- Basic literacy among children in South Africa has declined, a new report from the 2030 Reading Panel has found.
- Most children leave grade one without knowing the alphabet, while 82% of grade 4 children cannot read for meaning.
- Only the Western Cape and Gauteng are taking steps to address the literacy crisis.
- None of the Panel’s 2022 recommendations were implemented.
Fewer primary school students can read for meaning now than before the Covid epidemic, and the majority of children entering grade two are illiterate. Despite the fact that there is a literacy crisis, there is no national reading strategy, no suitable funding, no reliable reporting, and no progress on implementing critical interventions.
The findings of the 2023 Reading Panel background paper for the 2030 Reading Panel, authored by top education economist Nic Spaull (pictured), and released on Tuesday, indicate a country regressing in the fundamental unit of education: literacy.
Former Deputy President Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka formed the 2030 Reading Panel to guarantee that all South African children aged 10 and older can read for meaning by 2030. The paper argues that “nothing short of a sustained countrywide overhaul of the education system would be likely to yield this result”.
Extrapolating from Western Cape statistics, the research forecasts that the proportion of grade 4 pupils who are unable to read for meaning has risen to at least 82%, up from 78% in 2016.
According to the report, approximately 60% of children have not learned most of the letters of the alphabet by the end of grade one, citing data from the Department of Basic Education (DBE) Early Grade Reading Study (EGRS), which has followed children from over 200 schools in the North West province for more than seven years.
By the conclusion of Grade 2, more than 30% of students still do not know all of the letters of the alphabet. The survey reveals that these youngsters are “perpetually behind and in ‘catch-up’ mode, although they never actually catch up”.
What steps are being taken to prioritise literacy? According to the report, it is frighteningly little.
According to the report, approximately 60% of children have not learned most of the letters of the alphabet by the end of grade one, citing data from the Department of Basic Education (DBE) Early Grade Reading Study (EGRS), which has followed children from over 200 schools in the North West province for more than seven years.
By the conclusion of Grade 2, more than 30% of students still do not know all of the letters of the alphabet. The survey reveals that these youngsters are “perpetually behind and in ‘catch-up’ mode, although they never actually catch up”.
What steps are being taken to prioritise literacy? According to the report, it is frighteningly little.
The Presidential Youth Employment Initiative (PYEI) Educator Assistant Initiative is the most conspicuous national reading programme. Nearly 30,000 Educator Assistants (EAs) will be “Reading Champions” by 2023, with the goal of increasing reading for foundation phase students. The study expresses considerable scepticism about this, because the sole prerequisites for entry are quite minimal – 30% in matric and proficiency in the school’s home language – and the Reading Champions will receive no face-to-face instruction or be subjected to a screening procedure.
Nationally, the DBE is not providing meaning crisis-specific focus. Despite the DBE’s assertions, the research concludes that there is no National Reading Plan and that the most current “National Reading Strategy” was issued in 2008.
In the 2022 Education Budget Vote, R11 million is explicitly earmarked for reading to the Early Grade Reading Assessment. This initiative is aimed at 18 schools. The DBE only made it to nine schools.
Some encouraging signals
In two provinces, the Western Cape and Gauteng, there are glimmers of promise.
In the Western Cape, the provincial government has partnered with Funda Wande, an education NGO, to implement a province-wide Reading for Meaning initiative in all Afrikaans and isiXhosa schools. The Western Cape Education Department will completely fund the R111 million initiative over the next three years.
The Gauteng Department of Education is collaborating with WordWorks, another education NGO, to create a grade R curriculum in all schools. The R107-million budget for three years is supported by a consortium of donors, with the remaining 20% coming from the provincial budget.
While the Eastern Cape Department of Education just released its Reading Strategy & Campaign 2022 – 2030, no money for these initiatives has been granted.
Without quick intervention, the research projects that South Africa would take until 2026 to recover to 2016 levels of progress.
The research outlines two types of therapies that have had great outcomes in small-scale studies. One method is to have a teacher coach visit instructors in their classrooms. The alternative option is to hire Educator Assistants who have been trained and given adequate tools to teach reading. Educator Assistants in the PYEI programme are neither trained or equipped.
However, interventions are few. Almost no progress has been made in implementing the Panel’s four recommendations from last year: to assess reading at every school in the country on an annual basis; to allocate new national budgets for reading programmes or reading resources (only the Western Cape has done so); to provide a standard minimum set of reading resources to all Foundation Phase classrooms (only done in the Western Cape and Gauteng); and to audit teacher education programmes before graduates enter the workforce.
“The problem is not about lacking an evidence base on how to improve reading outcomes, but rather the political economy issues of why adequate funding for reading interventions has not been forthcoming,” says the report.