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Zinox
Computers, World
Public Library, and Read Africa are working together
to support reading and literacy in Africa. ReadAfrica.org
is a branch of the World Public Library, dedicated to
helping the Great Nation of Africa with online access
to books. Read Africa offers unlimited access to 750,000
titles. The Read Africa's collection of eBooks includes
subjects in all disciplines, specializations, and interest.
With the corporate support of Zinox Computers Read Africa
can help to nurture a "culture of reading"
in Africa.
By
most estimates there are well over a thousand languages
(UNESCO has estimated around two thousand) are spoken
in Africa. Most are of African origin, though some are
of European or Asian origin. Africa is the most multilingual
continent in the world, and it is common for individuals
to fluently speak not only multiple African languages,
but one or more European languages as well.
Read
Africa celebrates the great diversity in language and
culture of the people of Africa. The Read Africa eBook
Acquisitions Department is working to include the widest
diversity of titles to reflect the uniqueness of the
land, people, and language.
Read
Africa is made possible thanks to the corporate sponsorship
of Zinox Computers. Zinox's Corporate Communications
Adviser, Mr. Echika Ezuka, said that from 1st October,
2009 all Zinox computers will come standard with access
to 750,000 eBooks for FREE. He explained that Zinox,
in partnership with the World Public Library, has decided
to present eBooks for Free to all Zinox customers. Mr.
Ezuka urged all stakeholders to encourage the next generation
of Nigerians.
Guided
by the belief that literacy is a basic economic and
human need, Zinox Computers, in partnership with community
leaders, is committed to bringing about profound change
in our communities. By helping others gain the literacy
skills needed for fuller lives, greater job opportunities,
and successful families, we hope Read Africa will help
to improve the quality of life in Africa
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 The
five literacy programs this site recommends:
A
few smaller programs worth looking into include:
- Amy Biehl Foundation's "Youth Reading Role Models"
- Masifunde Sonke
- Bookeish
- Parent and School's Learning Club Project
Center
for the Book,
www.centreforthebook.org.za
Center
for the Book distributes free children's books, gives writing
workshops, and promotes the publication of South African books
in all 11 official languages. It runs five projects:
•
First Words in Print (FWIP): a mission to get books into the
hands of children ages 3 to 9. In April 2003, phase one of the
project was deployed in all 11 provinces. 2,500 sets of books
were distributed through Early Childhood Development Centers,
libraries, and Health Services. Each set contained four books
written by South African authors in English and mother tongues.
Phase two, another set of books, is ready to be deployed in
Kwazulu-Natal this year.
•
Children's Literature Network: an online forum
•
Community Publishing: an effort sponsored by NB Publishers to
train small publishers in marketing, distribution, and other
business issues, in hopes that books that previously would not
have been looked at by big publishers will get a chance.
•
Writer Development: workshops and courses for writers
•
World Book Day: each year, on April 23rd , a youth writing competition
is held in the greater Cape Peninsula area of Western Cape.
60,000 posters are distributed throughout the area and writing
workshops are giving to teachers and librarians.
Of
these five programs, only the First Words in Print (FWIP) project
covers schools in all the provinces of South Africa. An evaluation
of FWIP is available from the website at: http://www.centreforthebook.org.za/final_summary_report.doc
.
Some
highlights:
•
thousands of children owned a book for the first time
•
many children were spotted reading books on their own, for fun,
some even after three months
•
caregivers need to be trained that reading can be fun , not
just learning
Especially
noteworthy is the effort towards giving South African books
to these children. The evaluators of FWIP discovered several
preschools with only a few books, all of which were the commonly
available Euro-centric literature.
The
FWIP's idea of distributing free books to encourage reading
has been utilized by programs in the United States, like "Reading
is Fundamental". A current protest in South Africa against
the VAT (tax) on books points out that many people in South
Africa cannot afford to buy books, meaning that free books may
be the only books a child receives.
Read,
Educate, Adjust, Develop (READ),
www.read.org.za
 READ
is one of the largest literacy programs, with 13 centers throughout
South Africa and at least eight major projects. It trains teachers,
develops curriculums, and supplies schools with teaching materials.
The eight projects are:
•
Pre-primary: trains Grade R teachers in a set of seven modules.
Classroom resources are provided, and follow-up visits evaluate
the efficacy of the program and encourage the teacher.
•
Primary: a curriculum in which reading and writing are taught
using the "apprenticeship method" has been developed
and used. Tries to encourage "initial literacy in the home
language".
•
Readathon: a handbook distributed to thousands of schools across
the country, filled with classroom activities involving reading.
•
Rally to Read: training and books for rural schools.
•
Learning for Living: funded by R153 million from the Business
Trust, this program aims to reduce the repeater rate by supplying
schools with materials and training teachers. About 900 schools
have benefited and 12,000 teachers have been trained. For more
info, see http://www.btrust.org.za/education/primary_schooling/
•
Banyan Tree: a project in the Warmbaths and Mahwelereng districts
of Limpopo province, involving training and materials.
•
Festival of Books: held at 1500 schools, this is a competition
of dramas the children are encourage to come up with, based
on their favorite stories. Winners perform at regional galas.
•
Festival of Stories: this is a one-day event for teachers to
compete in story-telling abilities.
READ
goes in, trains, and leaves, allowing it to touch more groups
with the same staff. Some All-Africa Conference delegates noticed
a "preponderance of materials from one New Zealand publisher
and the lack of South African children's literature" in
READ (Sisulu).
The
Molteno Project,
www.ru.ac.za/affiliates/molteno
Originally
a project of Rhodes University, the Molteno Project has developed
a commonly-used Mother Tongue curriculum, Breakthrough to Literacy
, and a popular transition-to-English curriculum, Bridge to
English . Their project has been also implemented in Botswana
and Namibia, and declared a success (Sisulu). Impact
Study
Early
Learning Resource Unit (ELRU), www.elru.co.za
ELRU
is an Early Childhood Development centre whose mission includes
"promoting and providing access to knowledge and skills"
and "affirming and harnessing the potential of diversity".
ELRU
provides programs for training educators and community developmentors,
develops materials for classroom use, and researches issues
in the ECD arena. The ELRU currently trains in over 80 towns
and villages. ELRU programms include:
•
Leadership in Early Childhood Development (LECD): The ELRU offers
five levels of qualifications in ECD. These programs have been
approved by the SETA and the SAQA, and trainees can achieve
a National Certificate in ECD.
•
Foundation Phase: Training teachers to be able to facilitate
numeracy, literacy, and lifeskills learning programs for students
in the Foundation Phase of school (early primary). This runs
in Cape Town and parts of the Western and Eastern Cape.
•
Anti-Bias: "challenges beliefs, attitudes, behaviours and
social and institutional practices which are oppressive",
through workshops, courses, and ELRU-developed resources.
•
RPL: screens veteran educators who still do not have official
qualifications. Aims to provide "formal recognition of
[..] lifelong learning" to educators who qualify
Also,
a pilot programs for introducing parents to educational media,
Takalani Sesame, has also been launched, with positive results.
The ELRU also assists with a number of separate projects not
listed here.
The
ELRU supports South African books for children, in the different
official languages. The Anti-bias project influences which books
the ELRU chooses, all of which are careful to advocate diversity
and awareness of prejudices.
Project
Literacy, www.projectliteracy.org.za/projects/family.html
This
project encourages reading in the home by training the parents
themselves how to read to their children. This is supposed to
help the newly literate parents "gain confidence in their
abilities and also realize they can play a valuable role in
their children's education." It also helps the children
learn to love reading, helping to create that very-important
reading culture.
This
project operates in sixteen sites in the Eastern Cape, Free
State, Limpopo Province and Gauteng.
Amy
Biehl Foundation- Youth Reading Role Models, www.amybiehl.org/program_profiles.php
Older
students read aloud to younger students in over 20 primary schools
in the Cape Town area. This program, for some schools, help
alleviate the issue of using students' mother tongues. If teachers
are unable to speak the mother tongue, the older students can.
This program helps keep some of the mother tongue in schools
where teachers speak mainly English or Afrikaans, along with
showing a positive side of reading through young role models
for the children.
Bookeish,
www.bookeish.co.za
Bookeish
holds the International Festival of Books on April 23 rd . Events
are mainly held in Cape Town, with a few events around the country.
Masifunde
Sonke, www.maifundesonke.org.za
Sponsored
by the South African Department of Education.
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