Most South African children cannot read with meaning by age 10 and in an effort to combat this state of affairs the Department of Education has a plan.
According to the Western Cape Department of Education (WCED) the department has developed a strategy to help all learners read by 10 years old. Provincially only 55% of Grade 4 learners can read with meaning compared to 78% of national learners who cannot read for meaning by the same age.
The department’s new strategy has six key pillars:
1. Learner support through different intervention strategies.. To ensure that all learners have the necessary support to ensure optimal learning focusing on all learners from our gifted learners, to those that have special needs.
2. Provision of learning and teaching support material to strengthen teaching practices.
3. Teacher professional development to ensure quality teaching.
4. Research to ensure that the right strategies are used.. To ensure that all interventions are based on thorough research and new interventions are monitored to determine impact.
5. Advocacy through different mediums to ensure mass-mobilisation.. To ensure that schools advocate the importance of reading through various initiatives and that we also advocate this message to all citizens of the province.
6. Parental/Community involvement to ensure all stakeholders are involved and fulfilling their role.. To ensure that parents understand their role in improving the reading skills of their children. We need parents to understand why it is important that they promote reading as a daily activity. They also need to be empowered so that they can adequately assess their child’s reading levels and support them in improving their reading and writing skills.
The strategy was launched by the WCED in collaboration with the “Coalition for Quality Education in the Western Cape.” The coalition is a collaborative association for all education stakeholders including government, private business, NPO’s, civil society and funders.
Brian Schreuder, head of department, said in a statement the department has done good work to develop learners reading for meaning skills.
A renewed strategy will now focus specifically on improving educators and learners’ reading literacy, and a Whole of Society movement that will garner everyone’s help in improving reading.
