Most young people in Reiger Park struggle with literacy
Reading and writing help people gain knowledge about many things.
According to the Reiger Park Community Crisis Centre, literacy is something most young people battle with.
A caregiver at the Community Crisis Centre, Louise Mcklopper, said only 50% of the young people they deal with could read and write.
“I support the initiative initiated by ATKV-Tak Pot Pap, the Reiger Park SAPS and Outdoor Odyssey, wherein they collected books through a fun run and walk in Reiger Park.
“I attended, but there were few people which shows that people don’t take academics seriously.
“Most parents in Reiger Park are drug addicts and alcoholics. This affect their children’s livelihoods and academic journey. I have seen young people who can’t read in their home languages or even English.
“I think parents are causing this because they send their children to schools that don’t offer their home languages, and that causes problems for the children.
“Young people also tend to abuse drugs and alcohol and forget about academics, which is another problem. You see many young people idling on the streets because they were not encouraged to take academics seriously,” Mcklopper said.
Chetwick Wagnar, a member of ATKV-Tak Pot Pap, said they collected the books because they had the community’s interests at heart.
“They were a few people who participated in the fun run and walk and donated books, and it made a difference. We have identified a gap in schools and discovered that most learners can’t read adequately in English or their home languages, so we want to change that.
“We want to encourage and inspire young people to read so we can have leaders and active citizens in the future.
We know reading can change a person’s life and offer them more academic advantages. We collected 167 books during our fun run and walk initiative,” concluded Wagnar.
A teacher at Drommedaris Primary School, Gaynor Basson, also affirmed that most learners or young people in Reiger Park can’t read fluently or for meaning.
“The cause of this issue is that most of the learners or young people don’t have backgrounds in Early Childhood Development (ECD) centres or Grade R and with that, they miss out on the development of fundamental skills.
They also battle with the gross-motor skills. Those are some of the things that cause learning deficits at school.
“However, young people and learners enjoy reading books with many pictures in them and those they are familiar with. The other hindering issue with them grasping literacy is the lack of academic support at home, limited exposure to good age-appropriate reading materials, limited resources at school, and overcrowding in school classrooms,” she explained.
Leeann Sammering (22), who participated in the fun run and lives in Reiger Park, said reading books is important because it helps people to build their character and pursue their goals.
“Reading strengthens people’s minds, and everyone needs to do it. This initiative encourages young people in Reiger Park to read so they can change the social ills in the community,” said Sammering.
“I love the fact that the organisations will donate the books to different schools in Reiger Park. That will surely change the lives of the learners in those schools.”
