Nageng Primary School Headgirl, Akani Mailula (L), Maphoso Sitsha and school Headboy, Bohla Lekota inside the new school library built from upcycled bricks in Vosloorus, Eastrand, 7 Agust 2023. After the school was chosen as a beneficiary for the NutriDay Tubs2Classrooms (NT2C) learning centre. Learners collected NutriDay tubs, cleaned them and placed them in a recycling bin.One million used yoghurt tubs converted into upcycled bricks to produce a library and multipurpose room. Picture: Nigel Sibanda
American novelist George RR Martin got it spot-on when he said: “A reader lives a thousand lives before he dies… The man who never reads lives only one.”
Yesterday was International Literacy Day. Sadly, according to Unesco, 763 million adults cannot read or write. That means one in five adults remain illiterate.
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In South Africa, about three million people struggle to read, write and do basic maths, costing the economy R119.03 billion, according to the World Literacy Foundation.
And Covid certainly didn’t help, as many children were absent and others never returned to class.
Poor education also impacts these statistics heavily. It’s easy to point fingers at teachers and schools, but it goes far beyond that. It starts at home… and not all homes are on equal footing.
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We must find ways to fix this, as reading helps children improve their cognitive skills, developing their critical thinking skills and opening their minds to fresh ideas.
We need to encourage our children to read more, and from a young age. We need to make books more accessible to more people. We need to do more.
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