Read Aloud Day inculcates a culture of reading in Alex learners
It was all fun and also a learning curve for the Grade R class of Dr Knak Primary School when a team from Southern Africa Partners descended on the school with reading material aimed at inculcating a culture of reading in learners.
Non-profit organisation Southern Africa Partners celebrated international Read Aloud Day on February 1 with a reading programme for Grade R learners at Alexandra’s Dr Knak Primary School.
The programme is so designed as to inculcate a culture of reading in learners while at the same time encouraging parents to also play their part by reading for their children at home and ensuring they complement the work that teachers do at school.
Southern Africa Partners’ Connie Madi led the reading session for the Grade R class in Sepedi, which forms one of the mother tongue languages in the township and interacted with the learners afterwards by asking them questions around the essay that she just read as a way of gauging and encouraging them to read with understanding.
Learners that comprehended the essay and managed to give the correct answers to the questions were applauded and also given varying prizes. The children were also told to constantly request their parents at home to also read various story books for them.
Amu Macheke from Southern Africa Partners and her social worker Rabeka Silinda told Alex News in an interview that the Read Aloud Day was an initiative of the Cape Town-based Nali Bali organisation whose objective is to get school children to read more.
“Our aim is to inculcate a culture of reading in our learners which seems to have taken a backseat in schools and at home. Very few children read nowadays, including parents as well, and we want to bring back this culture through the Read Aloud Day initiatives across schools,” Macheke said.
Silinda added that the programme also sought to lessen the dropout numbers of learners, especially when they get to Grade 10, where she said the dropout rate was extremely high.
“Most of the children fail vernacular languages because they don’t read and we want to encourage the parents to meet the teachers halfway and read for their children at home,” Silinda added.
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