The minister of education in the Western Cape (WCED), Jaco Londt has challenged schools in the province to celebrate the National Book Week which started today the 8th September
This year the National Book Week is called ‘DEAR’,(drop everything and read) in the education circle. And it is in his DEAR John letter to the Western Cape that the minister invited schools to read. And schools in the Western Cape are taking up the challenge to “Drop Everything And Read” this week “as we celebrate National Book Week,” Londt said. “And I’m challenging the residents of the province to do the same.”
Londt said today, 8 September, also marks International Literacy Day “where we highlight the importance of reading with comprehension.” The department’s Reading Strategy 2026-2030 calls on schools, teachers, families and communities to work together to develop confident readers who can read for meaning and learn successfully across all subjects.
Lindy said they wanted to grow readers and grow minds. “I was pleased to see learners and staff alike taking up the challenge by the WCED to “Drop Everything And Read” when I visited Apex Primacy School in Eerste River ahead of Literacy Day.”Lindy said there he saw learners in different grades not only confidently reading out loud, but also enthusiastically answering their teachers’ questions about what they were reading. “Thank you to Principal Gino Overmeyer and his passionate staff for taking up the challenge and run with it! During this week – and beyond – schools will be taking part in various activities to get
learners are excited about reading, while also strengthening literacy skills by getting them to reflect on and talk about what they are reading. “But it is not just during this week that we are focused on literacy. The WCED has various interventions in place to improve literacy outcomes as a continued focus,” Londt enthused. The department of education implemented a home language intervention in 2023. For Afrikaans and English home languages,teachers were trained on the Science of Reading. And in the meanwhile a structured home language programme was implemented in IsiXhosa home language.
The intervention targets all foundation phase grades, Languages of Learning and Teaching, and schools. Over 302 000 learners at 1 100 schools are benefiting from this measure. The WCED systemic data indicates a steady increase in learner reading proficiency from year to year since 2021.
Grade 3 home language results have increased by 14,3 percentage points from 2021 to 2025, while the specific reading component in the systemic assessments shows an increase of 16,6 percentage points from 2021 to 2025. Lindy: “While we are doing what we can to support learners in schools, I encourage parents and guardians to help their children read at home. Start with one page a day and take it from there.”
