Johannesburg - Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga says parents and communities must go the extra mile to nurture a love of reading among children.
The Minister on Wednesday said this will help to counter some of the challenges children encounter when learning at school.
Minister Motshekga kicked off the ‘Drop All and Read’ campaign at Naturena Primary School in Johannesburg. She lamented the fact that children do not read enough.
“Our children do not read enough. They do not have enough vocabulary to understand instructions and to clearly understand what they are learning.”
The Drop All and Read: Getting the Nation to Read campaign aims to get South Africans to read books, donate books, make time to read and to appreciate reading as a productive activity with long lasting benefits.
“Marathon readers read every day. Research tells us that children who read all the time do better and are always ahead of their peers,” said Minister Motshekga.
She said an easy way to develop the reading habit is by reading for pleasure and later use the skills acquired from reading for pleasure to read for information.
“Unless they have acquired the habit and skills to read for pleasure, they will not be able to read for information. Reading is a habit,” said Minister Motshekga.
She encouraged learners to read a book at least for 30 minutes every day when they are at home, even during school holidays and weekends. She said if learners cannot read, they cannot understand or answer questions correctly.
“To get mathematics right you have to practice and do maths every day,” she said.
Learners at the school committed to reading one book every month by reading for 30 minutes every day as prescribed by the Minister.
Naturena Primary has a population of 1 048 learners and 29 educators and 17 other staff members including volunteers and helpers. The school offered its first Grade R classes this year. The school goes up to Grade 7.
School principal Wayne Arendse said the majority of his learners are performing well and parents are satisfied with the performance of the school.
He said some of the learners start school without having gone through pre-school but the school still welcomes and accommodates them.
He said he and the educators always encourage the culture of reading among learners. However, he said reading should be a domestic exercise.
“Parents, like the Minister said, should encourage learners to read and also speak English with them sometimes,” he said.
Most of the learners at the school speak IsiZulu, Sesotho and Setswana as their home language, but they are fluent in English. They read for the Minister at the school library. The Minister also inspired them by reading a story from a book for them. - SAnews.gov.za
