Being able read is an essential part of navigating our world. We need to be able to read so we can change the world. On 09 September 2022, a news article by the SABC reported that, “Child and adult literacy rates in South Africa have seen a steady decline in the past 2 years, according to data from the World Bank. South Africa has an adult literacy rate of 87% – ranking lower than other developing countries such as Mexico and Brazil. Child literacy statistics are even lower, with around a third of children in the country being illiterate.” 

My interests are in promoting a reading culture by and with the people around me, especially the young ones. A reading culture is a very important one to cultivate and encourage so that there is an understanding of the world that we live in because so much of what is around us involves reading, interacting with our phones, reading in schools, manuals on how to use things. We also are in the midst of the Fourth Industrial Revolution, reading is one of the tools we need to navigate that world.   

I did an interview with my little brother who is a Grade 10 learner to find out what his ideas and understanding of reading are. 

Question: Do you enjoy reading? Why or why not? 

Answer: Yes, I love reading because it’s time-consuming when it’s loadshedding and it expands my vocabulary. 

Question: What makes you excited or look forward to reading? What do you look for in books? 

Answer: I look forward to what I’m not used to and using my imagination. Yeah, I enjoy fiction. 

Question: Have books always been made accessible to you? Why or why not? 

Answer: Yes, very much because my mother used to read them. She used to give me books to read. 

Question: Do you enjoy the books that you read at school? Why or why not? 

No because it’s the same old books that everyone reads. We’ve been reading the same stuff for years. We want to read new stuff. 

Question: What language do you enjoy reading in? Why is that the case? 

Answer: English. Most of the books in school are in English. 

Question: Do you enjoy reading from your phone or do you prefer to have a hard copy? Why? 

Answer: Hard copy, I want to have an actual book in my hand. 

This conversation made me realise that literacy is so much more than stats, in as much as stats inform us on how far we’ve come and where we still need to go. 

Literacy, especially for young people is a space to imagine, dream and challenge what’s around us. This interview has reminded me that it is important that we feel represented in the books that we read because as much as the world in the book can be a different one, as readers, we also want to feel like we belong there. 

Western Cape is leading when it comes to literacy numbers in the country, which is an interesting fact and creates space for a dialogue around access and location. It is not possible for every child to move to Cape Town to be able to read, it is now on the shoulders of education departments in every province to take notes from what the Western Cape Education is doing right so that the 88% statistic could be one that the country in its entirety has. 

“When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young.” – Maya Angelou