The situation is dire, both for the primary school learner in general but particularly the Grade 3 learner enrolled in it. In fact the recently-released 2030 Reading Panels 2026 background report which shockingly revealed that 15% of Grade 3s scored zero in reading assessments indicates that the nation is tinkering at a crisis point.
We thought we’d been here before. In 2021 a Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) report which found that a staggering 81% of Grade 4 learners could not read for meaning resulted in a national scandal. Five years prior, up to 78% of 4th Graders could not read for meaning in any language. These figures showed a stark regression to 2011 figures, placing the country amongst the lowest-performing globally.
Those findings seemed to effectively render suspect President Cyril Ramaphosa’s 2019 announcement that all 10-year-olds should be able to read for meaning by 2030. Around the release of the PIRLS study, the Covid-19 pandemic was indeed a legitimate excuse. Its effects, which showed vast disparities between fee and non-fee paying schools, laid bare the deeper social determinants of education. This study, however, also finds that much of the blame for the nation’s poor literacy showing should be squarely placed at the door of the education department.
In 2023, the Presidential Youth Employment Initiative (PYEI) Educator Assistant Programme which would take on nearly 30 000 ‘reading champions’ to improve reading in the foundation phase was lauded as one of the more visible government interventions. However, even this effort – which only required a 30% pass mark to qualify – was immediately met with scepticism from experts.
Despite the panel’s 2023 report’s author, Nick Spaull, concluding that ‘nothing short of a sustained countrywide overhaul of the education system would be likely to yield this result’ it seemed that government had still not put in place a clear way forward as to how it would go about addressing the matter. The report went on to find that the Department of Basic Education was woefully failing in giving the issue specific attention.
Furthermore, it found that there was no National Reading Plan in place and that the last such strategy had last been published in 2008. However, back then, some promising examples were grabbing the bull by the horns, specifically in the Western Cape and Gauteng where both provinces have roped in NGOs to carry out three-year-long and funded programmes specifically aimed at improving literacy in the foundation phase.
In smaller trials, the report found that appointing visiting reading coaches as well as resourced and well-trained Educator Assistants showed to be an effective form of intervention. However the recommendations put forth by the conductors of this study namely: annual reading assessments at every school; the allocation of new national budgets for reading programs; equipping Foundation Phase classrooms with a standard minimum set of reading resources; and ensuring the auditing of teacher education programs prior to graduates entering the workplace have largely gone unheeded.
So now the county is faced with grimmer statistics. Mother tongue education, the importance of which is well-backed by research and government drives, seems to be coming up short in the actual classroom. Sepedi (11%), isiNdebele (14%) and Xitsonga (16%) learners were amongst the fewest to reach the required literacy targets by the end of Grade 3. At 48% English was the best performing language in this regard.
Quoted in Daily Maverick (DM) Sipumelele Lucwaba who leads the panel’s secretariat said, ‘As a country, we have analysed this crisis from every angle, but diagnosis is no longer enough – the point now is to change it. Without urgent intervention, these children have no pathway to educational success.’
But this latest report also comes amid sprinklings of hope where ‘six of South Africa’s nine provinces are rolling out evidence-based interventions.’ According to the DM, ‘the Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng and Mpumalanga are anchoring their efforts in proven strategies’ which include ‘structured lesson plans; sustained teacher training; and delivering a defined minimum package of high-quality reading materials to classrooms.’
The Eastern Cape in particular is said to provide an extensive roll-out of materials to some 1 652 poorer schools. The Free State’s efforts are set to reach 433 schools, 588 in Gauteng, and Mpumalanga ‘strikes at the root of the crisis with its R100-million Grade R Capacity Building Programme, equipping 965 quintile 1-3 schools to build school readiness before Grade 1.’
These small hopes notwithstanding, the research panel is unconvinced that the country will meet Ramaphosa’s 2030 goals. Looking at present data, they are quick to declare that perhaps the president’s announcement was a little ambitious as such drastic shifts, particularly in education do not occur overnight. They further go on to advise that interventions at provincial level tend to be highly effective as this is where the necessary resources usually are. In a nutshell the panel then makes these recommendations: standardised reading assessments, funding specifically towards reading, minimum reading resources at foundation level and improving teacher preparation.
Given the flak from opposition parties as well as the general public directed at government in the wake of the PIRLS findings, one would’ve expected a swift, emergency vaccine-like interventions, not least because the findings affect the most vulnerable citizens – the children. But seemingly government has been in no particular rush to tackle the crisis. And, with reportedly only six provinces intently trying to turn the tide, leaves us with one question. What’s taking the others so long?
Featured image: Kids walking back from school. Source: eParkeni.