Keep all children on track by Grade 4
Imagine a 25% boost to our per capita GDP – at a time when we can barely manage 1% per annum. This is the kind of economic growth we could start to expect if all South Africans were sufficiently literate to participate in the formal economy.[1]M. Gustafsson, S. Van der Berg, D. Shepherd and C. Burger. 2010. The costs of illiteracy in South Africa. Access here. Put differently, if we don’t improve literacy in South Africa, it costs us approximately R550-billion each year. Even just half that benefit would equal the national public spending on basic education![2]Engle P, Fernald L, Alderman H, Behrman J, O’Gara C, Yousafazi A, de Mello M, Hidrobo M, Ulkuer N, Ertem I, and the Global Child Development Steering Group (2011). Strategies for reducing inequalities and improving developmental outcomes for young children in low-income and middle-income countries. The Lancet 378:1339-1359.
Language development – through interaction with parents, reading and storytelling – is what drives achievement in both literacy and Maths. Numerous studies show the link between pre-school language attainment and the ability to learn in school.[3]Sénéchal M, Ouellette G, Rodney D. The misunderstood giant: On the predictive role of vocabulary to reading. In: Neuman SB, Dickinson D, eds. Handbook of early literacy research. vol 2. New York, NY: Guilford Press; 2006: 173-182.
But reading is not just about doing well at school and promoting economic growth. The ability to read and comprehend enables social cohesion and innovation by building empathy, critical thinking and Nussbaum M (2010): Not for Profit: Why democracy needs the humanities, Princeton University Press.
imagination.[4]References [ + ]
From 2017–2021 we will drive home the power of reading as the foundation for all learning by:
Click here to read how we plan to do it.
WHAT | HOW |
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Mobilise a national campaign to increase the practice of reading and to expand access to reading materials. | Drive a national campaign to promote reading-for-joy (Nal’ibali) of sufficient scale, intensity and longevity to change reading behaviour in South Africa. |
Improve the quality of foundation phase numeracy and literacy. | Support the development of numeracy and literacy tools and resources to be made widely available. Explore catch-up literacy and numeracy options for young people. |