What Happens to Literacy in (Print) Poor Environments?

Abstract

South Africa being a multilingual country with 11 official languages, it is natural that language issues, policy and planning are central concerns within the educational context. The debates concerning languages and the medium of instruction in schools are perennial items on conference, workshop, seminar and research agendas throughout South Africa and elsewhere on the continent. The results of the large scale nationwide systemic evaluation studies undertaken by the Department of Education since 2001, have stirred these debates with renewed vigour. Yet, what seems to be missing in many of these debates is an awareness of and active engagement with factors that promote literacy development that go beyond generalised associations between language and schooling.