Culture of reading promoted in young people
Daveyton – In an effort to help develop reading habits among Grade One learners, 300 youngsters from Barcelona Primary School have received new study material.
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Each learner received reading, activity and colouring books.
This donation was made possible by the South African Taxi Foundation in further support of the school’s mobile library.
Read: Learner gets first prize for reading
The library is run by the South African Primary Education Support Initiative (SAPESI).
“A reading habit is essential in the digital era the world is now entering, especially since technology is fundamentally restructuring the world of work, eliminating many of the jobs people used to take for granted.
“It is creating entirely new jobs, which means children starting out in school today will end up working in jobs that simply don’t exist today.
“In addition, they might have multiple careers throughout their working lives, which will require them to refresh and upgrade their qualifications and skills regularly,” says foundation project coordinator, Queeneth Brown.
She adds that the only way that will be possible is through continuous learning, most of which will be done online and will depend entirely on one’s ability to read.
Read: Enticing young readers
“This therefore makes it a priority for us at the foundation, to ensure that children develop a reading habit early.
“While we are aware that children delight in being able to borrow books from the SAPESI mobile libraries and read them in school, under the guidance of their teachers, they also want to own books and be able to keep them at home.
“This is because reading is one of the easiest and most pleasant ways to increase literacy levels across an entire society.
“So the donation we have made will help them focus on that pleasure rather than specific educational content,” Brown says.