The minister of basic education, Angie Motshekga, launched the One Million Storybooks Project in collaboration with the National Education Collaboration Trust (NECT) at Hlalisanani Primary School in Tweefontein, Thembisile Hani Local Municipality, on Friday September 2.
The focus is on primary school and foundation phase reading and the formation phase.
The project seeks to maximise reading through technology, while at the same time extending reading resources to homes and other social spaces, allowing parents and communities to embrace and interface with it in an effort to promote indigenous languages.
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Eighteen schools from the Nkangala District are beneficiaries of the distributed books, courtesy of the NECT.
Motshekga said reading and writing should be made the order of the day when teaching lower grades. She emphasised that reading, writing and numeracy should be deliberate and fashionable to give learners a chance to read with understanding.
She appealed to all stakeholders, teachers and parents in particular, to assist learners to develop the love of and ability to read, write and count by allowing them to read and count for themselves or one another.
“For you to make kids want to read, you have to make them read and write. I am grateful to the NECT for giving us the opportunity to have a reading campaign in our schools. This will make a deliberate and conscious exercise to allow for remedial action for the benefit of our learners.”
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South Africa takes pride in its people, cultures, languages and heritage. In addition to promoting these, the One Million Storybooks Project gives learners the leverage to address existing gaps with regard to the shortage of resources in indigenous languages to read for pleasure.
The CEO of the National Education Collaboration Trust, Godwin Khosa, pledged support for reading and encouraged learners to read as much as they can.
The launch had the blessing of the Fene Traditional House and Ikosi VW Mahlangu, who appealed for teaching, learning and the promotion of reading. He enthused about the love of indigenous languages and heritage.
Learners were given the opportunity to read books in their indigenous languages to conclude the day.
