Pretoria - Youths from Soshanguve have taken on the momentous task of reviving the culture of reading in schools in their community by donating mini-libraries one school at a time, starting at Reitumetse Secondary School.
The members of #Thusangwanageno (help your sibling) banded together and donated funds to build a mini-library at the school.
Founder and member Dr John Molepo said they opted to focus on promoting literacy in young learners, especially those within township schools, as there were not enough libraries for them to access.
Molepo said one of the reasons they deemed this important was while there were seven malls in and around Soshanguve, there were no libraries.
“I was dismayed by the statistics which indicated that close to 50% of South Africans, especially the youth, can’t read and comprehend what they are reading.
“We always encourage kids to play but we should include reading as part of that,” Molepo said.
The 2016 Progress in International Reading Literacy study tested reading comprehension of learners in their fourth year of primary schooling and placed South Africa in last place out of 50 countries due to information that 78% of learners in the country could not read meaningfully.
Reitumetse principal Mogaka Sepeng said the school and its learners were happy to have a library of their own again.
Sepeng said they initially had no library due to space constraints theirs was being used as a temporary staff room. “To be honest, the reading culture is something that has been neglected for some time in our country; it’s still a challenge that not only affects the learners, but the community at large.”
Businessman and donor Reuben Serumula said that with the advent of the 4th industrial revolution more children had access to digital tools and more often than not they were exposed to scandals and mostly negative things about society.
Serumula it was for this reason that he was eager to take part in the initiative to make reading more fashionable and accessible.
“The saying that education is the key to success is not going to cut it for these kids or motivate them. We need to make it fun and in style but also provide them with the spaces to read in.”
Pretoria News