South Africa’s literacy crisis: our app could help young readers by using home language and English

Laurette Marais and Laurette Pretorius

Literacy changes lives: in Unesco’s words, it “empowers and liberates people, … reduces poverty, increases participation in the labour market and has positive effects on health and sustainable development”.

But in South Africa, 8 out of 10 children cannot read for meaning by the end of their third school year.

During the first three years of their education, South African children receive schooling in one of the 11 written official languages. Generally, this means being taught in their home language.

Then, at the beginning of grade 4 – when most learners are about 10 years old – English becomes the language of instruction. Learners are expected to be literate in both English and their home language by this time. In reality, they are not literate in any language.

The problem is partly caused by the fact that South Africa is, in many respects, a resource-scarce