Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga says the department is piloting and evaluating innovative ways to support teachers in the teaching of reading.

The pilot is currently taking place in 400 schools in the North West and Mpumalanga.

“The President has already signalled government’s plan to expand the provision of an early grade reading programme, which includes a minimum package of reading support materials, and professional support to teachers,” Motshekga said at a briefing on Sunday.

Motshekga was speaking on behalf of the Social Protection, Community and Human Development cluster, led by herself and Health Minister, Dr Joe Phaahla.

A central government priority, according to the cluster, is that children should learn to read with an adequate level of comprehension by Grade 4, or the age of 10.

Citing the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) of 2016, Motshekga said most children do not yet reach this threshold.

However, she said that the situation has improved since the previous PIRLS assessments of 2011 and 2006.

“This improvement has been at least partly attributed to increases in the availability and use of reading materials in South African classrooms, especially since the rollout of the DBE Workbook Programme.”

Meanwhile, she said her department has recently led the development of reading benchmarks in all South African languages.

“This will enable everyone in the sector, including teachers, to track progress in the acquisition of those early reading skills, which need to be developed in Grades 1, 2 and 3 to read for meaning by Grade 4.”

Motshekga believes that the emphasis of the department’s work is on home languages, since the skills of reading are best learned in a learner’s mother tongue, which can then be transferred to any additional language.

“For this reason, the Primary School Reading Improvement Programme (PSRIP), which was initially supporting English as a first additional language, is now shifting towards reading in home language.”

The department is also working around the clock to support teachers and provide training to subject advisors and departmental heads on the early identification of learning barriers.

Teachers, according to Motshekga, have also been provided with the Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA) tool, which helps teachers to better understand the reading progress of their learners.

The department also continues to implement the Read to Lead Campaign.

“We want to assure South Africans that there is a reading improvement framework, which guides the different initiatives the sector is involved in,” said the Minister.

Foundation phase

Work is being done to strengthen the foundations of learning from the early years.

According to Motshekga, the Department of Basic Education is focusing on strengthening legislation in the Early Childhood Development (ECD) sector.

Citing Statistics South Africa’s household survey, Motshekga said there are about 7.2 million children under the age of five in the country, of which 5.5 million are out of the ECD net.

“We, therefore, have an arduous task to ramping up access to ECD programmes.

“South Africa will not realise its development goals of eliminating income poverty, and reducing inequality without addressing these challenges that young children face in their earliest years.”

The department said it has been focusing on stabilising ECD provisioning and developing the necessary systems and regulatory framework to formalise and regulate the sector.

The objective is to increase access to ECD programmes for all children and to ensure redress and inclusivity in access to programmes.

The officials have been interacting with the Ministries of Education in Denmark, Finland and Cuba to learn from international best practices in delivering ECD programmes.

Infrastructure

The upgrading and maintenance of school infrastructure remain a key priority, Motshekga said.

She said the Department of Basic Education, working together with its provincial counterparts, has built 315 new schools; completed water supply projects at 1 259 schools and electricity supply projects at 373 schools.

Regarding sanitation, 2 500 schools have been supplied with age-appropriate sanitation facilities through the Sanitation Appropriate for Education (SAFE) programme.

“Despite all these interventions, by last December, we had estimated an urgent need for additional classrooms. We would also agree that class size is another important determent for quality teaching and learning, and overcrowding just simply undermines this process,” Motshekga said.

Source: South African Government News Agency