Citizen Leader Lab, an award-winning NPO committed to deepening impact in education through leadership development, joins countries across the world in celebrating World Read Aloud Day.
Literacy NPO, LitWorld, founded World Read Aloud Day in 2010 to celebrate the power of reading aloud to create community and to advocate for literacy as a foundational human right. Since then, World Read Aloud Day has evolved into a global movement of millions of readers, writers, and listeners from communities all across the world coming together to honour the joy and power of reading, while continuing to expand the definition and scope of global literacy.
As articulated by President Cyril Ramaphosa in his 2019 State of the Nation Address, Citizen Leader Lab maintains that literacy proficiency, that is being able to read for meaning by the age of 10, is the cornerstone of educational success for all children.
The research is clear: The first thousand days of a child’s life, right into the primary phase of their schooling career, are critical in ensuring a solid foundation for literacy and overall educational success.
To build this foundation, Citizen Leader Lab believes that every school must be led by a strong, competent principal who is able to motivate and support teachers, facilitate teamwork among staff, mobilise parents and the broader community and attract tangible resources to their school. In collaboration with cohesive and aligned School Management Teams and supportive district officials, principals have the opportunity to create schooling environments conducive to the teaching and learning of basic literacy skills.
As a vociferous proponent of citizen leadership, the NPO also supports ‘a village approach’ to tackling the complex issues of literacy and education. Citizen Leader Lab envisions the formation of multiple cross-sector collaborations between government, business and civil society to help capacitate and transfer skills to school leaders, while business and philanthropic organisations make the necessary infrastructure accessible to schools. Parents, adults and elders in each community, too, have an integral role to play as storytellers who can engage with children after school hours.
For further information please contact Dorcas Dube (Marketing and Communications Manager): [email protected]
