Concerns raised in school literacy study ‘nothing new'

The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2016 report placed South Africa last out of 50 participating countries. 

The study shows South African school reading literacy has shown no significant progress since the last report in 2011.

Researchers from the University of Pretoria (UP) completed the South African portion of this global study on reading and literacy levels among Grade 4 and 5 students. 

Acting Director at UP’s Centre for Evaluation and Assessment (CEA), Celeste Combrinck, said the cliché successes that come with literacy are indeed true.

''Being able to read is the key to academic and future success.

''If you can't read, your opportunities in school or after that will be limited, so reading ability should be developed from a very young age.''

The Department of Basic Education (DBE) said though it welcomes the report, the concerns raised are not new.

''The PIRLS report reaffirms findings of the Annual National Assessments, and the NEEDU Report, among others, that found that South African pupils still have challenges with their cognitive levels of literacy’,’ said DBE spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga.

The results of the study also found that almost 80% of South African Grade 4 learners fall below the lowest internationally recognised level of reading literacy in their language of learning.

The report also suggests that approximately half of South African pupils writing tests in English and Afrikaans reached the lowest international benchmark, while 80% of those learning in one of the other nine official languages effectively cannot read.

However, Mhlanga believes such statistics can easily change if pupils learn how to read in their mother-tongue.

''Research has shown that if learners are taught in their mother tongue their do better.''

The report shows how pupils from the Western Cape, Free State and Gauteng performed best in the assessments. According to the report, learners' reading ability in Sepedi, isiXhosa, Setswana and Tshivenda was the weakest.

The report also showed an international trend reflected in South Africa of boys performing worse than girls when it comes to literacy. 84% of South African boys did not reach the lowest international literacy benchmark, compared to 72% of girls.