Fantastic Phonics in South Africa

Fantastic Phonics works with a broad collection of charities and NGOs in Africa. In South Africa, we have donated the program to the Association of Baptists for World Evangelism, a large US-based charity, as well as several school-based and regional charities.

We count over 40,000 children in South Africa learning to read with Fantastic Phonics.

Case study: John Masiza Primary

South Africa has unique circumstances in its struggle for literacy. At the village and community level, the 'first nation" dialect is spoken, and schools at the kindergarten and primary level are taught relatively basic English.There are very few books written in local dialects.

Higher education is blocked
However, there is a requirement that all subjects are all taught in English by grade four. This is typical in south Africa and English is the language for all of the universities here. Those who can economically pay school fees, and can find entrance into a traditionally white government school or a private school will receive a relatively good education.

Through the contributions of numerous people, John Masiza Primary was able to print over 57,000 pages which were necessary to make these books.

The community came together to help cut, collate, staple, and prepare the 10,000 books - a great achievement.

The need for English
South Africa has been dominated by English at the higher education level - the universities all require English, and it is typical that most educational books are written in English. So the need for young South African children to read English is urgent.

Fantastic Phonics contributes by providing program materials at no cost and teacher training .