In commemoration of the 2024 National Read Aloud Day (7 February), schools gathered to share reading and storytelling experiences in different languages.
During the weekend, the Gauteng Department of Education hosted its 2024 reading festival at Soshanguve East Secondary School while two schools in North West took part in a reading competition.
National Read Aloud Day is aimed at more than just reading, it also includes the art and practice of reading aloud to help bring back the tradition of reading. According to Nationaltoday.com, oral forms of storytelling were the earliest way of preserving human knowledge, insight, and creativity.
A total of 320 learners from 20 schools in Gauteng and two Early Childhood Development (ECD) Centres, attended the reading festival. This comes after the Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga, stressed the importance of reading for meaning in primary schools, following the release of the 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), which revealed that eight out of ten Grade 4 learners cannot read for meaning.
Motshekga said ensuring learners read for meaning at a young age is a societal matter. She’s urged parents to read together with their children and familiarize them with books. She also added that pronunciation adds no value to reading without the understanding of comprehension.
“We will all agree on the importance of reading, that is crucial to remind ourselves about the importance of reading and devote most of our attention to enhancing our learners’ ability to read for meaning. By the age of ten, children should be able to comprehend types of text both fiction and non-fiction,” Motshekga said.
A mother of a Grade 3 learner, Kgomotso Maunye suggests that this project should be implemented in all schools. She said that if all learners get a chance to read aloud regularly, their understanding of languages and literacy would improve. Maunye said that she has started to teach her son the meaning of words and how to spell them, his understanding of different words has improved for the better.
“I used to think that just reading for your child or asking them to read helps them speak the language better. Since I have started teaching him how to spell and define words, his reading has improved effortlessly,” Maunye said.
In the North West province, Grade 4 learners from Matlametlo Primary and Tlhaalapitse Primary Schools were part of the Setswana and English reading competition, hosted by the Moses Kotane Local Municipality Community Services in commemoration of World Read Aloud Day.
Mogale Education Circuit Manager, Sipho Hlangu described the competition as a day dedicated to instilling the love of reading and highlighting the importance of not just reading but reading aloud. He also urged learners to continue to read with and for their parents and teachers.