Make sure every child is ready to read and do maths by the time they go to school
Despite significant investment in education, we know that South Africa is falling behind in critical indicators relating to reading and numeracy. This directly impacts the trajectories of young children and their ability to contribute towards building our society and economy. Investing in reading and numeracy is an opportunity to transform the lives of a generation of children. We know that early learning deficits erode the benefits of formal education and that shifting these trends requires investments in early learning interventions that focus on proficiency in reading, writing and counting.
A fully literate nation could boost the size of our GDP by 25%. 1 M. Gustafsson, S. Van der Berg, D. Shepherd and C. Burger. 2010. The costs of illiteracy in South Africa. Access here
What we are working on…
- Continuing to mobilise a national campaign to increase reading practices and access to reading materials.
- Increasing the number of children who can read for meaning and do maths by the time they get to Grade 4.
Vuyiswa Somdaka, a Nal’ibali Storysparker in rural Eastern Cape leads a reading group as part of the Nali’bali reading-for-enjoyment campaign.
Escaping the inequality trap requires a twist in our thinking.
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Flagship projects addressing this opportunity
Civil society projects addressing this opportunity
These projects are by no means a comprehensive list of the work of civil society. This list represents a small selection of organisations that will be updated from time to time
Power of the parent-child relationship
With a strong focus on the importance of the parent-child relationship, the Mikhulu Trust helps children reach their milestones with the support of their parents and families. The Mikhulu Trust also conducts research to support interventions, runs programmes and projects to support ECD centres and parents, and facilitates book-sharing networks.
Changing lives through literacy
Wordworks is a South African non-profit organisation that focuses on early language and literacy development in the first eight years of children’s lives. Workworks also advocates for children to have access to multilingual, language-rich stories and books, as well as meaningful experiences with print. Since 2005, Wordworks has worked in under-resourced communities with those adults best positioned to impact on young children’s language and literacy development – parents and caregivers, family and community members, home visitors, early childhood development practitioners and Grade R to Grade 3 teachers.
Empowering through education
Masinyusane’s mission is to create high-impact opportunities for disadvantaged children and youth to get a quality education, discover and develop talents and grow towards realising their potential. Masinyusane builds libraries, literacy centres and educational technology centres in impoverished ECD centres and primary schools. In conjunction, Masinyusane hires and trains previously unemployed youth from the surrounding community to work on its literacy projects. Ultimately Masinyusane seeks to illustrate how to implement a programme that is scalable, adaptable and measured extensively.
Every rural student should leave school with purpose, agency and options
Axium is based in the rural village of Zithulele in the Eastern Cape where is focused on how to improve literacy outcomes for children who often left behind in the education system. Axium’s flagship programme, the Nobalisa Literacy Programme, is a key project working to close the literacy gap that reaches over 2400 learners. The Nobalisa programme was launched in 2015 with the ambition of closing the literacy gap facing rural children. A secondary aim of the program has been to provide opportunities for young people to enter the formal economy by leveraging large-scale public employment programmes like the Social Employment Fund to reach hundreds of new learners. The success of this programme has been rooted in increases in the rigour of the curriculum, materials, pedagogy and quality of implementation.
Do you have a project that addresses this opportunity?
Helpful resources related to this opportunity
Opportunities to escape the inequality trap
References
- 1M. Gustafsson, S. Van der Berg, D. Shepherd and C. Burger. 2010. The costs of illiteracy in South Africa. Access here
