Literacy Hub ... educational snippets
"A shiver of excitement ran through every learner's spine as the convoys of cars approached the schools. Parents, educators and learners wearing their traditional attire, broke into songs of praise, and ululating and the slogan: "Viva Rally to Read! Viva!" filled the air. Educators presented beautiful mini lessons in Shared Reading, and Word and Sentence Level Work. Science teachers performed science experiments. some learners were chosen to show off their acquired reading skills. Mention must also be made of the excellent performance by the Traditional Dancers. In addition there was also a beautifully decorated horse waiting patiently with its rider at Norden. Brian Jones, Gelling Senior and other sponsors danced to traditional songs.
The jubilation that was exhibited was a symbol of the love for education that the teachers and the learners had." Ellen Dlamini, READ project trainers
The importance of literacy for learning
“Literacy is a critical tool for the mastery of other subjects and one of the best predictors of longer-term learning achievement. Reading must be considered a priority area in efforts to improve the quality of basic education, particularly for learners from disadvantaged backgrounds.” EFA Global Monitoring Report 2005: Summary Unesco Publishing
"Reading for fun is a foreign idea to many people," says Prof Thomas van der Walt, head of the Children's Literature Research Unit at Unisa, "Yet research shows that there is a direct link between reading (stories) - and school results. The more children read, the better they do at school. Even in maths and science." Daily News October 28, 2004
Literacy and the economy
The demand for a skilled workforce increases, as the knowledge economy grows
Dr Peter Drucker, world-renowned academic and management guru, postulates that the demands of the 21st century workplace are escalating and that knowledge is becoming more of a commodity than it has been in the past. The world economy demands a new type of worker, which he calls a ‘knowledge worker’, who possesses a high level of literacy which incorporates elements of critical thinking . Between 1990 and 1998, formal employment of semi-skilled and unskilled labour declined by 19% (700 000 jobs), while employment of highly skilled professional and managerial labour rose by 12% (80 000 jobs). Lawrence Edwards, School of Economics, University of Cape Town
“The knowledge economy is transforming the demands of the labor market in economies throughout the world. In industrial countries, where knowledge based industries are expanding rapidly, labor market demands are changing accordingly. Where new technologies have been introduced, demand for high-skilled workers, particularly high-skilled information and communication technology (ICT) workers, has increased. At the same time, demand for lower-skilled workers has declined. (OECD 2001f)”
A World Bank paper asserts that a knowledge economy requires “an educated and skilled population to create, share and use knowledge” This population must be able to adapt to rapid changes in the knowledge economy, and update their skills regularly to keep up with changes in information technology.
“Schools and other training institutions thus need to prepare workers for lifelong learning. Educational systems can no longer emphasize task-specific skills but must focus instead on developing learners’ decision-making and problem-solving skills and teaching them how to learn on their own and with others.” (World Bank)
Literacy combats poverty, improves health and promotes social development
The spread of literacy has emerged as a major factor in economic and social development. In fact, the linkages between education, health and nutrition are mutual and complementary. The strong linkages between education, health, nutrition and reduced fertility result in synergies, which can transform vicious cycles of poverty, illiteracy, malnutrition and disease into virtuous cycles of learning and health, equity and sustainable development. (World Bank)
Improved literacy can:
Contribute to economic growth
Reduce poverty
Prevent HIV/ AIDS and other diseases, by keeping people informed
Reduce crime
Promote democracy
How do we define literacy?
The spectrum of literacy, according to UNESCO, includes:
• Alphabetic literacy, which refers to a person being able to write his or her own name
• Functional reading and writing literacy that allows a person to read or write on the most elementary and basic levels of everyday life
• Social literacy that empowers one to read, write and communicate effectively using the cultural language of a particular community (eg social and linguistic norms, unspoken communication customs, etc)
• Information literacy, which requires people to use critical thinking skills to “locate, evaluate and use information in order to become independent learners
• Digital information literacy. Included are emerging literacies such as computer, network, software, visual, multimedia, audio, tool, and Internet literacy How literate are South Africans?
• In 2002, 99% of whites were literate as opposed to 66% of Africans
• In 2003, 1.4% of Africans of working age had a degree or higher degree, while 35% had either no education or an education of grade 7 or lower
• Sub-Saharan Africa: Men 71% Women 56%
• World Average: Men 84% Women 71%
• Advanced countries: Men and Women 95%
• South Africa: 85% functional literacy (UN stats) An estimated 40% of high school learners graduate with a school leaving certificate. A nation that cannot read cannot grow The lower the educational qualification, the less likelihood of finding a job in the formal sector. Among employed people with no education, 45,6% were employed in the formal sector. Among the employed who had grade 12 as their highest level of education, 85,4% were employed in the formal sector. South Africa’s functional literacy level is high at 85% according to UNESCO statistics, but functional literacy is defined as having the reading and writing skills of a nine year old – not enough for today’s job market. Literacy at school 2003: Department of Education conducts a systemic evaluation on Grade 3 learners The national average scores achieved by the random 5% sample 54 000 were as follows: Life Skills – 54% Literacy – 54% Listening comprehension – 68% Reading and writing – 39% Numeracy – 30% An analysis of the scores found that learners had the greatest difficulty with numeracy. Nevertheless, while the literacy scores were higher, this was primarily due to higher scores obtained in the listening comprehension, rather than in reading and writing. In addition to this, learners performed adequately in multiple-choice tasks, but performed poorly in tasks that required them to produce their own written responses. Literacy scores were heavily influenced by the following factors:
• Educators reported that the shortage of learning and teaching material had an influence on learning, borne out by the fact that learners in teaching and learning institutions that had less teaching and learning material scored lower than learners in teaching and learning institutions that were more adequately stocked.
• Learners’ involvement in classroom activities was found to be low, despite outcomes-based education’s emphasis on learner participation. Other findings of the evaluation:
• The national indicator for the availability of resources at home is about 31%.
• 57.1% of households in the survey had access to television sets.
• 45.9% had access to a telephone.
• 23% had access to newspapers and magazine.
• 53% had fewer than ten books.
• 67.2% had access to a radio.
• 53% of pupils' families did not have any books in the home.
• Only 27 percent of schools had libraries and pupils attending schools that did not have one typically came from homes without education resources.
Nearly a quarter of South African teachers do not have official teacher status Literacy and the future “Functional literacy alone is not enough to compete in the demanding economic landscape, where business is calling for world-class knowledge workers to put South Africa in a firm and competitive position on the global stage.” Dr Dzingai Mutumbuka, World Bank’s human development sector manager for Eastern and Southern Africa “While Africa is still struggling to catch up with the rest of world in terms of achieving a minimum level of literacy, the rest of the world is NOT waiting for Africa. Instead it is galloping away even faster, benefiting from the advances in information technology. The criteria for literacy do not remain stagnant either. Definitions of literacy now include numeracy, problem-solving skills, knowledge of social practices, language and culture. They will soon include some level of computer literacy.” Dr Dzingai Mutumbuka, World Bank’s human development sector manager for Eastern and Southern Africa