BOOK REVIEW

Review by SHERIDAN GRISWOLD | Friday August 24, 2007 00:00

New Chapters: Ten Years of Rally to Read is an extraordinary book. It contains hundreds of brilliant and catching colour photographs taken by 14 photographers. It is far more than a coffee table book. There is also a text presented in 10 easily digestible parts. These cover: the background and history of Rally to Read; the communities that the school books and other school equipment are delivered to in South Africa; the approach to language development followed by the READ Education Trust or what is called, 'A long and winding road'; what happens when the Land-Rovers arrive at their destinations, or 'The day the rally came', which is followed by quotes from the school children and their teachers; beyond the call of duty or 'Going the extra mile'; and concludes with a recognition of the tremendous diversity that exists in South Africa and some information on the sponsors - altogether there are over 200, ranging from ABSA to the Zenex Foundation.

The sponsors also include embassies and high commissions, banks, industries and De Beers. Each sponsor contributed P15, 000 of which two-thirds is for materials and one third for teacher training. Rally to Read has also involved dozens of team leaders, coordinators, trainers and the lead organising team at McCarthy Limited.

Their reward over a decade has come in the outcomes found in the target schools: improved language, communication skills and learning in the remote schools targeted by the programme.

The foreword to this book is by Cyril Ramaphosa. A tribute entitled, Timbuktu and Back is by Cameron Dugmore, Education MEC for the Western Cape Province. So you can see that Rally to Read has had good political connections. Cynthia Hugo, National Director of the READ Education Trust quotes T.S. Eliot, 'Do not follow where the path may lead. Go instead where there is no path and leave a trail. Only those who will risk going too far can possibly find out how far one can go.'

I personally would also turn, in support of initiatives like Rally to Read, to the writings of Robert Chambers. Professor Chambers has called for serving 'The Last First', and has developed a philosophy of rural development grounded in reaching the most isolated communities and meeting their needs first, before those of more accessible and developed communities. In the delivery of educational materials this would require transporting annual delivery of supplies, school books, library books and so on, to the most remote communities in Botswana before releasing any materials to the towns and urban villages that are easily accessible. Botswana has a philosophy of equality in the construction and support of schools, but the reality on the ground is different - the more remote communities do have less.

Rally to Read is fascinating because it has also mobilised the private sector and 4WD clubs in South Africa to come together with the READ Education Trust to achieve the delivery of books and other supplies to schools in remote areas in eight of South Africa's nine provinces (Gauteng has no remote rural schools).

The READ Education Trust has gone beyond mere delivery of school materials to the design of school-based in-service training programmes for primary school teachers and the training of head teachers so they know how to implement the programmes. The heads also learn how to monitor the new teaching methods, related skills of management, conflict resolution and financial and human resource planning. In many places in South Africa the school library has also become a community resource (something missing from most approaches in Botswana where the National Library Service has built separate community libraries).

Over the past decade Rally to Read has reached over 27 extended rural communities across South Africa. Every May nine Rally to Read expeditions are mounted (including two destinations in KwaZulu Natal where it began in 1998 in response to a request for assistance to reach schools by educational researchers) and hundreds of volunteers go out to the selected destinations in four-wheel drive vehicles provided by sponsors. They take with them school supplies, including library books, school notebooks and stationery, sports equipment, water bottles and hats, even clocks for the schools. The ultimate aim is develop pupils' learning through improved reading and writing and other literacy skills and through enhanced language and comprehension skills. The READ Education Trust has developed a method - the 'Balanced Language Approach' - to literacy.

The programme begins with Standard One teachers with in-service training to teach them how to plan and manage reading and writing class lessons. Then, with their children, they are taught the skills of shared reading and writing followed by group reading and writing.
 In the second year they go further and introduce guided reading, independent reading and writing and relevant assessment skills. In the third year they carry the work of the previous years forward and introduce advanced literacy skills and reading to gather information and then communicate it. The integration of reading with writing at the introductory levels is an essential ingredient of the approach.

In most remote communities in Africa there are very few books in homes, churches, and even in schools. Books are scarce items in these communities, yet for children to become excited about reading and learning they must know books. Unfortunately, too many children grow up never holding, never owning, a colourful illustrated children's book.
Botswana embraced the idea of a 'Book Flood' to primary schools to try and organise school libraries. The trunks of books, where made available to pupils instead of sitting in storerooms or head teachers' offices, has helped, but it has not been enough.

The availability of books for pupils to read is only one step in the process of transformation. It should be part of school-based in-service training designed to develop both teachers and their pupils. Schools need to become mobilised to become centres of reading and writing.

A programme spearheaded by the private sector and the companies that sell four-wheel drive vehicles, could be started, patterned on Rally to Read in South Africa, to help reach and transform rural and remote schools in Botswana.
 e-mail sheridangriswold@yahoo.com