No one would dispute that South African schools are performing below expectations. Diagnosis of the reasons for the inefficiency of South African schools, compared with more poorly resourced systems in the Southern and Eastern African subcontinent, is the first step to improving the quality of learning outcomes.
The language environment in the Eastern and Southern Region of Africa is rich and dynamic. Many African languages, including Amharic, Kirundi, Swahili, isiZulu, Kinyarwanda, Chichewa, Luganda, Kikuyu, Malagasy, Oromo, and Somali are spoken as mother tongues by millions of African citizens. Some may also serve as regional and national languages.
The Reading Comprehension Group developed this interactive guide to promote uptake of literacy activities that strengthen children’s social-emotional learning skills and listening/reading comprehension skills, in the heart of communities through community libraries. The objective of this guide is to help teachers, volunteer teachers and librarians, and community leaders set up libraries where there are none and promote the use of community libraries that already exist via activities that engage the full community.