South Africa: The Mpumalanga Department of Education will join the people of the world to celebrate International Literacy Day on 08 September 2022.
This is intended to remind communities that literacy is a human right and the foundation of all learning.
According to data released by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics, literacy rates for adults and youth continue to rise. Young women aged 15-24 are making the strongest gains but still lag behind young men. In 2011, 87% of female youth had basic literacy skills, compared to 92% of males.
Despite these gains, there are still adults (15 years and older) who cannot read or write, and the Department is addressing that by working in collaboration with all stakeholders.
The Department is further expanding its footprint to emerging technologies, including the internet of things, coding, robotics and artificial intelligence.
“We are encouraged by the participation of learners in the technical streams following the transformation of some ordinary secondary schools into technical high schools, said Majuba.
In fact, the Department is working toward ensuring that there is at least one technical high school in each of the 71 circuits in the Province. So far, there are 42 technical high schools within the Province. Next year we plan to increase them to 52. Every effort is made by the Department to ensure support to learners who are supposed to walk more than five kilometres to attend a nearby school.
Currently, there are 88 113 learners that are being offered scholar transport on 715 routes. This is done in collaboration with the Department of Public Works, Roads and Transport.
The Department has established boarding schools to cater for vulnerable learners who were in small and unviable schools. This is an effort to make sure that they don’t drop out of school and are well supported,” said MEC Majuba.
The event to celebrate International Literacy Day will take place in Duvha Primary School at Emalahleni Local Municipality on Thursday, 08 September 2022, from 09H00.
This event will coincide with the official handover of Duvha Primary School and an establishment of an e-library at this school. The event will also be used to showcase the teaching and learning of Coding and Robotics.
The MEC for Education, Mr Bonakele Majuba and the leadership of the National Education Collaboration Trust will grace the occasion.
