Collaboration Schools – concentrating energy and expertise in the poorest public schools
By David Harrison This article was first published in the Daily Maverick on 20 October 2016. Equal Education has joined trade unions in calling for the draft Western Cape Provincial School Amendment Act to be abandoned because, among other things, it makes provision for a new category of public schools. These schools, called Collaboration Schools, […]
Volunteer-driven literacy programmes in schools: why parents and teachers join, and why they stay
The degree to which children acquire language skills is a strong predictor of future academic success, educational attainment, employment and income. In fact, reading is a powerful tool to tackle poverty and inequality: when children read for pleasure, it has a greater effect on their educational achievement than their family’s socio-economic status. There is thus […]
Four key elements of an effective learning environment and practical strategies to achieve it in a rural environment
Axium Education is an NPO based in Zithulele, in the rural Eastern Cape. For the past two years, DGMT has supported three of its educational programmes: the Community Reading Programme (in-school early literacy support for Grade R-3), the MasaKHANe programme (after-school Maths and English support for Grade 6-9) and the Ekukhuleni programme (after-school/weekend Maths, Science […]
“Your child is also my child” – becoming part of an “army of adults” reading to children
First published by the Sowetan on 2 June 2016. We often hear about South Africa’s dismal education outcomes and low literacy rates. We have also been hearing that early literacy, reading for joy, and growing up around books can change the life trajectories of individuals and dramatically improve our society. Yet we hear much less […]
How collaboration can bring better prospects to children
This article was first published in The Star on 14 March 2016. Can new forms of partnership bring better prospects to children in public schools in poor communities? This is the intention of the Collaboration Schools project to test a new model of public school partnership in the Western Cape. It will bring in non-profit […]
From hub-and-spoke to classroom libraries: lessons from Akshara
India and South Africa could learn a lot from each other, particularly when it comes to education. Both have made great strides with primary school enrolment over the last few decades, but still struggle with the quality of learning outcomes – with a significant proportion of children in upper primary school who essentially cannot read. […]
Why listening to stories is part of learning to read
By Carole Bloch In his insightful book, The Rights of the Reader, Daniel Pennac comments: “When someone reads aloud, they raise you to the level of the book. They give you reading as a gift.” People who love reading know the precise value of that gift, and how to access it. But there are those […]
Finding the courage to fail: reflections from the Eastern Cape
What can you do if you leave school unable to lift your head, look someone in the eye, and speak your mind? It’s a question we grappled with last week, as we watched more than 100 Grade 10 learners stammer out simple poems they’d written in English, terrified of making a mistake. I was with the […]
Yes, we can: the ‘how to’ of creating school libraries that support self-directed approaches to learning.
The Bookery facilitates the development of support structures in under-resourced schools to create an optimal environment to deliver sustained literacy programmes. Their goal is to see school libraries as spaces that engender creativity, learning, critical thinking, literacy development and a desire to explore knowledge. To date, they have supported the establishment of forty school libraries. […]
Language development to reshape the national economy
This article by DGMT CEO, David Harrison, was first published in the City Press on the 19th of October 2014. What you do when you’ve stared at the same problem for years and still can’t figure out how to solve it? You frame it differently. See it through someone else’s eyes. So the next time […]
