STRATEGY ACTION

Continue to mobilise a national campaign to increase reading practice and access to reading materials in order to promote a national culture of reading.

› Drive a national campaign to promote reading for enjoyment at the sufficient scale, intensity and longevity in order to change reading behaviour in South Africa.

› Increase access to reading materials and literacy infrastructure support to expand access to the number of books found in the home, in schools and ELPs.

› Mobilise support to shift South Africa’s reading practices and behaviours through advocacy, policy engagement and direct engagement with key stakeholders in civil society, government and business.

› Support initiatives like the National Reading Barometer Survey, which seeks to measure reading practices and the culture of reading in South Africa.

Increase the number of children who can read for meaning and do maths by the time they get to Grade 4.

› Support the development of early numeracy and literacy tools and make those resources widely available.

› Improve the quality of foundation-phase numeracy and literacy instruction.

› Support evidence-based numeracy interventions to help and train new teachers.

› Ensure that numeracy and literacy instruction is evidence-based, well-resourced and appropriate for the context.

› Support accelerated learning and catch-up literacy and numeracy interventions for children in Grades 1–4, with a particular interest in new forms of NGO–DBE partnerships.

Outcome

› Millions of South Africans are influenced, creating a tipping point, to build a reading culture and practice that shifts reading behaviour at home, in ELPs and in communities.

› Twenty-five per cent of children under 10 are reached through face-to-face interaction by 2024. 21

› More than 40% 22 of adults are reading regularly to children.

› The number of children who cannot read for meaning by the time they get to Grade 4 is reduced.

› The percentage of learners who have acquired basic mathematical skills and knowledge has increased. 23