29-06-2025
On top of the word — nonprofit boosts literacy rates at Joburg inner-city schools
In this last of a three-part series on South Africa's child literacy crisis, Anna Cox and Cecilia Russell visited The Link, a nonprofit organisation that has recorded almost 300,000 volunteer hours since its inception in 2010. By providing focused, individual attention, children's literacy rates have increased by more than 30%.
A project that has shown credible results in Johannesburg inner-city schools is The Link, a nonprofit organisation operating in 18 centres and going since 2010. Since then, 8,156 children have passed through its doors, with Grade 3s from low-income schools given 300,000 hours of literacy and numeracy assistance.
The programme has recorded 300,000 volunteer hours. Currently, about 450 volunteers teach the children, who attend classes twice a week for an hour. Year on year, from 2019 to 2023, the literacy results have been consistent, ranging from a 25% to a 31% increase.
The children come from a variety of single-parent, grandparent and child-led homes, have multiple cultures and languages and are in schools that are typically overcrowded and underresourced. Most arrive at school not speaking or understanding English, says coordinator Maggie Fussell.
Teachers identify the children who have reading and numeracy difficulties at the beginning of each year and send them to Link volunteers, who perform a further assessment. From there, a number of children are selected for the programme, depending on the number of volunteers and the space available. The children are assessed again at the end of the school year.
Mamokete Mhlongo, department head of the foundation phase at Orange Grove Primary School, says the programme has helped many of the pupils.
Most children come to the school from Alexandra, where there are a variety of languages spoken. About 40% of pupils who arrive at the school each year do not understand any English.
'Our teachers are battling with very big classes. The children love to go to The Link classes and always come back happy. We can see a difference in their confidence levels as well,' says Mhlongo.
There are currently 18 Link centres operating at schools in and around Johannesburg, reaching 800 children every week and covering areas of Orange Grove, Soweto, Germiston, Fordsburg, Brixton, Riversands, Azaadville, Coronationville and Yeoville.
All these centres are recognised and work with full permission of the Gauteng Education Department, which allows the extra teaching to be done during school hours as well as the use of school premises.
The organisation was founded in 2010 by Margi Bashall, a schoolteacher at Salvazione Primary School in Brixton, who is passionate about education.
Drawing on different sources of specialist primary school teaching expertise from around the country, Bashall designed positive, sustainable and measurable literacy and maths Grade 2 and 3 interventions.
During the next four years, she, together with eager volunteers, expanded the number of schools.
'All our centres are managed and staffed by volunteers, mainly community members who are committed to making a difference in education and who enjoy working with the children.
'The volunteers do not need to have any teaching experience but they are required to be fluent in English. We provide basic training and all the resources that are required,' says Fussell.
Each reading session lasts 45 minutes. The first 15 minutes are spent on paired reading. The middle 15 minutes is used to practise handwriting and play educational games to raise phonological awareness.
'Our programme provides a structured, safe environment for both the learners and the volunteers. We give the children one-on-one attention, which is impossible for teachers who have 40 to 50 learners in each class. With us, the children are given individual attention. We read, play educational games and end the sessions with 15 minutes of one-on-one reading a story. Many don't have books in their homes and many have never had a story read to them. It is often their favourite part of the lesson and it creates a love of books.
'Teachers at all our partner schools are supportive of our efforts and are consulted regularly,' she adds.
The Link has a very low-cost operating model because it is a volunteer-based organisation, with the result that it only costs R1,000 to fund a child's literacy and numeracy support for one school year.
While there is generally good cooperation with school governing bodies, teachers and principals, there are some problems:
School governing board members who do not appreciate the value of the project;
Lack of volunteers, especially in lower-income areas, and trying to find passionate and dedicated individuals to help with the programme's growth;
Lack of space to teach in some schools;
Lack of parental support; and
Interruptions because of school activities.
'However, we get great cooperation in most schools. Most teachers appreciate the help we can give the learners who are battling with English, as they simply do not have time to assist the children. Some go as far as having workshops with parents and teachers, encouraging them to help their children to read and to help them support their children's literacy development.
'We also encourage parents to read with their children and we provide resources like free digital storybooks. We understand that this can be difficult, as a lot of parents work long hours.'
The Link would like to expand the schools that it partners with, but this is always dependent on finding volunteers and funding, says Fussell.
Where they cannot help, they distribute the Link in a Box, which consists of five sets of cards, readers, related games and storybooks, which costs R2,700, but which is provided to mainly rural schools for R500. DM
This feature was produced with the support of the Henry Nxumalo Foundation.
This story first appeared in our weekly Daily Maverick 168 newspaper, which is available countrywide for R35.
