The politics of literacy

South Africa knows how to teach children to read. What's missing is the political will to do it

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Research describes the WCED as a professional, rule-bound bureaucracy with low leadership turnover and sophisticated management systems, making it possible for a state-NGO partnership to roll out coaching networks, build leadership capacity and develop term-by-term benchmarks.

"If they can do it [in Sobral], without extraordinary resources but with passion and a holistic approach, then so can we. They showed what is possible when you put children first and keep your principles beyond the office walls," Du Toit says.

The goal is government-owned capacity that persists beyond project funding cycles. "After Sobral, the momentum exploded we realised that we could do it," October says.

Annual systemic testing provides data on how the programme is working, enabling further funding “a snowball effect that starts with good governance", says du Toit.

"Our provincial minister has regular on-the-ground meetings with us. When we started our reading intervention, the minister went to the Treasury to get R30 million, because while reading is a national mandate, there was no budget provided to provinces."

The Western Cape is embedding functional vertical accountability from the Treasury to province to district to school to classroom, with support and consequences at each level.

3. The Right to Read model: legal pressure from civil society: In provinces where cooperation is less possible, a different strategy is emerging. The Right to Read campaign, launched in August 2023 by Section27, Equal Education, the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) and the Centre for Child Law, is preparing to compel the establishment of binding literacy regulations through litigation.