NEVER TOO OLD TO LEARN: Ennie Nomalinge Xuze, 72,
from Soshanguve, Pretoria, learns to read as part of the
Kha Ri Gude (Let Us Learn) campaign
Picture: Simphiwe Nkwali.
JOHANNESBURG, Gauteng, South Africa (The Times), October 12, 2008
Literacy is about more than writing and reading. It restores dignity and control, writes Prega Govender
Jane Ndlovu tried hard to contain her excitement as she stood in the queue, nervously waiting to use an autobank. The 63-year-old grandmother had spent hours the previous night memorising her secret pin code.
She had stubbornly refused to write down the four-digit code on a piece of paper and carry it with her to the bank, recalling the warning of her teacher never to disclose it to anyone.
Moments later she deftly pressed the menu button on the screen and completed her transaction after carefully following the instructions.
For millions of people, using an autobank is second nature. But for Ndlovu it was a momentous occasion — something she will cherish for the rest of her life. She admits that the image of the machine spewing out her pension money in crisp R100 notes has been indelibly etched in her memory.
As she recalled the historic moment to loud applause from her 13 classmates at the Masingita Primary School in Pretoria’s Mamelodi East, she felt an overwhelming sense of accomplishment.
Until three months ago, Ndlovu was among millions of adult South Africans who could not read or write. Now she is regarded as a star pupil in the government’s mass literacy campaign, known as Kha Ri Gude, which means “let us learn” in Venda.
Launched by education minister Naledi Pandor earlier this year, the first classes were held in mid-April. These days, about 350000 illiterate adults across South Africa are receiving 240 hours of tuition over six months in basics such as numeracy and literacy. The tuition takes place in the 11 official languages as part of a pilot project. Driven by the Department of Education, the programme aims to eventually teach 4.7 million illiterate adults over five years how to read and write.
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"During the launch of the classes, the demand
from illiterate South Africans to enroll was so huge that many
thousands of people had to be turned away"
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During the programme’s launch, the demand from illiterate South Africans to enrol for the classes was so huge that many thousands of people had to be turned away.
Almost 30000 volunteer teachers, with matric as a minimum qualification, are being paid a monthly stipend of R1200 to teach adult pupils in 24000 classes held in shacks, churches, back yards, prisons, bus shelters and even under bridges.
As they are taught how to introduce themselves to each other, the faces of the elderly pupils, whose average age at some schools is around 70, light up with excitement.
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" Lessons take place in shacks, churches, bus shelters,
even under bridges ‘I had always wanted to read the Bible and write
letters to people’
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They are asked to comment on the weather and learn the days of the week and the months of the year before being challenged by more complex problems, such as completing bank forms.
Step by step, pupils are taken through 34 lessons in numeracy starting from the very elementary, like practising the writing of numbers and basic counting .
Their final lesson in numeracy involves studying the pay slip of a driver named Bongi, who is employed at a company called Beds from Heaven.
Their task is to work out the deductions made from Bongi’s salary.
Ndlovu, the wife of a pastor in Mamelodi, has now become the envy of her neighbours, many of whom are still illiterate.
“It was like a dream come true when I made my first withdrawal at the autobank. I still can’t believe it,” said Ndlovu, who previously relied on her children to withdraw her pension.
“I had to give them taxi fare and sometimes they used to borrow money from me because they knew how much I had in the bank.
“Now my bank balance will be my secret.”
Ndlovu grew up in Middelburg in Mpumalanga. She was forced to abandon all thoughts of schooling because her parents were very poor.
She found odd jobs working as a labourer on different farms, but never gave up her dream of wanting to read and write.
“I had always wanted to read the Bible and write letters to people.
“Now I can read from Genesis to the Revelations in Zulu,” she proudly announced.
She has made both her husband, Simon, and her teacher, Divhani Tshivhula, proud of her achievements.
Tshivhula said Ndlovu had not known how to read and write when she first pitched up for his class.
“When she came here, she said she needed to read the Bible.
“Now she is very good in reading and writing in Zulu. She also knows how to add, subtract, divide and multiply,” he said.
The literacy campaign has also shaped the lives of many informal hawkers at the Mabopane bus shelter outside Pretoria. Three days a week, they spend more than three hours braving exhaust fumes from buses and taxis to get an education.
The lessons have given hope to people such as Ulana Masilela, 65, one of the many fruit and vegetable hawkers attending classes at the bus rank. “I want to speak English and Afrikaans clearly because it will help me in my business,” she said.
Zee Sebothoma, 45, one of the 192 co-ordinators of the project, said it was also creating jobs for thousands of unemployed people across the country. Sebothoma, who is in charge of one section of Soshanguve, manages 21 supervisors, 218 volunteer teachers and 3870 adult pupils.
Veronica McKay, chief executive of the Kha Ri Gude campaign and a former Unisa professor, said because the adults had missed out on formal schooling “they try to recreate the missed-out experience”.
“They see their children having activities at school and ask for similar things.
“At some of the learning sites, you will see all the women dressed in black skirts and white T-shirts, which they say is their uniform.”
McKay said a lot of men in their 70s and 80s were attending classes, although 79% of pupils were women.
In contrast, at least 66% of the volunteer teachers are under the age of 35.
“Besides the actual learning experience, a lot of the pupils come for the social aspect. They meet new friends, and learning groups help to overcome loneliness.”
At least 1.2-million adults are eagerly waiting to enrol for the Kha Ri Gude classes next year.
“I am hoping it will turn my life around,” one illiterate adult remarked.
Prega Govender
govenderp@sundaytimes.co.za
© 2008 AVUSA, Inc.
