Date: 11/09/2006
Source: Department of Education
Title: Pandor: Launch of Readathon 2006 campaign
Address by the Minister of Education, Naledi Pandor MP at the launch of the Readathon 2006 campaign, Johannesburg
“A school reading plan”
Mr CM Gawe, Chairperson, Read Education Trust
Mrs Hugo, National Director, Read Educational Trust
Mr Tom Boardman, CEO of Nedbank
Learners, parents
In January this year the Mail and Guardian published my response to the grade 6 systemic evaluation results. The Mail and Guardian gave it the headline “Tell No Lies” (26 January). It was their headline, but it does underline the point. We face a huge challenge with respect to the reading competence of learners in our schools. It is a challenge that has several elements that form the underlining basis for the negative outcomes.
First, there is the matter of language of instruction in our schools and the inadequate use of mother-tongue based education and poor attention to understanding of the teaching of second or third languages in South Africa. Second, there is poor curriculum training for teachers and mixed messages on the value and place of reading in the curriculum. Third, there is inadequate infrastructure and resources in the form of books, school libraries and other resources for learning.
The most recent systemic evaluation report revealed that five in ten schoolchildren are not achieving the expected learning outcomes in natural sciences, six in ten are not achieving in the language of learning, and eight in ten are not achieving in mathematics (“achieving” means scoring 50% or more in a grade 6 assessment task).
A clear message arising from the evaluation is that school resources must be improved and that teachers must be provided with the support necessary in theory, methodology and other aspects of learning. The inference we drew from the evaluation was that the education departments working with partners should intensify efforts at monitoring learning outcomes and teacher evaluation of learning in schools.
In my Mail and Guardian article I wrote and I quote, “the richer the learning environment in schools, the better children will perform in their assessment tasks”. Our response has been to begin improving reading resources in schools.
On 8 May I launched a national primary-school book programme. It began with three initiatives. We provided 100 fiction books to 5 233 primary schools. We also provided a set of Africa's 100 best books to 751 Grade 9 classes. And we made 30 mobile library buses available for use in areas where there are no community and public libraries. But it is clear that providing books will not teach our children to read.
We need to teach reading. In line with this year's Readathon theme we need to excite young people, to convince them that reading changes their lives positively. On 8 May, when I launched the book programme, I also announced that I had instructed my department to draw up a national reading strategy. I anticipated that the strategy would lead to a massive improvement in reading abilities of our young pupils.
I anticipated that the national reading strategy would lead to a proliferation of provincial initiatives. And it has. Various provinces have announced numeracy and literacy strategies and their impact will soon be evident. I also anticipated that our leading literacy non-governmental organisations (NGOs) would show us the best method of advancing reading skills among our children. And that is what READ has done this year with a newly designed Readathon campaign for 2006.
This year's campaign will be unlike campaigns in the past. There will be a writing competition as in past years. But prizes will be awarded to schools and not to pupils. That is the key difference this year. The focus this year will be on improving reading in schools as a whole. Each school will be required to enter the competition as a school. Each school will receive assistance from various literacy organisations that will help them win the competition. Each school will then be judged on its annual reading promotion plan. And nine schools will be crowned Readathon schools of the year, each one representing province. The theme for the 2006 Readathon Campaign is “When you can read, you can write your life story”.
Last year's campaign ("reading changes lives") was focused on community building. It encouraged parents to read to their children; it aimed to build reading communities. But this year the campaign is focused on schools. We want to encourage reading in schools, as an activity that needs to be promoted by principals and teachers. I know from the visits I make to schools and the meetings I have with teachers and principals that some schools are successful in helping struggling readers overcome their difficulties and in giving them the confidence to read well and fluently. I also know that other schools that are similar and which face similar difficulties, are not successful.
So what is the difference? The difference lies in the abilities of the adults who teach children to read. Too many adults, teaching children to read, simply do not know how to do so. I believe that is vitally important that teachers teach reading in the most effective way possible. There are different ways of teaching reading and there are fierce battles fought over the best method to do so. Schools – and by that I mean the entire school - need to reflect upon ways to motivate children to read. Because once you have the motivation to read then reading for study follows.
I will not preach to you on the virtues of phonics. But it certainly seems that recent reports from different countries around the world approve of this method.
Where schools are successful, with all pupils making good progress in learning to read, there is frequently a combination of factors at work. It is not good enough for head teachers to leave decisions on how to teach reading to individual teachers. What is required is a whole school commitment to ensure that all pupils can read.
Principals need to be concerned about what their learners have available to read. This is particularly the case where there is no school library and where class libraries are limited to only a few classes. Principals need to make a plan, a reading plan. Whatever it is, they need to make a plan that suits the needs of their teachers, their pupils and their schools. There is no sense in not learning to read. There is no sense in leaving things as they are. There is no sense in not teaching children how to read properly.
A clear message needs to be communicated to all school leaders, districts and teachers to indicate our expectation of learning outcomes in schools. Reading, writing and numeracy must be daily activities in every classroom. Once learners and schools know what we expect, they will read, write and do maths. They will want to write things that they do not find in their textbooks. They will write in complete sentences and not in point form. They will be able to write their own stories.
The Department needs to ensure it provides support, resources and unambiguous messages about our expectations. It is clear from every piece of evaluation and research that South Africa needs to treat the poor literacy and numeracy levels as points of crisis in our education system. Not addressing these poor learning outcomes dooms our children to inadequacy and mediocrity. Teachers must also support this drive to read and intensify their efforts at teaching literacy skills. The challenge is so important that perhaps we should ask every NGO working on school development to stop their programmes and assist our schools to teach children to read.
In closing, good luck to all schools that enter the competition. I urge teachers and principals to raise their expectations of reading standards in their schools.
Issued by: Department of Education
11 August 2006
Source: Department of Education
Title: Pandor: Launch of Readathon 2006 campaign
Address by the Minister of Education, Naledi Pandor MP at the launch of the Readathon 2006 campaign, Johannesburg
“A school reading plan”
Mr CM Gawe, Chairperson, Read Education Trust
Mrs Hugo, National Director, Read Educational Trust
Mr Tom Boardman, CEO of Nedbank
Learners, parents
In January this year the Mail and Guardian published my response to the grade 6 systemic evaluation results. The Mail and Guardian gave it the headline “Tell No Lies” (26 January). It was their headline, but it does underline the point. We face a huge challenge with respect to the reading competence of learners in our schools. It is a challenge that has several elements that form the underlining basis for the negative outcomes.
First, there is the matter of language of instruction in our schools and the inadequate use of mother-tongue based education and poor attention to understanding of the teaching of second or third languages in South Africa. Second, there is poor curriculum training for teachers and mixed messages on the value and place of reading in the curriculum. Third, there is inadequate infrastructure and resources in the form of books, school libraries and other resources for learning.
The most recent systemic evaluation report revealed that five in ten schoolchildren are not achieving the expected learning outcomes in natural sciences, six in ten are not achieving in the language of learning, and eight in ten are not achieving in mathematics (“achieving” means scoring 50% or more in a grade 6 assessment task).
A clear message arising from the evaluation is that school resources must be improved and that teachers must be provided with the support necessary in theory, methodology and other aspects of learning. The inference we drew from the evaluation was that the education departments working with partners should intensify efforts at monitoring learning outcomes and teacher evaluation of learning in schools.
In my Mail and Guardian article I wrote and I quote, “the richer the learning environment in schools, the better children will perform in their assessment tasks”. Our response has been to begin improving reading resources in schools.
On 8 May I launched a national primary-school book programme. It began with three initiatives. We provided 100 fiction books to 5 233 primary schools. We also provided a set of Africa's 100 best books to 751 Grade 9 classes. And we made 30 mobile library buses available for use in areas where there are no community and public libraries. But it is clear that providing books will not teach our children to read.
We need to teach reading. In line with this year's Readathon theme we need to excite young people, to convince them that reading changes their lives positively. On 8 May, when I launched the book programme, I also announced that I had instructed my department to draw up a national reading strategy. I anticipated that the strategy would lead to a massive improvement in reading abilities of our young pupils.
I anticipated that the national reading strategy would lead to a proliferation of provincial initiatives. And it has. Various provinces have announced numeracy and literacy strategies and their impact will soon be evident. I also anticipated that our leading literacy non-governmental organisations (NGOs) would show us the best method of advancing reading skills among our children. And that is what READ has done this year with a newly designed Readathon campaign for 2006.
This year's campaign will be unlike campaigns in the past. There will be a writing competition as in past years. But prizes will be awarded to schools and not to pupils. That is the key difference this year. The focus this year will be on improving reading in schools as a whole. Each school will be required to enter the competition as a school. Each school will receive assistance from various literacy organisations that will help them win the competition. Each school will then be judged on its annual reading promotion plan. And nine schools will be crowned Readathon schools of the year, each one representing province. The theme for the 2006 Readathon Campaign is “When you can read, you can write your life story”.
Last year's campaign ("reading changes lives") was focused on community building. It encouraged parents to read to their children; it aimed to build reading communities. But this year the campaign is focused on schools. We want to encourage reading in schools, as an activity that needs to be promoted by principals and teachers. I know from the visits I make to schools and the meetings I have with teachers and principals that some schools are successful in helping struggling readers overcome their difficulties and in giving them the confidence to read well and fluently. I also know that other schools that are similar and which face similar difficulties, are not successful.
So what is the difference? The difference lies in the abilities of the adults who teach children to read. Too many adults, teaching children to read, simply do not know how to do so. I believe that is vitally important that teachers teach reading in the most effective way possible. There are different ways of teaching reading and there are fierce battles fought over the best method to do so. Schools – and by that I mean the entire school - need to reflect upon ways to motivate children to read. Because once you have the motivation to read then reading for study follows.
I will not preach to you on the virtues of phonics. But it certainly seems that recent reports from different countries around the world approve of this method.
Where schools are successful, with all pupils making good progress in learning to read, there is frequently a combination of factors at work. It is not good enough for head teachers to leave decisions on how to teach reading to individual teachers. What is required is a whole school commitment to ensure that all pupils can read.
Principals need to be concerned about what their learners have available to read. This is particularly the case where there is no school library and where class libraries are limited to only a few classes. Principals need to make a plan, a reading plan. Whatever it is, they need to make a plan that suits the needs of their teachers, their pupils and their schools. There is no sense in not learning to read. There is no sense in leaving things as they are. There is no sense in not teaching children how to read properly.
A clear message needs to be communicated to all school leaders, districts and teachers to indicate our expectation of learning outcomes in schools. Reading, writing and numeracy must be daily activities in every classroom. Once learners and schools know what we expect, they will read, write and do maths. They will want to write things that they do not find in their textbooks. They will write in complete sentences and not in point form. They will be able to write their own stories.
The Department needs to ensure it provides support, resources and unambiguous messages about our expectations. It is clear from every piece of evaluation and research that South Africa needs to treat the poor literacy and numeracy levels as points of crisis in our education system. Not addressing these poor learning outcomes dooms our children to inadequacy and mediocrity. Teachers must also support this drive to read and intensify their efforts at teaching literacy skills. The challenge is so important that perhaps we should ask every NGO working on school development to stop their programmes and assist our schools to teach children to read.
In closing, good luck to all schools that enter the competition. I urge teachers and principals to raise their expectations of reading standards in their schools.
Issued by: Department of Education
11 August 2006
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