2023 Reading Panel background report, assumptions based on learning deficits experienced in the Western Cape suggest that the percentage of Grade 4’s who cannot read for meaning has risen by 4% from 78% (2016) to 82% currently. Additionally, the report finds that learners in 2023 are estimated to be a full year behind same-age children from 2019. This decline in basic literacy is another taxing effect of the Covid-19 pandemic.
Organisations such as Qualibooks and Vuma have taken impactful steps to alleviate the burden on schools and teachers. In efforts to address levels of reading among children in the Foundation Phase, Vuma has partnered with Qualibooks in support of the organisation’s Kibooks.Online initiative, a subscription-based digital library that aims to nurture a love for reading in South African children of all ages, backgrounds and languages.
The platform encourages interactive learning by integrating digital features that engage the learners’ senses. While this is just one cause, this digital library is available nationally, and can serve as an aid for teachers, parents and/or legal guardians and for the Department of Basic education to potentially focus on four key recommendations from the 2030 Reading Panel: to assess reading at every school in the country annually; allocate new national budgets for reading programs or reading resources; to give all Foundation Phase classrooms a standard minimum set of reading resources; and to audit teacher education programs before graduates enter the workplace.
To discuss this intervention further and introduce you to other interventions established to combat the literacy crisis, I’d like to get Christopher de Beer, Director at Qualibooks, or Taylor Kwong, CSI manager at Vuma, in touch with you at your earliest convenience.
