Africa: 'Illiteracy threatens our democracy' - a response to the 2016 PIRLS results
Posted: Mon Dec 11, 2017 1:28 pm
This heartfelt piece in response to the 2016 PIRLS results in the Mail & Guardian was flagged up by teacher Valma Adams via Facebook.
Valma had this to say with her link:
Valma had this to say with her link:
https://mg.co.za/article/2017-12-08-00- ... -democracyI agree whole-heartedly with Debbie Hepplewhite and other SSP stalwarts, that teachers cannot be held responsible for what they don't know. But this is ridiculous ! The Balanced Language Approach isn't working. .. can the minister of education please step forward with a Marshall plan.... (Nic Spaull, 2017)
Illiteracy threatens our democracy
Eusebius McKaiser
Not only the economy will suffer from a labour force that is poorly educated but our democracy itself will also be poorer if citizens cannot enjoy their civil and political rights meaningfully in the absence of a culture of reading, and reading with comprehension.
It is impossible to exaggerate the stakes. A deliberative and participatory model of democracy presupposes a critical mass of citizens who read, and who do so with comprehension. That means the democratic project is fatally wounded without an urgent national plan to teach teachers how to teach reading better and to ensure well-stocked public libraries in all our communities and one in every school, as well as developing and entrenching a culture of reading and of enjoying books, as much as our children love technology.
If the state does not do so immediately then it cannot complain when a comparison is made with the apartheid state.