“They read so badly, they couldn’t read the question papers – and they spelt so badly, they couldn’t write their names,” a Cape Town school principal said in disgust about his grade eight learners.
His frustration, probably shared by many senior-phase teachers, suggests there are problems at the foundation phase of the country’s education system.
The foundation phase is critical because that is when young children learn to read and write. This enables them to have a level of literacy and numeracy by the time they start formal schooling.
Launching Readathon 2006 in Limpopo, education minister Naledi Pandor said: “Poor literacy skills form the basis for the negative outcomes. We must encourage and motivate schools to make teaching reading and writing daily activities. We need to show young people that the ability to read and write effectively can influence their lives positively.”
Pandor said her department alone could not cope with all the challenges in education.
Joan Gerntholtz, a former remedial therapist, has taken the minister’s words to heart. She said: “I realised that most children didn’t know the sounds of words.”
So she and colleague Felicity Less launched a phonics programme called enrichment phonics teaching. The aim is to enable teachers “make complex English easy for children to understand”.
Gerntholtz said phonics “plays an essential role in learning to read and spell”.
“If our children do not understand phonics, then we are going to have a serious reading problem in the future,” said Gerntholtz.
She and Less took their programme to teachers at schools.
Gerntholtz travelled the length and breadth of the country, holding workshops and getting “buy-in” from teachers.
Their response was positive.
Phonics workshops combine both theoretical and practical aspects and rely on the use of charts, which are distributed free to teachers after the workshops.
Gerntholtz said more than 30 000 charts are displayed in the classrooms across the country now, which is “an indication of the confidence teachers have in the programme”.
She said the programme was not targeted only at second-language English speakers.
Gerntholtz said children do not have to learn only how to read words, but also how to say or pronounce them. “Part of what we encourage is for children to know the right sounds of the words as this facilitates understanding.”
She said her programme does not promote the purist notion of insisting on the “right” pronunciation of English words.
“Our view is that communication is about understanding one another and we cannot expect English second-language speakers to speak like first-language speakers.”
The use of colourful charts, books, games and an easy-to-use teachers’ guide introduces an element of fun into the lessons. Although foundation-phase teachers are the intended targets, the programme also helps those teaching senior phases.
Firethorn Primary School in Klipspruit West, Soweto, was introduced to the programme recently.
Esther Mokoena, who teaches grade four, took part in the programme. “I really find it helpful because we still come across grade fours who battle to read and write.
“The programme equips us with techniques and approaches to help learners – you cannot send a learner back to the foundation phase,” said Mokoena.
However, she believed the workshops were too short. “We need sufficient time to benefit fully.”
Her colleague, Sheldene Sons, a grade six and seven Afrikaans teacher, said she found the programme empowering and that it was helpful for teachers of other languages too.
Sons said she found teaching Afrikaans to children who speak the language only at school challenging. She said she found the programme useful. “We need more of these initiatives,” Sons said.