Anyone not on email and the internet by the end of 1999 will be like someone going to work or school by ox-wagon. I say that the authorities are going to have to recognise that the future is streaking ahead. We have to take our children with it, toilets, shortages, internet and all. Reading and language are indivisible. In our experience we have seen a sad indictment of the level of English amongst teachers.
Many rural teachers are deeply aware of their shortcomings.
They know that often their own language and reading skills are not good. They also feel frustrated that they do not know how to teach their learners to read. An inspiring example of this is Ruth Gopane in Ulco, Northern Cape, who is teaching her young learners at primary school and their illiterte parents after hours. This makes a reality of Comenius s axiom that every child should be the joy of its Creator . Thus every lesson can and should become a reading lesson so that reading through the curriculum becomes a reality and the teacher s frustration burden dissolves.