Kulula Manona is the Chief Director for Foundations for Learning in the Department of Basic Education (DBE) in South Africa. Her portfolio includes providing oversight and leadership to the Reading and Early Childhood Development (ECD) Directorates. For ECD, this includes overseeing the transfer of the ECD (birth – four years) function, from the Department of Social Development to the DBE. For Reading, it includes the development and implementation of literacy and reading promotion innovations and initiatives. After spending years in the classroom, she joined Read Educational Trust, a pioneering NGO in literacy promotion. From there she came back to public service and joined the DBE.