A “DEAR (Drop Everything And Read) John” Letter to the Western Cape

Statement by Minister Jaco Londt, Minister of Education Western Cape

Western Cape schools are taking up the challenge to “Drop Everything And Read” (DEAR) this week as we celebrate National Book Week.

And I’m challenging the residents of the province to do the same!

Today, 8 September, also marks International Literacy Day where we highlight the importance of reading with comprehension.

The Western Cape Education Department’s (WCED) Reading Strategy 2026-2030 calls on schools, teachers, families and communities to work together to develop confident readers who can read for meaning and learn successfully across all subjects. 

We want to grow readers and grow minds.

I was pleased to see learners and staff alike taking up the challenge by the WCED to “Drop Everything And Read” when I visited Apex Primacy School in Eerste River ahead of Literacy Day. 

Here I saw learners in different grades not only confidently reading out loud, but also enthusiastically answering their teachers’ questions about what they were reading.

Thank you to Principal Gino Overmeyer and his passionate staff for taking up the challenge and running with it!

During this week – and beyond – schools will be taking part in various activities to get learners excited about reading, while also strengthening literacy skills by getting them to reflect on and talk about what they are reading.

But it is not just during this week that we are focused on literacy. The WCED has various interventions in place to improve literacy outcomes as a continued focus.

The Department implemented a Home Language intervention in 2023. For Afrikaans and English Home Language, teachers were trained on the Science of Reading, while a structured Home Language programme was implemented in IsiXhosa Home Language. 

The intervention targets all Foundation Phase grades, Languages of Learning and Teaching, and schools.

Over 302 000 learners at 1 100 schools are benefiting from this measure. 

Our WCED systemic data indicates a steady increase in learner reading proficiency from year to year since 2021. 

Grade 3 Home Language results have increased by 14,3 percentage points from 2021 to 2025, while the specific reading component in the systemic assessments shows an increase of 16,6 percentage points from 2021 to 2025.

While we are doing what we can to support learners in schools, I encourage parents and guardians to help their children read at home. Start with one page a day and take it from there!