The Gauteng Department of Education introduced a campaign called “Drop all and read” campaign at Molaetsa Primary School last year and it has been a great success.
The department decided to launch the campaign after releasing just how many learners still struggle to read and are also not informed about current issues.
The campaign entails that every Wednesday everybody in the school including the cleaners literally drops everything that they are doing and read for 30 minutes every morning.
“As a coordinator, I always encourage learners to cut articles from the newspaper and paste them on cardboards, decorate them to make it fun and interesting. After reading they swap articles.
“This is my way of improvising since we don’t have enough books at the school,” said Louisa Mandamela, Coordinator of “Drop all and read” campaign and acting HOD of the Intermediate and Senior Phase.
“This campaign is working so well for us the learners are more informed, they are on par with current issues and their vocabulary has improved significantly. It has also been able to ignite that passion for reading amongst learners.”
“It’s not sufficient to just read, the campaign should also incorporate plays to make the reading more interesting. This can be done by the learners themselves or actors from outside,” advised Mandamela.
“I like the fact that this campaign encourages learners to read on their own. The learners are also now more interested in newspapers and magazines.”
Stay Informed: For the latest news follow us on