A book booth donated by a former pupil of Kannemeyer Primary School is proving to be a fun new way to encourage children to love reading. It looks similar to a traditional British telephone booth, but it is filled with books for learners to freely take and read at school.
Headmaster of the school Ridwan Samodien says that South Africa has low literacy rates and that 80% of grade 4 learners cannot read without understanding.
The school’s Reading Revolution initiative aims to tackle those figures and instill good reading habits.
"We need to do everything in our power to instill a love for reading in our kids," said Samodien.
One of the reasons why the booth is working so well is because the children are able to easily pick out a book and read.
Video: Kelly-Jane Turner
"The beauty of this is that there’s no red tape. In the library they’ve got to scan their books, they’ve got to have borrowers cards. Now they can just go at their leisure and at their pleasure, take out a book, read during interval, during after school or early in the morning," said Samodien.
“The hype that this new novel idea, if you want to call it that, has caused that the children, we find them reading during interval, and the idea is just to instill a love for reading. And when children see others read. They will do the same.”
