Keynote address delivered by the Minister of Basic Education, Mrs. Angie Motshekga, MP, at the launch of the 1000 School Libraries Campaign held at uVuyo Primary School, Dobsonville, Soweto, Gauteng - “A reading nation is a winning nation.”
Programme Director,
Gauteng MEC for Education: Mr. Panyaza Lesufi,
Acting DG Basic Education Department: Mr. Paddy Padayachee,
Head of Department Gauteng Education: Mr Boy Ngobeni,
Senior Managers,
Fellow Partners/Stakeholders in Basic Education,
Learners, Teachers and Parents,
Distinguished Guests,
Ladies and Gentlemen.
It is my singular honour and privilege to address this important gathering this morning – the Launch of 1000 School Libraries Campaign. Today’s launch occurs during the year when the nation marks the 60th anniversary of the Freedom Charter which was adopted at the Congress of the People, Kliptown, on 26 June 1955.
The Freedom Charter unambiguously declared that, “The Doors of Learning and Culture Shall be opened!” It further unequivocally said, “Education shall be free, compulsory, universal and equal for all children”. This programme resonates very well with these principles as it is about making books accessible to all learners in the country.
This event is also important because it speaks directly to the core of The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Council (UNESCO) which has declared literacy as a human right, and a tool of personal empowerment. UNESCO further says literacy is a springboard for social and human development.
It insists that literacy is at the heart of basic education for all and essential for eradicating poverty, reducing child mortality, curbing population growth, achieving gender equality and ensuring sustainable development. The outcome of a good quality basic education is to equip learners with literacy skills for life and further learning.
The ANC-led Government developmental blueprint, the National Development Plan (NDP) implores us to improve the performance of the South African education system. On top of the NDP policy injunction is that we must improve Literacy, Numeracy/Mathematics and Science outcomes. It further enjoins us to improve learners’ performance in international comparative studies.
It calls upon the whole basic education sector to stem the tide of learner drop outs. These goals will require improvements in other areas such as infrastructure, teacher deployment for them to have requisite impact on the education system as whole.
As the Department of Basic Education (DBE) we have come to a deliberate determination that in-order to improve literacy and reduce the number of learner drop outs, we must make reading fashionable.
We cannot do this without providing fully functioning libraries in our schools. We view libraries as a key player because they have a role in almost all of these literacy factors - from access to materials and training to promotion and cooperation. The role of libraries in our view is to offer our learners more than just prescribed books but reading material that will expand their horizon beyond the confines of their schools and villages.
Our ultimate prize is to develop individual confidence and enjoyment of reading. Libraries will help to expand learners’ reading choices and to provide opportunities for sharing the reading experience thus supporting reading as a creative activity.
Research indicates that throughout the world, school education systems are focusing on literacy and numeracy initiatives as a means of improving learner performance and learning outcomes. A learner’s ability to read, write and calculate is considered a vital toolkit in the pursuit of success in particular and in managing life in general.
DBE aims to increase to 90 percent the number of learners in Grades 3, 6 and 9 who have mastered the minimum competencies in Language and Numeracy by the end of each year. The NDP proposes that the required competency levels be defined as 50 percent and above. In other words, 90 percent of learners in Grades 3, 6 and 9 must achieve 50 percent or more in the Annual National Assessments (ANA) in these subjects. There is a huge body of research that concludes that the main thrust of literacy development is the promotion of a school-wide reading culture which encourages learners to become engaged and motivated readers.
It is within this context Programme Director; that earlier this year in April, we launched the Drop All and Read programme. We have also made a concentrated effort to encourage every school to observe at least 30 minutes per week of mandatory reading as part of this innovative programme.
In pursuant of realising our long term goal building a reading nation, on the 31 March 2015, we held our first Reading Roundtable under the theme, “A Reading Nation is a Winning Nation”. This was a consultative process with a broad network of basic education stakeholders to galvanise the nation towards empowering communities and schools in particular to start a “Reading Revolution.”
In addition, we have declared Reading Library and Information Services (RLIS) an apex priority. Currently the following reading initiatives have been put in place:
- Resuscitation of the “Drop All and Read” programme. In the early grades “Drop All and Read” is better known as the “Read me a Book” campaign;
- The development of DBE Reading Series which is modeled along the same lines as the Workbook project.
- In June 2015, 1000 schools offering Grades 1-3 implemented the Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA). The EGRA is an international benchmarked assessment which assesses reading proficiency through letter sound recognition, word recognition and passage and comprehension.
- The Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) gives high weighting to reading and writing skills in Grades R to 12;
- In addition the National Reading Plan prescribes the implementation of Reading Norms for Grades R-12.
During the DBE Budget Vote speech, I announced our intention to revitalise/and or make possible to have 1 000 School Libraries in all needy schools per year from 2015 until 2019. Since then we also inaugurated the implementation of the Early Grade Reading Assessment in 1000 schools nationally, in all 11 official languages during the month of May 2015. The department is currently steering the formation of Reading Clubs, Spelling Bee projects as well as Book Flood Campaign throughout the country.
Furthermore in pursuit of the 1 000 School Libraries Project, we held a breakfast meeting with key partners, stakeholders and private sector to outline our ambitious plan and appeal for partnerships. I am glad to announce that the support we have received is overwhelming. We had pledges from a total of 31 partners comprising of private sector/state entities and non-governmental organisations.
Our valued partners pledged various resources ranging from refurbishing existing libraries, reading corners, container libraries, new libraries, mobile libraries and books.
Programme Director; allow me to mention at least one pledge that stood out due to its innovative nature and a huge impact it’s going to have on the whole education system. The pledge I am referring to will certainly take the reading revolution to the next level – the world of ICT. It is fitting that such an innovation comes from the Nelson Mandela Foundation in partnership with Vodacom and Huawei.
They have collectively pledged e-libraries (loaded with e-books) to be deployed at 61 Teacher Centres across the country. Each Teacher Centre will have six tablets computers loaded with e-books from various publishers (Via Afrika, Fundza, Oxford University and Shutter and Shutter). I am mentioning this particular pledge because it will touch the lives of thousands of our teachers who will in turn pass on the knowledge to millions of our children.
This brings me to today’s launch which is a culmination of many hours of behind the scenes work to make the launch of the 1000 School Libraries Project per year campaign a lived reality. In addition to today’s event which marks the official commencement of the campaign there is a lot of work that is still need to be done.
The intention is that activities around the reading and libraries campaign will run until the International Literacy Day to be celebrated on Tuesday, 8, September. We are indeed very excited at the prospects of thousands of books making their way into the hands of young ones.
Because this is still Mandela Month, Programme Director; allow me to illuminate the importance of today by quoting the late President Nelson Mandela affectionately known as Madiba. Speaking in the “Documentary Mandela in America (1990)”, Madiba eloquently said: “If there is one appeal I could make, it is that young people must take it upon themselves to ensure that they receive the highest education possible so that they can represent us well in future as future leaders”.
It is our collective responsibility to make it possible for this ideal to be a reality. And, what a better way to achieve it then to create safe corners and spaces for young people to immerse themselves in the world of migrating words.
In this regard, today we are proud to announce that by the end of July, the construction of 18 new libraries (two in each province) will be completed and resourced with the required reading materials. All new libraries will be Information Communication Technology (ICT) enabled and compliant.
The Library we are officially opening today is part of the 18 new libraries being built as part of this ambitious and revolutionary reading campaign. As part of the first phase of resourcing new libraries, the uVuyo Primary School new Library will receive 2500 new books.
These have been ordered for the library over and above the text based material, IT equipment, such as a server and 23 computers for research have also been procured for this library. The procured material ranges from reference material, fiction, non-fiction, teacher reference material in English and isiZulu. The library will continue to be resourced by the Gauteng province as part of the provincial Library Information Services.
Programme Director; I am proud to publicly acknowledge one of our valued partner - Macmillan Publishers who donated a Reading Corner for Grade R in this library we are opening today. We also thank the generous contribution of the Novus Holdings (previously Paarl Media) for the R67, 000 towards nine schools including this one.
Plans are at an advanced stage to procure all relevant library resources including classic books, learning materials, ICT tools and actual warm bodies in the form of Library Assistants for new and/or refurbished libraries.
For Library Assistants we are indebted to The Education, Training and Development (ETD) SETA and Public Service Sector Education and Training Authority (PSETA) who have partnered with us to provide the first 200 Library Assistants through a Learnership Programme. These library assistants will be placed in selected school libraries across provinces, and I am pleased to announce that this school is one of those.
While the Library Assistants Learnership Programme will continue, in the long term we are exploring ways to making sure that libraries have university qualified teacher librarians. At this stage we are looking at means of providing bursaries to eligible youth to study for the full teacher librarian qualification as part of making our reading revolution sustainable.
Programme Director; I must emphasise that the school library is at the heart of the school's reading culture. Mr. Harold Howe, former US Commissioner of Education made this assertion about libraries:
"What a school thinks about its library is a measure of what it feels about education."
Here are some other creative ways to make the 1 000 School Libraries Project a lived reality through promoting reading in schools by:
- Having teachers and learners promoting books at assembly regularly and enthusiastically;
- Mentioning popular books and authors;
- Discussing the importance of reading at school gatherings or events such as prize giving, parent/teacher interviews, etc.;
- Regular reading and book celebrations; not just once a year in book week, but each term hold an event or activity to promote reading;
- Encouraging guest speakers (including sports people, entertainers, parents ) to discuss the importance of reading and the role of reading in their lives;
- Inviting writers, illustrators, storytellers, librarians, and book enthusiasts to talk about books and perform to the learners;
- Displaying information on the school's website, intranet, blog, library home page about reading,
- Getting learners to participate online in appropriate forums, reading competitions, learner writing sites and book review sites
- Publishing articles in the local paper about the school's focus on reading, reading events and library developments; and
- Links between the school and public library namely class visits, block book loans etc.
Programme Director I must stress that our reading campaign started early this year and it involves more than just school going children. We have just completed a nationwide reading promotion roadshows in June and July to raise awareness about the importance of reading under the auspices of our Adult Mass Literacy Campaign dubbed Kha Ri Gude.
On the International Nelson Mandela Day we held the reading revolution event at the Mogale City as a precursor to today’s launch. In this regard we proudly acknowledge the wonderful partnership with the Gauteng Department of Education, Gauteng Sports, Arts and Culture and Municipalities such as Mogale City.
Programme Director, may I also take this opportunity to extend my sincere gratitude again to all our social partners who have contributed towards Launch of 1000 School Libraries Project Campaign through various ways including classroom libraries, library buses, community libraries, the provisioning of reading resources, and setting up of different models of libraries. We also extend our gratitude to the champions who are leading the campaign of the establishment of Reading Clubs and Book Clubs.
It is my ardent wish to ensure that one day during our lifetime every school “puts a book in every child’s hands” so that we accomplish the national goal of, “A Reading Nation is a Winning Nation.” I am inviting all schools to start the Reading Revolution! by simply planning an ambitious reading event once a year or every term.
Together we must strive to create 'Reading Schools' where learners talk and inspire each other about books, talk about authors - one child to another without the teacher necessarily being involved.
I thank you!
