Lessons from champions — turning young rural KZN pupils into literacy superstars

South Africa's child literacy figures are shocking. In the first of a three-part series on our reading crisis, Anna Cox and Cecilia Russell went in search of civil society organisations tackling the issue with the 'each one teach one' tenet.
The little girl placed her hand on her hip and sashayed towards the teacher like a supermodel on a runway. The Grade R pupil from a farm school – Goxhill Primary School – in Underberg, KwaZulu-Natal, is, with the help of a civil society initiative, bucking the trend of 80% of Grade 3s not being able to read for meaning in any language.
The child was responding to a short, fun-filled lesson by a teaching assistant or, as she is known at the school, a literacy champion, Mpumelelo (Nompies) Mbokazi, in which she needed to identify sight words – in this case, a prominent discount retail store, PEP, which she associates with the excitement of new clothes.
The project, run by the Family Literacy Project (FLP), is one of the nonprofit organisations we visited in search of civil society projects that are both academically successful and replicable. This sector includes high-functioning organisations that can access government tenders and draw funding from local and international corporates and philanthropic organisations, as well as struggling, well-meaning individuals dependent on the generosity of small contributions from donors.
With only five years to go to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 4, specifically target 4.6, which aims to ensure that all young people and a substantial proportion of adult men and women achieve literacy and numeracy, there is much to be done.
'Urgency of the moment'
Although the literacy statistics are alarming, there is some optimism that with the right programmes, this can be addressed.
Speakers at a think-tank held by the Reading Panel in Johannesburg earlier this year emphasised the 'urgency of the moment'. The panel of eminent South Africans, which was convened by former deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, aims to ensure that all children can read for meaning by age 10 by 2030.
There was a strong emphasis on teacher support and training, especially for mother-tongue education, since research has shown that a child who becomes proficient in their home language is more likely to manage learning a second language, such as English first additional language. Another theme was the need to see the education budget increased in real terms.
These interventions are needed to address stark disparities in schools in which pupils taught in African languages such as Setswana, Tshivenda and Sepedi are at a significant disadvantage, as are children from rural areas – all provinces except for Gauteng and the Western Cape are performing below the mean.
However, the panel also noted that small interventions can have big impacts, citing the Western Cape's Back on Track project, through which it took just nine intervention lessons for isiXhosa and Afrikaans schools to achieve a year's worth of progress.
Back in Goxhill Primary, the same little girl joined her classmates in slowly and carefully making the letter O in a cardboard box filled with sand. They proudly chat among themselves and vie for Mbokazi's attention as they do so.
The lesson is tactile and fun, made from easily available resources and oriented towards the children's lived experience – the sight words include shops in the nearest centre, the Spar and PEP – and it is taught in isiZulu, the children's home language, adapted from the Reach Out to Read method developed by Cheryl Taylor.
The literacy champions at this farm school, which is in the Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma Local Municipality, provide crucial support to the teachers.
The champions are trained over two years in teaching isiZulu reading skills to Grade R and grades 1 to 3, although the project has a more ambitious role in supporting families in the community with skills too.
However, the project is fragile following Covid; it was unable to retain many of the literacy champions it had trained during the pandemic because of a loss of funding.
FLP director Pierre Horn says his role is to constantly seek funding, and he wryly comments that he hopes this project will still be active next year. The costs are modest, and champions and facilitators are paid a stipend. According to Horn, the cost per school, based on a per-grade training with small groups of 10 to 12 at a time, is about R8,000 to R12,000 per grade. Each class is provided with a small classroom library with books in isiZulu and a few in English.
The project is now active in 15 communities, mostly in KwaZulu-Natal's Ubuhlebezwe, Impendle and Dr Nkosazana Dlamini Zuma rural municipalities. Apart from the literacy champions who work in schools, there is a group of all-women community facilitators, chosen by their peers, who provide counselling and support to other women in the community.
Supporting the gogos
Two community facilitators, Nomvula Phoswa and Faith Khumalo, confirmed that despite a lack of funding for the adult work, they were continuing their roles with the family groups in the community. Both dressed in T-shirts emblazoned with Pepfar, the Aids funding programme recently halted by one of US President Donald Trump's now (in)famous executive orders, they are firmly committed to changing their communities' circumstances – no matter the odds.
Phoswa is quietly spoken but displays steely determination. She comes from Bulwer, where she started a 'child-to-child' reading club for children after school. The programme expanded to include young girls and adult groups, addressing issues such as behaviour, health and home life.
'I support the grandmothers who take care of the children,' she says of her adult group of 20, alluding to a South African phenomenon where socioeconomic pressures, unemployment, urban migration and poverty push families to consolidate resources by living together, along with 'deeply rooted cultural values [that] continue to uphold the importance of extended family networks'.
Phoswa is passionate about her Grade R and Grade 1 children's literacy sessions, in which she uses the FLP kit with letter sounds and flash cards. She has reached hundreds of children and parents, and her methods have been adopted by teachers. Phoswa faces challenges such as lack of space for adult groups and limited resources for reaching more children.
Creating the odds to favour the kids
The success of continued education in the region is up against many odds. Grade R teacher Nonzamo Makhaye says she starts the day by preparing a meal for the children, because many haven't eaten. This is in addition to the regular school meal provided.
The unemployment rate in the region is 62.52%, with youth unemployment even higher at more than 70%.
The children won't come to school for a whole month if there are many public holidays, for instance in December and over Easter, because the parents can't pay a taxi driver the full monthly fee of R300.
As we drive through an area known as the Underberg Low-Cost Housing Area, a young boy, clutching a football, and two others confirm that is the reason they are at home.
'The school year effectively ends at the end of November. This isn't good, as studies have shown that the number of school days attended has a positive impact on the children's education,' says Taylor.
The literacy champions live in the community and, where they can, follow their pupils' progress.
Nkosikhona Msiya, a young champion who is still studying towards a degree, says some of the children he has taught are now at university and others already have their degrees. He looks concerned. 'And I am still stuck [studying].' DM
This feature was produced with the support of the Henry Nxumalo Foundation.
From gardener to literacy champion: an unlikely path to success
Nkosikhona Msiya gesticulates to the children assembled in the schoolyard on a cool autumn morning. The pupils follow with rapt attention, completely oblivious to their surroundings at Goxhill Primary in the foothills of the Drakensberg in Underberg.
The children have brought their mobile desks with reading cards and sound cards out into the fresh air. Beyond the school fence, the Drakensberg can be seen through a blue haze in the distance. Tourists often come to the region to drive up the famous Sani Pass with its hairpin bends and spectacular views. Few will notice the tiny farm schools, like Goxhill, with its drab brick exterior. Should they visit, they will find a school filled with enthusiastic children in classrooms with floors scrubbed clean and walls transformed by artwork and posters.
Msiya got into teaching by accident. After completing matric he went on to study, but it didn't work out, so his grandfather found a job for him as a gardener at an orphanage in Underberg. He started working there in 2014, but in the afternoons he would spend time with the children, helping them with their homework.
His talent didn't go unnoticed.
'I think you are meant to work with children,' an administrator at the orphanage told him, and introduced him to Pierre Horn, the Family Literacy Project (FLP) director. Soon he was being trained to become a literacy champion, and even worked full-time as a teacher at one stage, even though he was not qualified.
During the Covid-19 pandemic the literacy champions played a crucial role. The FLP set up WhatsApp groups and the literacy champions worked with children in the community when schools were closed, using the Reach Out to Read method.
Now Msiya's days are busy; in the mornings he works as a teacher, in the afternoons he coaches soccer, and he is completing his bachelor of education degree through the University of South Africa.
'Being part of this project has helped me… as I've gained a lot of skills, like how to teach and how to deal with children who have… challenges,' says Msiya.
He recognises now that he should have started years ago, when he was still at school and often took over the class when the teachers weren't there.
'I should have realised that I've got this thing,' he says of his talent for teaching. After all, his classmates always told him he was good at it. DM

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