The learners in Kate Tuges Grade 1 class at Ramahlale Primary School in Mamelodi East all came to class on their very first day of school speaking only Setswana. Like many Grade 1 educators, Mrs Tuge faces the challenge of teaching small children how to read and write in more than one language at a school that has severely limited resources.
Many South African parents want their children to be literate in English as well as their home language so that the children can more easily be part of the global world when they grow up. Mrs Tuge says Read Educational Trust has made her job much easier by providing her with specially selected books in both Setswana and English.
Mrs Tuge says: Before the READ project, learners were so confused when it came to reading. I would write a word on the blackboard and only a few learners were able to read it. Because of READ, learners are now able to read and spell words. They have become authors and illustrators, making their own book covers, retelling the stories in their own words.
Read Educational Trust is a non-profit organisation that works closely with the Department of Education to improve the quality of language and literacy education in schools. READ handpicks books from more than 60 publishers around the world and distributes them in kits that children can use to read independently or together in groups. The organisation also produces its own materials through its publishing arm, Reading Matters, which channels all its profits back into READ.
In addition to providing these materials in boxes that are easy to lock and serve as classroom library storage READ trains teachers and principals in how to use the materials to teach language and literacy. READs project at Ramahlale Primary started in 2003 and has been sponsored by the Embassy of Switzerland for the past two years. Teachers at all grade levels have praised the programme for helping them achieve the outcomes set by the Revised National Curriculum Statement. The READ project has empowered me with different [teaching] approaches but it excels in facilitating group work, says Mrs. NS Ndlovu, one of the Intermediate phase teachers at Ramahlale.
The vice-principal of Ramahlale, Mrs. Bella Baloyi, also teaches Grade 5 English. She says: What really excited me is group reading. It really improved the reading skills of learners. In group reading, learners are able to communicate with each other. It develops their listening skills, speaking skills and thinking skills. Leadership skills are also promoted in group reading. Learners have learned responsibility. They end up working both as a team and independently.
READ delivered the same type of materials and training to 896 schools in the Learning for Living project, which ran from 1999 to 2004 in all nine South African provinces. The Department of Education and the Business Trust awarded READ this R153 million contract. READ trained almost 14 000 teachers and the project has affected 800 000 learners. Independent evaluations have found that the literacy levels of learners in project schools are, on the average, two grades above that of learners in control schools, at a cost of about R60 per learner per year.
READ and the Department of Education are now exploring different possibilities for bringing READs winning methodologies and materials into every school in an entire province. As with all READ projects, this new step would require the partnership of businesses and individuals as financial donors, since the government would only be able to pay for part of the programme.
It is READ's aim to assist the development of the reading, learning, information and communication skills of South African children, so that we help to build a nation of thoughtful, independent, life-long learners.
