The Zenex Foundation initiated and funded the Ulwazi Lwethu African Language Reading Materials Project with the intention of developing African language reading books and teacher reading support resources in the nine (South) African languages targeted at teaching learners in the Foundation Phase to read in their home language. The project was implemented over 3.5 years from 2020-2023.

A range of studies highlight that one of the reasons for the reading challenge among South African children is the lack of decodable and level appropriate reading materials available in African languages. Additionally, books that do exist often do not reflect the realities of the majority of South African children, are not very interesting, or are translated in ways that are linguistically age inappropriate.

The project brought together four expert organisations in the children’s literacy space to produce high-quality, quality assured African language Leisure and Graded Readers for the Foundation Phase.

As part of Zenex Foundation’s strategy to build and strengthen the literacy and reading performance of children in South Africa, the Foundation aims to contribute to building on and adding to existing African language reading resources targeted at children in the Foundation Phase of schooling.

The purpose of the Ulwazi Lwethu Project is to:

1. Produce an abundant variety of high-quality readers in African languages that build the foundational reading and comprehension skills of children and encourages a rich and diverse culture of reading.
2. Build a supply of skilled Black writers, illustrators, proof-readers and editors in African language children’s materials by supporting their writing competency in developing reading materials that are graded and leisure-appropriate for the Foundation Phase.

It is hoped that Ulwazi Lwethu will stimulate more public, private, corporate and community use of African language literacy materials to ensure and sustain a vibrant and rich indigenous language knowledge system and preserve indigenous knowledge and culture.

South Africa’s education policy recognises the importance of language competence, in particular home language, as critical in learner achievement. Research confirms that proficiency in a language, often one’s home language, makes it easier to learn additional languages.

Learners struggle to read and write in their home language. Eight out of ten Grade 4 learners cannot read for meaning in all languages (PIRLS 2021). The poor results for African languages can be attributed to a range of factors including a shortage of necessary and engaging reading materials in African languages and the fact that schools using an African language as the language of learning and teaching are generally the poorest. Additionally, books that do exist often do not reflect the realities of the majority of South African children or are translated in ways that are linguistically age inappropriate. Teaching the skill of reading in African languages in a systematic way has also not been taught well at tertiary institutions to aspirant teachers.

High quality CAPS-aligned African language reading books and teacher reading support resources, help Foundation Phase learners with decoding, letter sounds, word recognition, reading fluency and comprehension, enabling them to systematically learn to read in their home language.

Hence, there is a desperate need to develop resources in African languages to support this ecosystem of improving reading skills in South Africa.