Minister Maynier celebrates SA Library Week at West End Primary School

Statement by Minister David Maynier, Minister of Education Western Cape

In celebration of South African Library Week, which takes place from 17 to 23 March 2025, I visited West End Primary School in Lentegeur to hand over Reading Corner resources to the school.
 

This forms part of the Love2Read initiative developed by our Education Library and Information Service (EDULIS), which supports schools with an alternative to a centralised library. The purpose of the initiative is to develop reading skills in Grades 3, 4, and 5, and to encourage learners to read for enjoyment.
 

Through the initiative, EDULIS provides the school with:
 

• 50 – 70 library resources per classroom;
• Fiction and non-fiction materials in the language(s) of choice;
• Resources packed according to grade/level;
• Resources on block loan for a two-year period; and
• Training and support for teachers.

So far, the initiative has provided Reading Corner resources to 147 schools in the Western Cape.
 

Developing a generation of lifelong readers is a key priority of the Western Cape Government, and the Love2Read initiative builds on our wider Reading Strategy to improve reading as a fundamental skill for a child’s education and future career.
 

Our #BackOnTrack programme includes extensive support for reading in the Foundation Phase, with every learner in Grades 1 to 3 having access to new decodable readers and anthologies at a cost of R115 million.
 

We have also provided training to 9 683 Foundation Phase teachers across three languages over the past two years, ensuring they are better equipped to teach reading in the vital early grades.
 

We have additional resources supplied to our classrooms by our partners at Funda Wande, who are also providing training support to our teachers.
 

We are already seeing the impact of our support for reading in our systemic test results, particularly in the early grades where language scores now exceed those achieved in 2019.
 

Parents have a vital role to play in developing their children’s reading skills and nurturing a love of reading, so I encourage them to read with their children during Library Week and every day!