We really to need have an in-depth conversation about reading aloud to young children at home
AN ARTICLE on the correlation between children being read to at home and their subsequent development in a host of spheres got me thinking about where we are going wrong in South Africa (and please don’t tell me we aren’t, because the last three editions of the international Progress in Reading Literacy Studies prove that we are – beyond argument).
As seems depressingly normal these days, all the statistics in the article were drawn from either the United Kingdom or the United States, but it is still possible to draw conclusions for our local environment in Mzansi.
Consider, for example, some statistics from the most recent survey conducted in Britain on behalf of the UK arm of international publishing giant Harper Collins. The authors pointed out the drop-off in parents reading to their children between 2012 and the present day: 64% in 2012, now down to 41%.
There are no comparable figures available for South Africa, but I can guarantee you that in rural KZN, which is where my experience lies, we would be lucky to scrape together a score of 2%. Does this really matter? You betcha, it does.
Children who don’t get read to at home have trouble catching up with those that do when they get into kindergarten, and the gap widens in junior school, leading to an increase in those that fail to make it all the way to Grade 12. And those that leave school without matric – and I do not apologise for once again bringing up Prof. Nic Spaull’s gut-wrenching quote – “face a lifetime of serial unemployment and grinding poverty”.
So, yes, it really matters.
And it is surprising – or it was, at least, surprising to me – how such a simple activity can have so much effect on future outcomes. Most people even vaguely connected to education know that girls are now routinely out-performing boys throughout curricula, even in those STEM subjects long thought to be of no interest to the fairer sex.
The reason for this? Girls now get read to as toddlers far more than boys, according to the same Harper Collins survey. Forty-four per cent of girls get read to every day while 20% of boys never get that treatment. The big, bad bogeyman in this is the old chestnut of “excessive screen time”, which is listed as harming a child’s cognitive, linguistic and socio-emotional growth.
But surely with all the wonders of modern technology available to us, we should be able to find a solution. I don’t have one ready-made, but I can come up with a few suggestions.
First, we should all follow the example of former elementary school teacher Spencer Russell, the man behind social media success story “Toddlers Can Read”, and draw a clear line between educational and non-educational screen time.
Second, non-educational screen time should be limited. Sadly, today’s Gen Z parents, the first generation to have grown up surrounded by smart phones and social media, seem too worn out by the pressures of parenting in the 21st century to take any action on this admittedly difficult subject.
Third, if President Ramaphosa’s visit to the White House finally creates a reasonable regulatory environment and Elon Musk’s Starlink rolls out, every single rural school should be equipped with unlimited, high-speed internet connectivity. Once that network is established – and assuming that the dead, cold hand of the Basic Education Department will allow it – the world’s best teachers and most entertaining subjects are a click away, no matter if the children are in Thulamahashe, Thohoyandu or Mbongolwane.
High quality education, universally available and much cheaper than the out-dated methods currently boring South Africa’s children to tears. As Hamlet would have said, “Tis a consummation devoutly to be wished!”