day.
CSI & Education
What happens to a test after it is marked
Teachers mark most end-of-year scripts, record the totals and move on. The wrong answers hold evidence a school already produces, at no extra cost.
Kole Montano · 1 November 2026Read more →
CSI & Education
Six provinces, and what changed
From none in 2022 to six provinces in 2026: what the 2030 Reading Panel's report shows about who paid for Foundation Phase reading at scale.
Kole Montano · 25 October 2026Read more →
CSI & Education
The number I do not publish
Why kolab. leaves its active user count out of funder decks, and what it publishes in its place, scoped and checkable.
Kole Montano · 18 October 2026Read more →
CSI & Education
What makes a CSI commitment work past the first year
Four tests that separate an education programme still running in year three from one that stopped without saying so.
Kole Montano · 11 October 2026Read more →
CSI & Education
Five questions to ask an education CSI partner
Five questions a CSI manager can put to any education partner before committing a budget. Kole Montano wants each one asked of kolab. too.
Kole Montano · 30 September 2026Read more →
CSI & Education
Teacher development or learner programmes: where does CSI reach further?
Teacher development versus learner programmes: Kole Montano lays out the honest comparison, including where her own argument loses.
Kole Montano · 27 September 2026Read more →
CSI & Education
What corporate education funding buys
Education receives 44% of South African CSI spend. Kole Montano on how that money divides once it arrives, and what the divide reveals.
Kole Montano · 20 September 2026Read more →
CSI & Education
Why I started kolab.
Kole Montano on why kolab. was built for Foundation Phase teachers rather than learners - and why teacher development in South Africa is slower than funders expect.
Kole Montano · 26 July 2026Read more →