Efforts by the Department of Basic Education to revise its National Reading Plan are under way, with officials pushing a ‘refined focus’ on early childhood and African home language development. However, some parliamentarians are seeking assurance that past mistakes won’t be repeated.
We propose that the Treasury provides an additional conditional grant to enable provincial education departments to ensure that improving reading skills is adequately and equitably provided for across the poorest-performing provinces.
President Cyril Ramaphosa was commenting on the study by a US-based Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (Pirls) at the presidential imbizo in Paarl on Friday.