The Fundza Literacy Trust notes the significance of World Literacy Day in South Africa with the announcement of its commitment to supporting the efforts of the Literacy Promotion Collective, in partnership with the Presidency and Department of Basic Education (DBE).
The collective was recently established through the signing of a joint Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between all partners and the DBE individually. The MoU serves as a platform through which the DBE will engage with Fundza to promote the use of its fee-free mobisite in government schools, with the aim of making reading and writing resources more accessible among members of our youth.
Non-profit organisations including Nal’ibali, Room to Read, Better Africa, and SAPESI will join Fundza as members of the Literacy Promotion Collective in a joint approach to improving literacy, language, and multilingualism in our country, with the full support of our national government and relevant departments.
“The Literacy Promotion Collective marks a significant step in recognising the critical nature of collaboration and solidarity that will be required to advance literacy, reading, writing, and learning among South African youth today,” comments Nadeema Musthan, Executive Director at the Fundza Literacy Trust.
The DBE’s deliverables (specific to the Fundza Literacy Trust) will include the following:
- Fundza will collaborate with the DBE to identify, digitise, and upload official readers to the Fundza mobisite, ensuring free access for all learners;
- It will work closely with the DBE to build campaigns and outreach programs for high school learners, educators, and education officials to underscore the importance and benefits of digital literacy;
- The collaborative engagement will be leveraged to amplify and celebrate local, as well as international, literacy initiatives and dates;
- Promote and create opportunities for engagement through book clubs, countrywide; and,
- Build tailored, granular approaches to improve literacy outcomes for different provincial districts across South Africa.
“Together, we aim to see a significant increase in the number of young individuals engaged in reading, writing, and learning activities on the Fundza mobisite. With the enhanced analytics provided by Fundza’s platform, the DBE will be empowered with a data-driven approach to the campaign’s geographical reach, with granularity down to a school and district-level. This will help us better understand user-behaviour, as we continue to improve access to digital literacy platforms at no cost to learners and readers in our country,” adds Minister of Basic Education, Hon. Siviwe Gwarube.
“The Literacy Promotion Collective will serve as a strategic tool to champion the promotion of reading, writing, and holistic learning through digital avenues,” comments Musthan: “Fundza’s participation, alongside those of the other members of the collective, will play a key role in providing access to open-source children’s books on their fee-free mobisite. The provision of reading lists to enhance reading skills and comprehension for both youth and children will significantly improve engagement with young readers and support the efforts of the DBE’s “Read to Lead” campaign.”
Fundza, in agreement with UNESCO’s stance that mother tongue-based education is a key factor for quality learning and inclusion, will also leverage the work of the Literacy Collective to amplify the use of literary content written in multiple South African languages, specifically with regards to stories and articles that are written in a mother tongue.
“We look forward to this engaging opportunity with all literary stakeholders in our country and believe it will contribute significantly towards highlighting the value of reading, writing, and language across local and international dates of interest, namely World Poetry Day, World Book Day, National Youth Day, Mandela Day, and most notably, World Literacy Day this month,” concludes Musthan.
