The Shine Literacy initiative celebrated its 10th anniversary on Monday at St Agnes Primary School in Woodstock.
Many schools involved in the Shine Literacy programme have seen an improvement in their systemic results, with St Agnes having improved from 44% in 2013 to 62% in 2017.
“This is a vote of confidence not only in the Shine Literacy Hour programme but to the teachers, children, and volunteers for all the hard work they put in,” said Maurita Weissenberg, executive director for Shine Literacy.
The aim of the programme is to ensure that every child leaves primary school ready for high school, able to get a good matric pass, hopefully study further and eventually find a place in the working world.
“Each volunteer has improved the life chances of at least 10 to 20 children and I’m pretty sure that those children’s children will be ready too,” said Ms Weissenberg.