Reading and writing in an additional language is often a struggle, especially for those who lack the means to buy books and other print-related material such as newspapers and magazines to practice their literacy skills outside of school.
Reading and writing in an additional language is often a struggle, especially for those who lack the means to buy books and other print-related material such as newspapers and magazines to practice their literacy skills outside of school.
Schools that serve economically disadvantaged communities also struggle to provide access to a variety of high quality texts and media.
The campaign for One School, One Library, One Librarian by Equal Education is in response to the staggering statistics of the Department of Education that show only 7% of public schools in South Africa have functional libraries.
In the Eastern Cape, this fi gure is even lower. Based on these statistics, the vast majority of public schools struggle to provide access to meaningful education with limited resources resources that are often well protected, in cupboards and cardboard boxes far away from children’s reach.
In these schools, classroom teachers have the additional responsibility to create portable or corner libraries and to transform the walls of their classrooms into well-organised bulletin boards to post announcements, assignments and visual images.
Professional development courses, including the ACE (Advanced Certifi cate in Education) and B.Ed. programmes offered at Rhodes University, respond to these challenges by supporting teachers in their
efforts to begin and maintain print-rich classrooms.
Teachers don’t develop these skills overnight; time and on-site support from supervisors and colleagues
are essential for teachers to succeed in their efforts.
An example of this is one teacher (a current ACE student at the ISEA) who started the fi rst term of 2009 with bare classroom walls, then posted some ready-made pictures on the wall in the third term of the same year, and eventually included learners’ work on the walls at the beginning of 2010.
The move from bare walls to commercial print and from commercial print to self-authored texts cannot
be emphasised enough.
To learners and teachers of additional languages, these are signifi cant changes that increase their opportunities to interact with different types of texts that are meaningful to them, not only as readers, but also as writers, illustrators and commentators of information.
Linking to the theme of print-rich environments for learners, our pop quiz features an ISEA research offi cer who does work with rural teachers in this regard.
We also promote the opportunity to attend a workshop with the renowned Elda Lyster and Sonia Keyser of the UKZN New Readers Project, and reiterate the appeal by the Professional Development Centre for donations of books and magazines.
In print-scarce environments, every contribution counts. The editorial team of Ukufunda will be taking a break over the school holiday period, with the next edition due in mid-July.
We hope you have enjoyed the fi rst few issues and are open to suggestions of how Ukufunda can best serve education and literacy in Grahamstown.
