Literacy For All Cape Town, South Africa
Although we missed each other in Cape Town due to a scheduling conflict, I was able to talk with Ed Coombe from Literacy For All, a wonderful educational NGO based in Cape Town, South Africa via phone on my way to Johannesburg. The biggest worry for the organization here in South Africa is the basic lack of English skills amongst primary level children. South Africa is famously multi-cultural and thus, multi-lingual, yet most parents desire their children to learn English, as this is seen as a gateway towards improved opportunities in life (as it is in so much of the developing world). However, due to the multi-lingualism found in the nation, especially in the rural areas, where the primary tongue is often an indigenous language, such as Xhoso, and the secondary language of instruction is often Afrikkans (a hybrid Dutch incarnation unique to the country), quality English instruction, especially at the ages where it matters most in language acquisition (the primary school years) is sorely lacking.
Literacy For All has developed, in partnership with the University of the Northwest in South Africa, a program using specialized, pioneering, tri-language readers, which are working to promote language acquisition amongst the students in the trial areas of the Northwest Province. In the initial trials, within two terms, the level one primary students were reading in all three languages, an astounding educational development. The challenges that lie ahead for this great program include, paramountly, as with the introduction of any new means or modality of instruction, the appropriate teacher training to maximize the utilization of the new resources. We also spoke of the need for integrating materials such as these into a broader, technology-driven approach, such as that developed by Ravi and his team in Nepal. I look forward to furthering the conversation with ( ) and the kind folks at Literacy for All, and seeing how their work can be integrated and duplicated in a multi-regional, easy-to-rollout, educational solution to both the literacy and digital divides in the Global South.
