By Alicia Mmashakana
Western Cape education MEC David Maynier visited West End Primary School in Lentegeur in Cape Town to hand over Reading Corner resources to the school in celebration of South African Library Week.
It forms part of the Love2Read initiative developed by the Education Library and Information Service (EDULIS) to provide schools with an alternative to a centralised library.
It aims to develop reading skills in grades 3, 4, and 5, and to encourage learners to read for enjoyment. So far, Reading Corner resources have been handed over to 147 schools in the Western Cape.
Through the initiative, EDULIS provides a school with:
- 50 – 70 library resources per classroom;
- Fiction and non-fiction materials in the language(s) of choice;
- Resources packed according to grade/level;
- Resources on block loan for a two-year period; and
- Training and support for teachers.
“Developing a generation of lifelong readers is a key priority of the Western Cape Government, and the Love2Read initiative builds on our wider reading strategy to improve reading as a fundamental skill for a child’s education and future career,” Maynier’s spokesperson Kerry Mauchline said on Wednesday.
“Our #BackOnTrack programme includes extensive support for reading in the Foundation Phase, with every learner in grades 1 to 3 having access to new decodable readers and anthologies at a cost of R115 million.”
Over the last two years, the provincial government has trained 9683 Foundation Phase teachers in three languages, ensuring they are better equipped to teach reading in the critical early grades, with additional resources supplied by Funda Wande classrooms, which is also providing training support to teachers.
Mauchline said the department was seeing a positive impact of reading support in their systemic test results, particularly in the early grades where language scores now exceeded those achieved in 2019.
“Parents have a vital role to play in developing their children’s reading skills and nurturing a love of reading, so I encourage them to read with their children during Library Week and every day,” she said.
INSIDE EDUCATION
