By Pascale Bakos Head of Communications at Afrika Tikkun Bambanani
By the time a child reaches Grade 4, the foundations needed to understand a story, interpret a question and express an idea should already be firmly established. Yet for far too many South African children, these foundations remain fragile.
The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study revealed that 81% of South African Grade 4 learners could not read for meaning in any language in 2021. This represented a deterioration from 78% in 2016 and confirmed that South Africa’s reading challenge is not confined to a particular school, province or language. It is a national crisis that requires attention long before children reach the Intermediate Phase.
While the statistic is alarming, the difficulty does not suddenly emerge in Grade 4. A child’s journey towards literacy begins in the earliest years through conversation, stories, songs, play, vocabulary development and the ability to listen and respond. These experiences help children connect sounds and words, follow instructions, communicate their thoughts and, eventually, understand what they read.
Theresa Michael, CEO of Afrika Tikkun Bambanani, believes literacy must be understood as a foundation for all learning.
“Literacy levels amongst young South Africans are troubling. There is a clear need to focus on each and every child’s reading ability. We must remember that this is not only about English. A child needs to read for meaning in every subject, including history and mathematics. Investing in literacy means investing in a future generation of young people who can comprehend across all subjects and communicate with confidence.”
This distinction is important. Literacy is often treated as the responsibility of the language classroom, but a learner who cannot understand a written question will also struggle to solve a mathematical problem, follow instructions in science or interpret information in history. Reading for meaning influences a child’s ability to participate across the entire curriculum.
Afrika Tikkun Bambanani is working to strengthen these foundations at Early Childhood Development centres, particularly in communities where practitioners and children have historically had limited access to quality teaching materials, training, books and developmental support.
Through a structured, play-based curriculum, practitioners receive daily and weekly guidance, educational resources, training, mentoring and tools for assessing children’s development. The intention is not to force formal reading onto very young children. It is to create language-rich classrooms in which children learn to listen, speak, question, describe, sequence, imagine and make meaning.
An important part of this work is Afrika Tikkun Bambanani’s Little Libraries initiative. In many under-resourced communities, children have limited access to age-appropriate books at home or in their ECD centres. Bambanani is helping to address this gap by introducing libraries into its outreach centres and creating welcoming spaces where young children can encounter books, stories and new ideas.
These libraries are about more than placing books on shelves. They give practitioners opportunities to read aloud, discuss characters and events, introduce new vocabulary and encourage children to predict what might happen next. Through repeated exposure to stories, children learn how books work, begin connecting spoken and written language, and develop the curiosity and imagination that support later reading comprehension.
The Little Libraries also help make books a familiar and enjoyable part of children’s daily lives. For a child who may not have books readily available at home, the opportunity to choose a story, explore its pictures and listen as it is read can be significant. Afrika Tikkun Bambanani’s library project seeks to give children in its outreach centres access to the same world of stories, knowledge and imagination available to their more privileged peers.
The physical libraries are supported by Bambanani’s wider literacy offering. The BambaLearn application includes audio and visual storybooks alongside literacy, letter-recognition, problem-solving and active-listening activities. This allows children to experience stories and develop early literacy skills through both traditional books and accessible digital learning.
Assessment forms another important part of this approach. Children are assessed against age-appropriate developmental milestones throughout the year, while screening tools help practitioners identify those who may require further assistance. Teacher development is also monitored, recognising that meaningful improvement in children’s learning depends on confident, well-supported practitioners.
The scale of this work is significant. Afrika Tikkun Bambanani reports that its programmes have reached 755 centres, 5,189 practitioners and teachers, and 65,830 children. Its Assessment Centre currently tracks the progression of approximately 3,200 learners, helping educators identify difficulties early instead of allowing children to move through the system without the support they need.
School-readiness results provide further encouragement. In reporting on its partnership with Afrika Tikkun Bambanani, Capitec highlighted a 99.2% school-readiness rate. This figure represents children entering formal schooling with stronger developmental foundations and a better chance of engaging meaningfully with classroom learning.
The change is also visible in the experiences of individual educators. At Tiny Tots Daycare Centre in Kensington, principal Nasimah explained that the Afrika Tikkun Bambanani curriculum assists educators in helping children reach their developmental milestones and acquire skills for the future.
Gabrielle, who teaches the centre’s four-to-five-year-old group, described the programme as having made a significant difference to her teaching. The combination of training, mentoring, printed manuals, workbooks, themed posters and assessment tools has made it easier for her to understand each child’s current level and recognise areas in which additional support is needed.
This is where an intervention becomes more than a set of materials. When a practitioner can identify why a child is struggling, select an appropriate story or activity, adapt her teaching and monitor the child’s progress, the classroom becomes more responsive. A difficulty can be addressed before it develops into a lasting barrier, and a child who may previously have remained quiet or fallen behind is given a better opportunity to participate with confidence.
South Africa’s literacy crisis will not be solved through a single programme or once-off campaign. It requires sustained investment in the adults who guide children during their earliest and most formative years. It also requires children to have regular, meaningful access to books and an understanding that literacy is not simply the ability to pronounce words on a page. It is the ability to understand, connect ideas, ask questions and communicate.
If South Africa wants children to read for meaning in Grade 4, the work must begin well before Grade 4. It begins when a young child is invited into a story, encouraged to speak, listened to carefully and supported by a practitioner who has the knowledge and resources to respond.
By investing in those early moments, and by placing books within children’s reach, we are not only teaching children to read. We are helping them to understand the world and giving them the confidence to find their place within it.