learning campaign: statement by Western Cape Education MEC Cameron
Dugmore
30 October 2007
The Western Cape Education Department (WCED) has launched a family learning
campaign to promote reading, writing and mathematics in the home. The family
learning campaign forms part of the WCED's broader strategy to improve learner
performance in literacy and numeracy, especially in poor communities.
The WCED introduced the literacy and numeracy strategy in July 2006. The
strategy includes teacher development and support, the provision of teaching
and learning materials, diagnostic testing and building family literacy and
numeracy. Our interventions at school level are now well underway and are
showing signs of making a difference.
However, families and communities have key roles to play in building a
culture of literacy and numeracy in the home and we now want to assist parents
and community leaders in making this possible. Many schools, community
organizations and agencies on all levels of government are already implementing
a wide range of initiatives to encourage numeracy and literacy in the home.
These efforts include the work of our district offices, adult education
centres, non-governmental organisations (NGOs) and municipal libraries, among
others. This campaign will complement and support these efforts.
We have to work together as partners to build a momentum that will make a
real difference for our learners, especially in poor communities and to
encourage families to engage in life-long learning. We will introduce the
family learning campaign in phases, starting with a campaign to encourage
simple activities in the home that will build literacy and numeracy skills. The
good news is that you don't have to be literate or numerate to enjoy these
activities with your children. Simple story telling can do a lot to build
literacy skills, by encouraging children and adults to use language.
Parents, grandparents, uncles, aunts and caregivers in general all have
stories to tell, about the family and themselves, which also help to build
families and communities. Simple number games using numbers in the home can
also do much to build numeracy skills, especially for children in grades one to
three. We will launch the second phase of the family learning campaign in the
New Year by encouraging lifelong learning, especially at our adult education
centres.
Our Adult Education and Training Division is working with the Learning Cape
Initiative on developing this aspect of the campaign. This campaign will also
support the national drive next year to improve the national adult literacy
rate.
Key messages of our family learning campaign are the following:
* Literacy and numeracy hold the key to all future learning.
* Parents can help to develop the literacy and numeracy skills of their
children at home.
* Parents can develop their own literacy and numeracy skills and can engage in
life-long learning.
* Partners can contribute on all levels to encourage family learning.
* Family learning builds families, communities and hope for the future.
We will use radio to speak to parents in poor communities across the whole
province during the first phase of this campaign, starting on Monday, 29
October 2007, combined with direct marketing to parents of learners in our 21
poorest communities. We will broadcast 810, 30-second radio advertisements over
the next six weeks on 10 radio stations with a with a combined listenership of
about 6,1-million people. The advertisements will provide tips on how to build
literacy and numeracy skills at home. Fortunately, we can reach also parents
directly via the school system. We will distribute about 120 000 pamphlets to
parents in our 21 poorest communities via their children who attend more than
400 schools in these communities.
The pamphlets, in three languages, will provide:
* tips on what parents can do to build the skills of the children in
reading, writing
* information on what their children should be able to do in terms of the
national curriculum for grade three
* examples of word and number games that teachers use to develop literacy and
numeracy skills in the classroom.
Our schools and officials have already shown that they can make a difference
by implementing special interventions at school level. Our literacy results
have improved significantly over the past five years, although our learners are
still struggling in mathematics. We now call on parents, communities and
partners in all sectors to assist us in making further progress. We must work
together to build quality learning homes for all. By building people, we will
build a better future for everyone in this province.
Enquiries:
Paddy Attwell
Cell: 083 261 7699
E-mail: pattwell@pgwc.gov.za
Issued by: Department of Education, Western Cape Provincial Government
30 October 2007
