A New Classroom for Masifunde

Over the past month everyone at Ukhnayo Primary School has become used to seeing this bright shiny new classroom that has appeared on the school grounds.

The container classroom was sourced by Masicorp following an incredibly generous donation from Ann Salmon – the founder of our Masifunde (Let’s Read) English programme. Ann only resides in South Africa for a short period of the year and hence will not yet have seen the new facility. However, we are pleased to report that it is getting lots of use and has become an invaluable addition to the school.

The new classroom is used exclusively for Masifunde. Through the Masifunde programme the learners at Ukhnayo receive extra tuition in English that will enable them to better make the transition from teaching delivered in isiXhosa to English at Grade 10. For some children it literally is starting from scratch, and they must start by learning the alphabet. We are fortunate to have learning materials from the Wordworks programme to support the new learners. As the children become older and advance on to more detailed reading materials the Masifunde volunteers have had to download stories from the internet, which they have printed and laminated for the children to read. An unexpected bonus of Ann’s kind donation is that the exchange rate has left us with a small surplus that we can use to buy a series of proper storybooks that will be more appropriate for the older grades.

Masifunde is a big project and we have a number of volunteers that give up one or two mornings a week (08.30 – 12.30) to help small groups of children (4-6 children) in half-hourly time slots. We always need more volunteers for this rewarding programme and if you live locally and feel you could give us your time please do consider getting in touch. No formal teaching experience is required and we will provide training and the use of teaching materials. And of course you will get to spend time in the smartest new classroom on the Ukhanyo School site.