With its innovative reading club, the Nzame Primary School hopes to foster a culture of reading among learners.
A group of 20 learners of this school participated in World Read Aloud Day on 2 February by reading to their peers at a special assembly.
Grouped according to grades, the participants read the story A Party at the Park by Mabel Mnensa in Sotho, English and Xhosa.
Each group had four learners from Gr. 3 to Gr. 7.
Two Nal’ibali Reading Champions, Brenda Dichabe and Noluvuyo Momsana, supported by deputy principal Greatman Gevana, are passionate about cultivating a culture of reading at the school.
“Confident readers are mentored in groups, while the ones who struggle are helped one-on-one to build their confidence,” said Dichabe.
“In this way, we ensure that learners master the art of reading meaningfully and with comprehension.”
Weekly reading sessions are held after school.
According to Gevana, the programme is being implemented in classrooms with the support of language teachers.
“Learners in the lower grades are our main focus, while learners in Gr. 7 are encouraged to participate actively as examples to their younger peers.”
- Nal’ibali, South Africa’s reading-for-enjoyment campaign, was founded in 2012 to spark children’s potential through storytelling and reading. Since then, it has been leading literacy transformation in South Africa by galvanising adults into reading with their children.
As an extension of the reading initiative, the Nal’ibali literacy programme in schools aims to address the lack of reading with comprehension in the country.
According to a survey conducted by the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study in 2016, 78% of Gr. 4 learners cannot read with comprehension.
The survey further revealed that only 50% of parents read to their children daily, and less than 10% of parents read to their children from infancy.
In addition, approximately 758 million people across the world struggle to read with comprehension.
Government statistics show that South Africa has a literacy rate of 90% among people aged 15 to 34, while adult literacy is less than 80%.
According to the Molteno Institute for Language and Literacy, inadequate teacher instruction, a general lack of reading and a severe shortage of libraries in schools are some of the main reasons for South Africa’s scourge of illiteracy.
