In May 2022, during the Education World Forum (EWF) in London, the British Council South Africa and our CEO Scott McDonald, hosted the Honourable Minister of Basic Education and her delegation to discuss our proposed Teaching Reading for Meaning Framework. The framework was accepted and the British Council committed to working in partnership with the DBE to initiate processes of implementation of the framework for South African learners.
The Teaching Reading for Meaning programme recognises that a knowledgeable teacher is the best resource learners can have if they are to learn to read fluently and with understanding.
The broad aims of the programme are to equip teachers and teacher educators to develop learners’ reading skills for grades 1 to 7 with a phonics first approach to reading based on research that will provide:
- Learners with a set of reading skills to employ at the point of reading
- Teachers and teacher educators with a set of pedagogical tools/teaching strategies to deliver reading sessions
- A clear, flexible learning pathway to deliver reading sessions
- A reading intervention framework which is flexible and can be adapted for all classes
Currently, the programme is in its inception phase, where different stakeholders have been consulted and engaged (as part of our sustainability approach), ahead of the field-testing and piloting of the programme. Updates on implementation of the programme will be shared here.
The programme supports the DBE EFAL Strategy and Integrated Strategy Planning Framework for Teacher Education Development and is aligned with the national curriculum.