Siyazingiza Pre-Primary School in Gugulethu is the proud winner of the School TV Masifunde Sonke World Book Day competition held in April this year.

The competition, which invited all schools to submit what plans and ideas they had in place to help build a nation of readers, was part of the National Book Day Celebrations.

Mandla Maseko, Project Manager at Masifunde Sonke, comments: "We received excellent entries from all around the country with wonderful ideas. Three final winners were chosen including Siyazingiza in Gugulethu, Western Cape, Ndunge Primary School in Kwa-Zulu Natal and Masia School in Limpopo Province".

The entry from Siyazingiza included a number of excellent initiatives. This pre-primary school:

• Converted one classroom into a library, and one period a week is dedicated to reading for all learners;
• Certificates are issued to learners if they become readers for the first time;
• Donations from surrounding more advantaged schools were solicited by the school to fill the library;
• Children are encouraged to read at home, to older parents and grandparents in hospitals and homes;
• Children read to other children, and to the principal and deputy principal; and
• For World Book Day parents, story-tellers and librarians were invited to the school to talk to their children about the importance of reading and books.

"This is the kind of enthusiasm which will ensure we build a nation of readers", comments Lya Mrasi the Brand Manager of School TV at SABC Education, "and School TV is proud to support this excellent annual initiative."

The Siyazingiza School received a set of Encyclopaedias for their library as their prize in the competition which was funded by Pearson Education.

The national Department of Education is working on putting all the ideas received into an informative pamphlet to distribute to schools so that the ideas to inspire reading can be shared.

School TV was launched in February 1999, and is designed to support the Grade R to Grade 6 learners and their Educators within the Revised National Curriculum. The service consists of multilingual television programming to be used in the classroom supported by extensive free print resources, an interactive website and educator trainer initiatives. School TV is broadcast every weekday on SABC 2 between 9:30 and 11: 30 into schools nationally and is produced by SABC Education in partnership with the Department of Education.

Mr. Mosibudi Mangena, Deputy Minister of Education with Mr. Mandla Maseko Project Manager: Masifunde Sonke project, with the prizes given to the winning schools.