Rally To Read has enjoyed remarkable success since it was launched in 1998 to counter the collapse in education at rural primary schools. Picture: SUPPLIED
Rally To Read has enjoyed remarkable success since it was launched in 1998 to counter the collapse in education at rural primary schools. Continuing success is threatened, however, by Covid-19. How does Rally To Read do it? By equipping schools with classroom libraries, stationery, sports equipment and all the other goods that urban schools take for granted. But it doesn’t stop there. Through NGO, the Read Educational Trust, it also provides teacher training and monitoring of education standards. Each school is supported for three years, until it can stand on its own feet again.
Its then-CEO, Brand Pretorius, who founded Rally To Read and still chairs the national organising committee, says: “It was inspirational to see arch-rivals in the competitive vehicle market supporting a common cause — the language, literacy and communication skills of disadvantaged learners at remote primary schools in deep, rural SA.