Low reading culture threatens country’s literacy rate: Minister

The Chronicle

By Lorraine Phiri

16 May 2013

THE country’s literacy rate is under threat because of the low culture of reading among pupils, the Minister of Education, Sport, Arts and Culture, David Coltart, said yesterday.

Speaking during the official launch of World Readers E-Readers at King George VI School and Centre in Bulawayo, Minister Coltart said despite the country having the highest literacy rate in Southern Africa, recent surveys conducted at some schools in the country revealed that some pupils could not read properly.

The World Readers E-Readers programme is aimed at giving pupils in the developing world access to thousands of local and international digital books through an E–reader, a mobile electronic device.

“Sadly the great literacy legacy of the country is under threat, a survey done in Manicaland  two years back on Grade Five pupils established that an average number of the pupils had a literacy level of Grade Two pupils,” said Minister Coltart.

“Another survey conducted in Matabeleland North also established that most pupils in Form One are not able to read the textbooks that had been distributed to their schools.”

He said the Government was under-funded to integrate Information Communication Technologies (ICTS) at schools so as to improve pupils’ access to information.

“Literacy goes beyond reading but also entails the pupils’ ability to decipher, prioritise and research. Our desire in the new curriculum is to integrate computers into the teaching of pupils so as to enhance pupils’ ICTs capacity.

“However, the provision of ICTs and maintaining of schools in the country is a monumental task owing to the financial challenges faced by the Education Ministry,” said Minister Coltart.

He said the education sector was also facing a challenge in that pupils were given automatic places to the next level despite failing their previous grade.

“The Ministry through the Performance Lag Address Programme (PLAP) aims to assist pupils to cover up for the work they never understood. However, it is unfortunate for pupils who are already at secondary schools as their teachers do not have the specialised training to teach them the basic skills they lost.

“If resources were available we would consider making sure that only pupils who passed were allowed to proceed to the next grade. However, at the moment it could balloon our classes and put pressure on the few teachers we have,” said Minister Coltart.

He applauded World Readers for complementing the Ministry’s medium term plan to launch electronic learning at schools.

“The programme launched today goes beyond a mere collection of over 5 000 books captured on one small electronic device, but the books have been carefully loaded to ensure pupils access to a diverse array of books targeted to grow their young minds,” said Minister Coltart.