Library will help pupils to play catch-up – Manuel

PLANNING Minister Trevor Manuel wants to help facilitate access to reading and computer literacy in Mitchells Plain.

Speaking at the opening of the Yellowwood Primary School in Tafelsig yesterday, he said the library was an invaluable addition to the area.

He said that in a recent New York Times report, researchers looked at how inequality influenced the education and outcomes of pupils.

They found that by the time they start formal schooling, a child from an affluent home had already been exposed to about 600 hours with books, whereas a poor child had spent zero hours with books.

Manuel said the library was important to help the pupils in the area to play catch-up, “not just the learners but the community as well.”

He said that in his visits to schools over the years he found that schools in leafy suburbs only accelerated what the pupils had already been learning at home.

The NGO Equal Education, which teamed up with the Mitchells Plain Education Forum and the Cape Town Candidate Attorneys’ Association, donated 2 300 books to the school, which has never had a library.

Principal Donovan Senosi said that as the school library was the only one in the area, they would open it not only during school hours but on weekends and holidays, for other residents to make use of.

Senosi said reading and numeracy were big problems at the school, and because they went hand in hand, the library was a way for them to create “islands of excellence among poor schools in the area”.

Yoliswa Dwane, of Equal Education, said that by partnering with ministers like Manuel, they were advocating for “something bigger from the minister of education”.

She said infrastructure at schools was still a huge problem. “There are no libraries, computer labs and science labs that work, and in some rural schools this is coupled with lack of toilets and proper sanitation.”

She said they were hoping for a more transformative plan from both the national and provincial government on how they planned to tackle these issues, which went hand in hand with pupils having access to books.