• Pages
01 Home
02 Contents
03 Introduction
04 Reflections from 2022-23
05 Publishing with purpose
06 Operating sustainably
07 Case Study: Understanding climate risks and opportunities
08 Case Study: Improving our approach to sustainable marketing
09 Operating ethically
10 Case Study: Reaffirming our Partner Code of Conduct
11 Supporting our people
12 Case Study: Empowering colleagues through coaching
13 Case Study: Prioritizing the wellbeing of our people
14 Case Study: Supporting career development of under-represented groups
15 Supporting our communities
16 Case Study: Harnessing the power of books
17 Case Study: Helping to fund cutting-edge research
18 Case Study: Driving literacy skills in South Africa
19 Case studies
20 More Information

CASE STUDY

Driving literacy skills in South Africa

As an educational publisher, we know that learning has the potential to transform lives and we’re committed to supporting people to learn wherever they are and however they choose to.

In South Africa, we launched our Road to Literacy campaign in association with AVBOB Industries. Our aim was to help improve reading and literacy skills of children in primary schools and non-profit organizations (NPOs), aligning with the South African government’s Read to Lead initiative to address a lack of skills across the country.

As part of our campaign, South Africans were invited to nominate primary schools or NPOs to receive a mobile trolley library provided by AVBOB and stocked with OUP books. To remove any barriers people may have faced with submitting nominations, access to the Road to Literacy website intentionally did not require the use of mobile data. When nominations closed, we had received more than 5,500 nominations.

In total this year, OUP Southern Africa donated 130,000 books for 260 AVBOB mobile trolley libraries. A livestreamed event was held on International Literacy Day in September 2022 to reveal the schools and non-profit organizations who would be receiving mobile libraries with Dr Reginah Mhaule, Deputy Minister of Basic Education, delivering a keynote speech in which she praised the support given by OUP and AVBOB and the long-term impact it could have on the country.

‘Our singular focus is making reading fashionable again. If we make reading a lifestyle of our children and adults, South Africa will become an oasis of intellectuals and a reservoir of knowledge.’

Dr Reginah Mhaule

Deputy Minister of Basic Education, South Africa

‘Our shared vision is to give every child in South Africa the gift of reading in their own language, as there is nothing that can transform and empower individual lives, communities, and society as much as the ability to read with understanding.’

Botho Mothibi

Sales Director, OUP Southern Africa

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