Boost for Literacy at Cape Town’s Silver Sands Primary School

Novus Holdings takes up the challenge and partners with New Africa Education Foundation and the Department of Education to make South Africa a reading nation.Silver Sands Primary School situated in Cape Town, was the proud recipient of five stunning mobile libraries kindly sponsored by Novus Holdings. These innovative mobile libraries can be wheeled from one classroom to another which makes it easily accessible to all learners.

The learners at Silver Sands Primary come from communities which do not have access to a library, and it is shown that access to libraries improves learner performance and increases their chances of success.Carrie Nixon, Corporate Communications manager for Novus Holdings was present at the virtual handover and advised that this this project was just one of the many projects of Future Foundations, a Novus Holdings CSI initiative.

The Future Foundation’s mission is to transform communities by making a sustainable difference with a special focus on education. To date, Future Foundation has invested R1,4 million, and rolled out forty-four libraries, to ten schools across the following provinces, Kzn, Gauteng, Western Cape, Eastern Cape, and Fee State.

“A literate educated society is a safer, healthier, and more prosperous society. So by promoting reading, writing, and other academic subjects it will lead the way in promoting prosperity through knowledge. It is envisaged that the introduction of these mobile libraries will go a long way towards improving the literacy rate in our province”, said Nixon.

“Access to books is key in having a more literate nation. It is therefore crucial that we promote reading in schools, especially as access to reading material is fundamental to improving literacy. This brilliant initiative will go a long way in bridging this gap,” concluded Vernon Koen, a representative of the Western Cape Education Department.

Mr MN Cupido, Principal of Silver Sands Primary, was delighted that his school was chosen by Novus Holdings. Cupido advised that there was a huge focus on literacy at the school and the Educators at Silver Sands Primary had already started several programmes to improve the literacy rate at the school and these libraries will go a long way towards addressing this need.

The roll-out of the libraries to the beneficiary school was coordinated and managed by Ahmed Motala of the New Africa Education Foundation, an NPO that has partnered with Novus Holdings and the Department of Basic Education.