The Gauteng department of education is the only province that is steaming ahead with the implementation of a comprehensive literacy initiative to address the problem of poor reading and writing skills among learners.
The programme is called Accelerated Programme for Language, Literacy and Communication. It is being piloted at 24 public schools across the province. Each school has been assigned an experienced trainer, who takes teachers through their paces on the best — and innovative — methods to use to teach reading and writing.
Recent reports on the high matric failure rate show that most learners still cannot read and write and this tends to drag down the overall matric performance. The literacy programme aims to reverse this trend by implementing a long-term and coordinated approach that will ‘sensitise educationalists, teachers, learners, parents, schools and their communities to reading and writingâ€.
The programme is targeted at foundation phase, but will gradually be extended to higher grades. Foundation phase is seen as an ideal stage to start cultivating a culture of reading and learning so that learners are well prepared before they progress to the higher grades.
The department’s ‘system evaluation†of 2003 showed that learners in Gauteng are functioning on a basic language skill of 39%. The department has set 2012 as the time-frame by which every teacher in every public school should have been trained. By that time it is estimated 1 325 public primary schools and 562 high schools would have been reached.
The key principles behind the programme are that it should be sustainable and also be easy to replicate. In the end every school’s library should be sufficiently stocked with books that are relevant and use a language children can access.
To ensure that it accomplishes this objective and that it produces teachers equal to the task, the department has enlisted the services of two reputable organisations within the education sector. These are READ Education Trust (READ) and Joint Education Trust (Jet).
READ provides training and relevant teacher materials to educators, while Jet monitors and evaluates.
Barbara Millwood is one of the trainers. She shuttles between Overwacht Primary School in Cullinan and Klipdrift Primary in Hammanskraal.
Millwood said the training is based on a ‘balanced-language†approach that involves different teaching methods, which include reading aloud, shared reading and writing, independent reading and guided reading and writing skills.
Millwood said the course is structured in such a way that it echoes the key elements of outcomes-based education, which forms the basis of the new curriculum.
‘A child may be surrounded by all sorts of beautiful books, but there is no guarantee she or he would use them. They can’t read them by osmosis,†she said.
The course books are full of brightly coloured illustrations and use less dense and more catchy text, making them easy to read. They accommodate learners with different capabilities; those who are more visual, aural and writing-oriented.
Teachers who are attending the course at Klipdrift Primary School said, although it is still early days, they are happy with how things are going.
Delise Botha is a grade three teacher and says that even though her children can read, they do not always comprehend what they are reading. ‘They hate reading because they simply can’t and when they have to do research on their own it becomes a hell of a battle for them.†Botha is optimistic that at the end of the training she will have the skills to help them.
Pam Hitchins, a grade one teacher said: ‘I found the five-day plan — which includes loud, sharing, group and independent reading — particularly helpful. We couldn’t have asked for better. Getting learners to write is another crucial aspect as a lot of them don’t write enough.â€
The director of READ Education Trust, Cynthia Hugo, said training and books are ‘inseparableâ€.
She said most teachers have little experience when it comes to using books in the classroom because they did not grow up using them.
Hugo said training would empower them to make effective use of the materials. She emphasised the need for ‘careful and rigorous book selection from local and inter-national publishers.
‘Children can be motivated only if the books they have access to are relevant to their world and environment and appropriate to their reading level,†said Hugo.