At the beginning of this year, the Sunday Times ReadRight education initiative joined forces with Kellogg's, Rand Water and K-TV to introduce a national Star-in-You programme for primary school learners: a simple yet effective way to celebrate and reward star qualities such as compassion, perseverance, confidence and respect.
Dr Aralynn Abare McMane, Development and Education Director of WAN says: "... it is the first time we can honestly say to a newspaper, 'You have truly outdone yourselves.' You faced tough competition from around the world, but the project clearly emerged at the top because of its quality, breadth and benefits to all involved."
The ReadRight team are kept busy on a weekly basis ensuring that ReadRight - which is inserted into every copy of the Sunday Times during school terms - continues to deliver educational content that South African parents, educators and learners can trust. The Sunday Times is South Africa's largest weekly newspaper with a circulation of about 505 000 and a readership of 3.490 million. In addition to Sunday Times' weekly copy sales, 50 000 sponsored copies of the newspaper are distributed free of charge to about 1 000 urban and 1 000 rural and peri-urban schools around the country.
These 2 000 schools have an average of between 700 and 900 learners each - which means that, in addition to its traditional Sunday readership, ReadRight reaches a further 1.4 to 1.8 million schoolchildren every week. This makes it by far the largest print medium addressing South Africa's youth market.
Distribution of the newspaper to these schools is supported by the Sunday Times national teacher-training project, through which regional training teams facilitate a series of print-media-in-education workshops for teachers. They also work closely with the non-governmental sector and other training agencies to offer ongoing support to ensure that educators are equipped to use the Sunday Times as a valuable classroom resource.
Congratulations to the Sunday Times ReadRight team, Kellogg's and Rand Water- you're all stars!
