Maskew Miller Longman Family Book Night launched in Johannesburg and Groblersdal

Maskew Miller Longman and the Pearson Foundation hosted a Family Book Night as part of its Professional Development Programme for teachers held during August in Johannesburg and Groblersdal.  The event, a first of its kind, was a resounding success. Approximately 200 parents, grandparents, teachers and educators, and of course, about 80 children all came together to create personalised books, read together and have a celebration with Maskew Miller Longman and Pearson Foundation staff in Daveyton, outside Johannesburg and in Groblersdal.

For all the parents and children who attended the two Family Book Nights, this was truly a special occasion which left all who attended with a warm heart and a big smile.  The aim of the Family Book Nights was to teach parents the skills of interactive and shared reading and to encourage parents and grandparents to read with the children.

The Family Book Night is part of a much larger programme that Maskew Miller Longman is running, which includes intensive, high quality Literacy, Numeracy and Early Childhood Development training for primary school teachers, as well as 21st Century Skills Training with teachers and education department officials and ICT training for young teenagers. This programme will move to Nigeria, Tanzania and Zambia before travelling to many other countries in Africa over the next two years.

The 21st Century Skills training was made up of workshops over 4-5 days which gave 45 participants the opportunity to use new technology and innovative teaching skills which will make them leaders in their field. Participants chosen for the training will become champions of the programme and take the skills and knowledge they have gained back to their schools and communities.

In the ICT training, high school girls and boys created their own movies based on personal topics that they felt were relevant to young people in their community. The focus was HIV/Aids, using the SARA comic readers and videos. The learners created their own movies using MS Office software. These movies were then viewed and discussed by their peers and will also be shown to young people across Africa to motivate and inspire the youth at the various workshop venues.

This exciting programme is yet another demonstration of Maskew Miller Longman's and Pearson's commitment to education on this continent.

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