Vandag (8 September 2016) is Internasionale Geletterdheidsdag. In ʼn meningsartikel in Cape Argus, skryf dr Suzanne Ross van die Taalsentrum aan die Universiteit Stellenbosch hoe storieboeke kan help om kinders se geletterheidsvaardighede te verbeter.

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Stories help improve literacy skills

Suzanne Ross

This year marks the 50th anniversary of International Literacy Day which is celebrated annually on the 8th of September. It is indeed an occasion to applaud the many efforts by UNESCO, some governments, organizations and NGOs to put the spotlight on the importance of literacy around the world. However, the question is whether it is enough and if not, what else can be done. In an article "Reading revolution to improve all lives" published in The New Age in October 2015, my colleague Marisca Coetzee focused on some of the initiatives like the Kha Ri Gude Mass Literacy Campaign of the South African Government to improve literacy levels but also indicated the illiteracy which is still prevalent.

Literacy is defined as the ability to read and write. Often then to be illiterate is viewed as not being able to read and write. If however, you observe, small children, they already show signs of literacy because they can identify certain motorcars or shops or treats. Similarly, many of the older illiterates know money and know where to go even if it is only by means of association. So it is a place to start and expand those very basic literacy skills.

If we wish to change literacy levels in South Africa we should focus on the foundation phase, especially in Grade R. It is clear that the Department of Basic Education (DBE) is at least trying to correct the wrongs of the past. Yet there are still inequalities.

Firstly, not all schools offer Grade R, especially in the townships, despite the promise that by 2010 all children should have been in Grade R. Now why this statement? Simply because if all the children were exposed to Grade R they would have been exposed to stories, a powerful tool to inculcate literacy and a love for reading. Secondly, there are currently still too many "private" non-subsidised Grade R classes housed in private households, without adequate basic facilities, needless to add, with no good story books. Thirdly, many public schools in the townships do not have libraries for the learners and the nearest public library is either non-existent or not within walking distance from the school or the communities. Are we surprised that the literacy levels are still low?

In my own research it was evident that many children come from households where story books are an absolute luxury, very low down on the priority list when parents are poverty-stricken and/or unemployed. So, they can still tell the children stories if there are no books, you might argue. Of course, some parents try but most of the responses showed that the storytellers or readers in the lives of many children are the Grade R teachers. Even the principals in some schools will first pay the utilities accounts before the library books will be considered.

Fortunately in the Western Cape there is the Education Library and Information Sciences (EDULIS) of the Western Cape Education Department, where teachers can get resources like story books on loan. They can also request EDULIS to do book talks and displays as well as assist them to order books when the schools have funds for this purpose. In addition they have acquired assistance to get mobile libraries going in remote areas and in townships. There are also organisations like Biblionef, who donate book chests filled with story books in the three official languages of the Western Cape, to needy schools. They work closely with the Vriende van Afrikaans who would buy these chests to donate to schools particularly in rural and needy areas.

Why the focus on stories? The words of Forest Whitaker, slightly adapted, is the key answer, namely "[Stories] open doors to new possibilities." Stories are getting a more prominent place in the 2012 Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statement (CAPS) of the Department of Basic Education (DBE, 2011). It is encouraging to see that the DBE postulates that "Listening to stories being told is an excellent way for children to acquire their additional language" (2011, DBE), and this holds true for expanding the home language too. In a paper in Early Childhood Education (2004), Rebecca Isbell, Joseph Sobol, Liane Lindauer and April Lowrence argue that early childhood years are seen as the opportune time to experiment and "… play with language" while they learn to appreciate the sounds and the meanings of words.

The power of stories to promote literacy is underscored by so many in the literature and what follows are just examples. In his book Teaching as Storytelling (1988), education philosopher Kieran Egan, one of the powerful proponents of the story as teaching tool, views the story as "… a basic and powerful form in which we make sense of the world and experience." What better place to start this than in Grade R if we assume that not all parents could not or did not tell or read stories for various reasons, before the children started school. Rebecca Isbell and colleagues (2004) also confirm that stories assist children to gain various skills amongst others literacy skills.

When Grade R teachers use stories as the focus of their lessons they can integrate all the other subjects. This will increase the comprehension and will provide a more holistic picture to the learners than the approaches which most teachers currently apply. Unfortunately there are no workshops to assist the teachers in this regard but there are teachers who try their best. Integration is mostly just in the languages and not across the curriculum. Is this perhaps the reason why our literacy levels are still low? Should we not have a closer look at assisting the foundation phase teachers to become more innovative, to include stories across the curriculum, to promote lifelong learning opportunities starting at the bottom?

On another level stories assist children to develop not only linguistically but also socially as underscored by English translator, children's author and poet Kevin Crossley-Holland, who states in Yes we do all believe in fairies (2000) that, stories are "the ground that humans hold in common, not what divides them …". In addition, stories have the power to transport the readers to other places which they might never be able to visit. Furthermore, stories often help readers to identify with situations similar to their own. All these attributes of stories can aid the literacy levels in the country and globally.

We still need to delve deeper and take stock of the many areas where literacy is still an unknown concept. We have to start at the foundation or else the foundation of the literacy levels will remain shaky. Perhaps then the celebration of International Literacy Day will be an even more rewarding one.

It can, however, not be ignored that all good work done to promote literacy is saluted and must be further supported and expanded so that for every child it is a literary experience which started, "Once upon a time" and ends happily where "everybody is literate ever after".

*Dr Suzanne Ross is the head of language and communication development in the Language Centre at Stellenbosch University.