By Ndalo Mbombo and Nicole Palmer
A few months ago, the Lebone Centre sent 12 high-quality children’s books to six local English-medium primary schools. Eleven of the books were written by South African writers, giving the kids relatable experiences to savour, while the twelfth was The BFG by Roald Dahl.
After devouring the delicious volumes, seven teams of six were sent to Kingswood College Junior School on Monday, 2 September, to face 40 questions from quizmaster Majorie Brown at Makhanda’s first-ever Phendulani Literacy Quiz.
At stake were dazzling new book sets for the schools and spot cash prizes for individual literary whizzes.
Good Shepherd Primary School and Grahamstown Adventist Primary (SDA) scored 34/40, forcing Brown to call for a sudden death round to determine which school would walk away with first prize.
Good Shepherd pipped SDA to secure the grand prize, with Ntaba Maria Primary School third.
Phendulani was invited to Makhanda by the Lebone Centre to celebrate Literacy Month. The quiz is fun, exciting and educational and aims to increase literary knowledge and appreciation, comprehension skills and critical thinking and gives learners in under-resourced schools an incentive to open a book and read.
All the teams – from George Dickerson, St Mary’s, Oatlands, Ntaba Maria, Good Shepherd and SDA Primary – were eager, laser-focused, and celebrated correct answers any chance they got.
This event was made possible by the AESSEAL Charitable Trust sponsorship, which enabled the purchase from Bargain Books of the sets of 12 books sent to each school and for the heaps of book prizes.
Further support for stationary and refreshments came from the Diocesan Schools for Girls and Kingswood Primary School.
The learners were accompanied by their teachers. SDA teacher Walter Mapfumo said the children’s response to the quiz had been “overwhelming”.
“I struggled to select the six to come here because the whole class wanted to come here – they all shared and read the books!” he said.
Some of the participating schools – like SDA – lack functioning libraries.
Jade Botha, the teacher from Good Shepherd, said she told her learners, “I want to take home a win”. And take home a win they did.
Botha is having a sparkling week. Last Thursday, she won for Excellence in Intermediate Phase Teaching at the Makhanda Teaching Awards.
Despite missing a member, the Ntaba Maria team was happy to participate, and their fighting spirit carried them to the winners’ podium.
“We were nervous at first, but as the competition was going, we started to feel more confident, and we enjoyed everything,” said one Ntaba Maria Primary School team member.
The quiz was a huge success, allowing learners to compete for literary glory in a convivial and joyful environment.
The Phendulani Literacy quiz was founded in 2008 by then high school teacher Marj Brown, who felt literacy was key to proficiency in all subjects, as well as important for the psycho-social wellbeing of the individual.
She is the coordinator of Kids Lit Quiz in SA, a global quiz based on 2000 years of literature, and thus dependant on well-resourced school libraries, who decided to twin well-resourced schools with under-resourced schools so that the pupils of the latter schools could also benefit from the fun of a literary competition and to spread the access to books through building partnerships.
