Reading is Kwaai: high school teacher starts mobile library for learners

Last year, high school English teacher Nigel Mortley started a mobile library called Reading is Kwaai to promote reading at high schools that have no libraries. Mortley above with some of the boxes of books he has has in his garage. Photo: Mary-Anne Gontsana

• A high school English teacher has started a mobile library called Reading is Kwaai.
• Nigel Mortley started the library over a year ago for schools in Cape Town that have no libraries.
• Currently he has three schools on his circuit.

Nigel Mortley describes himself as an “ordinary oke who really likes children to read”. Last year, he started a mobile library called Reading is Kwaai, for learners who have limited access to books because their schools do not have libraries.

“I travel with twelve boxes every week to my schools, six in the boot and six on the backseat,” he says.

“In 2020, I started working with a group who were running extra lessons on Sunday mornings for learners from five schools – Grades 11 and 12. They would do an hour and a half of Mathematics, Physical Science and English. And what I discovered teaching these learners English was that they weren’t reading. Not necessarily because they didn’t want to read, but they didn’t have access to books.”

“GroundUp highlighted the issue – that 74% of public schools did not have libraries. That article really struck a chord with me, and I quote it to people all the time,” said Mortley.

Last year, we reported that about three quarters of South Africa’s public schools don’t have libraries. An Education Facility Management System report from August 2023 showed that in August 2021, 74% of the nearly 23,000 public schools were without libraries. Of the schools with libraries, 43% were not fully stocked, meaning only 14% of the country’s public schools had fully stocked libraries. More recent figures are not available.

Mortley says provincial libraries are few and far between outside the leafy suburbs.

“Obviously buying books is beyond most people because of the expense, so these learners just had no access to books. So, this is when I started lending out some of my books and I thought this could actually go bigger.”

“I approached the principals of three of the five schools that had extra lessons and told them that I am keen to run a mobile library at their schools. Interestingly enough, the first question I was asked was: ‘How much will it cost us?’ I told them it was nothing; it would be free.

“So, I started doing the mobile library in August last year at Spes Bona High School and Windsor High School, and this year we added a third one, Athlone High School,” said Mortley.

He visits Spes Bona on Tuesdays, Windsor on Wednesdays and Athlone on Thursdays during first break.

“At Windsor I’ll use a classroom. At Athlone, if possible, I’ll use the hall. And at Spes Bona technically they have a library, but they have no librarian. The books are outdated and of no use to anyone and there are sets of encyclopaedias. It is mostly used as a venue for other things, like meetings, space to write exams, and so on.”

Mortley said the favourite genres among the high school readers are manga (graphic novels), romance, fantasy and series books.

“Mostly it’s girls borrowing books; getting boys to borrow and read is hard work,” he says.

“I asked one of the learners who had brought back a book how it was and whether they liked it. The answer was that the book was ‘delicious’. So I always ask myself how we can make other people’s lives delicious – donate a book.”

To monitor the books he lends out, Mortley has clipboards with colour coded pages for each grade from eight to 12. Borrowers record what they have taken.

Books are not always returned, he says. “The matrics haven’t been very good at returning the books. The problem now is that they are gone, so I am probably not going to see those books again.”

“Some of the books have their own adventures. For example, a learner will return a book six months later, because while it was in their possession, they had lent it out to different people. But that is kind of okay to me … because it means people are reading.”

“I would love to be able to do more, but the thing is I go to these schools during their first break, once a week, so there is not enough time. I sometimes do have help, but not always. I do try my best to converse with the learners to make sure that they borrow books that interest them and those that are not too advanced. Sometimes they judge a book by its cover.”

He works mostly solo, but sometimes he has volunteer help. One of his ex pupils was responsible for designing the Reading is Kwaai logo.

Mortley said Reading is Kwaai was dependent on donations of books and funds. He uses the money to buy stationery, petrol and books from second-hand book shops.

He would like to take Reading is Kwaai to more schools, but he needs help.

“I’ve been a high school teacher for 30 odd years and the only times that I have seen learners running to something is to get to the front of the tuckshop queue and to get out of the school gates at the end of the day. Now I see learners running to the library, to see what books are there, and to me that is a big win.”

For more information here is Reading is Kwaai’s Facebook page.

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