Unemployed youth play a part in successful literacy project

In this second in a three-part series on the childhood literacy crisis, Anna Cox and Cecilia Russell report on a project that uses jobless young people as reading tutors in Diepsloot.

- Anna Cox and Cecilia Russell

A literacy project has contributed to ongoing success in the matric results of a no-fee quintile one school in Diepsloot - and the project has found a novel way to combine literacy with the upskilling of unemployed young people.

Diepsloot Combined School, which caters to one of the poorest communities in Johannesburg, has for the past few years ranked among the top township schools, with matric results of 99.2% last year, slightly down from 100% in 2023.

Edu Fun, at Diepsloot Combined School, started in 2003 and continued with its training even during the Covid-19 pandemic, using young people from the local community to help continue the project.

The youth, mostly school leavers, are offered a one-year tutorship to teach kids at the school on a one-on-one basis or in smaller groups for the more advanced learners.

Some have moved from there into a teaching career, resulting in a win-win situation, says Edu Fun coordinator Jenny Taylor.

"Although we have great results and successes, this model is more expensive than other literacy projects, as more funding is needed to pay them stipends for basic living expenses while they tutor and study."

Upside of using young assistants

"It provides the youth with opportunities, not only to get an interim job but also to get teaching experience. Despite higher costs, the project has proved its worth, with the school in 2023 having celebrated coming second out of all 960 township schools in Gauteng in terms of their matric results," she says.