September 8th was International Literacy Day, and the entire month of September is Literacy Month. In recognition, Khulisa is celebrating our team’s achievements in advancing literacy through our work evaluating early grade reading and creating reading benchmarks.
Since 2018, Khulisa has been working with the South African Department of Basic Education and international agencies to evaluate early grade reading in two South African provinces and develop reading benchmarks for three of South Africa’s official languages: Setswana Home Language, English as a first additional language (EFAL), and Tshivenḓa Home Language. During these studies, the Khulisa team assessed more than 10,000 learners (students), interviewed or surveyed 1,761 teachers, and conducted 574 school visits. We’d like to thank the thousands of learners, teachers, and school administrators who have made this important research possible.
The reading benchmarks we’ve established are providing valuable, tangible guidance on the best ways to teach children to read in African languages, which are not the same as English or other western languages. We look forward to expanding this approach into other African countries.
Literacy is a crucial part of every person’s development, and Khulisa has directly invested in improving literacy in South Africa for the last five years. Keep an eye out in the coming weeks for a longer blog post about Khulisa’s literacy and education work.
