Free State - All learners must be able to read fluently by the end of Grade three says Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga.
Speaking at Mokwena Primary School in Thaba Nchu during World Book Day celebrations on Friday, Motshekga said her department has also recognised the need to provide schools with additional reading resources to ensure that the foundational skills of reading are strengthened.
Motshekga said they have taken a number of initiatives to provide schools with reading materials. All 13 900 schools that provide Grade R have been distributed learning and teaching packs for Grade R teachers through the Foundation for Learning Programme.
"These packs have proved very popular amongst Grade R teachers. They will use them during their normal teaching of literacy and numeracy to improve, enrich and build on what they are already doing," she said.
Motshekga added that the Foundation for Learning Programme encourages reading for pleasure, as well as allocating dedicated time for reading.
Another initiative was the "Drop All and Read" campaign which was launched in 2007. She said this national reading awareness campaign promoted the importance and value of reading in schools and beyond and also created and encouraging entire communities to "Drop All and Read".
She explained that since its inception it has focused on Grade R and Grade 1 learners, giving them exciting story books to welcome them to school and to foster a sense of ownership of a book.
Motshekga said: "A number of schools were supplied with ITHUBA Writing Project books. These are story books written by teachers for learners in their own languages promoting reading that is relevant to their own situations and grade levels."
She added that the department provided 500 000 story books to primary schools in a partnership with The Sunday Times through their Sunday Times Storybook Campaign. She said each story book contains 10 stories written by leading South African writers and they have worked closely with the Sunday Times in selecting the stories.
She said all these efforts and interventions signal their intention to deal decisively with low levels of literacy.
