In South Africa, 81% of Grade 4 learners cannot read for meaning in any language, up from 78% in 2016.

National Book Week is celebrated from Monday (2/9) to Wednesday (11/9) under the theme: “South Africa’s Literacy Emergency: Why Multilingual Education is the Answer”.

The role of Book Week is to highlight the importance of multicultural and multilingual education because “learners who receive instruction in their mother tongue during their early years perform better when they move over to English from Grade 4,” said Educational psychologist Seago Maapola.

There are quite a few benefits to exposing children to the literacy of different languages. Photo: Instagram/seagosmiles

“There is a critical need to teach literacy at Early Childhood Development (ECD) level, in children’s languages so that the books they read are relatable.

“It’s really important to know about National Book Week because it speaks to the core of what we are trying to build for South Africa, to ensure that the level of literacy in the country rises from the current statistic it is on.”

It’s important to expose the children of South Africa to as many books as possible to ensure they’re equipped with skills to learn and progress in their academics and socially, she said.

Exposing children to multicultural and multilingual literacy at an early age helps them establish a sense of themselves, and gives them an idea of who they are. There are quite a few benefits to exposing children to the literacy of different cultures and different languages.

Exposing children to multicultural and multilingual literacy at an early age helps them establish a sense of themselves. Photo: iStock

“Unfortunately at this stage, we haven’t had books or literacy resources that are in different languages and cultures, but Wimpy has come up with ECD centres with books in different languages.”

“The Basic Education Laws Amendment Act (Bela Bill), as it stands, seeks to ensure amongst others equality of the many official languages and to address the historical injustice of forcing those learners whose mother tongue is neither Afrikaans nor English to study in these languages,” said SADTU General Secretary Mugwena Maluleke.

The Bela bill sparked an outrage with political parties opposing support of the implementation of it since it was announced.

‘The Bela bill sparked an outrage with political parties’

Daily Maverick reports the Bela Bill’s clauses push for a multilingual approach, with public schools having more than one language of instruction and if approved, it will give provincial department heads more oversight of language policies developed by school governing bodies.

Various organisations have vowed to fight the bill including AfriForum. “We are preparing for both national and international legal action to oppose the bill, should it be signed into law by the president and implementation begin,” said AfriForum’s head of cultural affairs Alana Bailey.

“The DA will vehemently oppose the Bela Bill both in committee and during its deliberations in the National Assembly. As the leading voice of opposition in Parliament, the DA will ensure that its objections are firmly lodged at every opportunity,” said DA MP Baxolile Nodada.

OFM News/Zenande Mpame dg