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SOUTH Africa faces a serious reading challenge as a study suggests that quite a large amount of South African learners in primary school are unable to read to understand.
In the 2016 Progress In International Reading Literacy (PIRLS) study which tested reading comprehension of learners who were in their fourth year of primary schooling, South Africa ranked last out of the 50 countries that participated.
The study also found that 78 percent of South African learners in primary school are unable comprehend and understand what they are reading.
Many have expressed some of the aspects that have contributed to the heightened figures are limited access to books and that South Africa needs to cultivate a stronger culture for books and reading.
To tackle the crisis, the Department Of Basic Education (DBE) launched the One Million Storybooks Project which is aimed at improving the reading culture in South Africa.
The project is aimed to take it beyond just the technical aspects of enabling learners to read and read for meaning, but to make further advancements on the culture of reading in the country.
National Education Collaboration Trust (NECT) CEO Godwin Khoza explained that the project is a continuation of other initiatives that are aimed at contributing towards reversing terrible effects of low-level reading in schools and communities.
“During Covid together with the DBE we set off to develop 189 titles for young readers in African languages and those have been processed into a million books that we are busy delivering to kids in schools.“
Khoza says that the role of NECT is to connect with partners who wish to put more reading resources into schools and that it has partnered with several organisations such as Nal’ibali and Room To Read to distribute books to schools and communities.
NECT is exploring various ways to distribute reading materials, including compressing over 2000 storybooks into WhatsApp packages that could be shared on the platform making it easier for people to access, he adds.
It is also crucial that accelerated efforts are made to equip teachers with the necessary tools and resources for their task of teaching children to read.
“Teachers are at the forefront of teaching children the technical aspects of reading, and although some teachers are doing it very well, there are others that need support”
Khoza says that in partnership with the DBE, they have taken about 110 000 teachers and school managers through a programme called the Primary School Reading Improvement Programme which is aimed at teaching the more technical aspects of how they should teach learners how to read.
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