” Reading is a right”, the co-ordinator of Project Literacy, told a group of ABET learners at a ceremony to honour the fact that 13 of them had passed their ABET exams. More of the learners, who are also workers at Dunlop Rubber Mouldings on the West Rand , will write their exams at the beginning of November.
For the last year, the workers have given five hours a week of their own time with the company adding two hours paid per week.
“It was a sacrifice,” says Lena Botha, one of the learners who successfully passed ABET level 2 in communication. But it was worth it, adding that, “I can now help my children in standard 4 and standard 7 with their homework.”
General Manager, Rob Meritt admits that it is hard to quantify how ABET is beneficial to the company. But says that there must be benefits – “people can communicate better, can write and instead of just being shown what to do, they can participate more in the development of what they are doing.”
At a worker’s personal level, especially for young workers, “it opens up a whole new promotional aspect for them instead of being stuck in a corner,” he says.