Why mother-tongue education is failing our children
MAKANDA: In Makhanda, children taught in English outperform those taught in their ‘mother tongue’ by more than two to one. The data doesn’t prove mother-tongue education is wrong — it reveals the gap between policy ideals and classroom realities.
How funding apartheid fail young library users
MAKHANDA: When Grade 11 learner Sipho Mthembu arrives on Monday afternoons at Duna Library, his local facility in Joza, Makhanda, he’s not looking for books to borrow. He needs something more basic: a quiet place to study with working electricity. Yet the library closes at 5 pm, soon after school ends.
Consider the 19%: What happens to those who can, in fact, read for meaning?
MAKHANDA: Much attention is paid to the 81% of South Africa’s Grade 4s who cannot read for meaning. Leanne Kelly and Rod Amner consider the stories of those from the “other 19%”.
Give children high-quality books from Grades R-12: they will likely read them
MAKHANDA: Lucky Xaba, the Humanities librarian at Rhodes University, arrives at a no-fee school in Makhanda to check on the colourful classroom library she and her team built a few months before. The teacher is absent, but the Grade 1 children are all there, books in hand, reading independently on cushions. On her second visit, they eagerly recount every plotline they’ve read.
SA spends 1.8% of its education budget on pre-schoolers: the damage shows
MAKHANDA: Early childhood development (ECD) is a term that is being bandied about a lot these days. Minister of Basic Education Siviwe Gwarube has allocated a substantial amount of additional funds for ECD centres to register through the Bana Pele Mass Registration Drive and receive an increased subsidy. A good start. But much more needs to be done.