Literacy levels plunge

The average mark for literacy for Grade 3 pupils in the Department of Basic Education's annual national assessments was a mere 35%, Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga revealed.

Grade 6 marks for languages are worse, averaging 28%.

Releasing the results at the Union Buildings in Pretoria yesterday, Motshekga said she was not surprised at the poor results.

But she said it was "unacceptable" that many pupils lacked "proper foundations in literacy and numeracy".

More than 6.5million pupils from Grades 2 to 7, and a sample of Grade 10s, wrote the tests in February.

They were verified by the Human Sciences Research Council.

Grade 3 pupils fared poorly in numeracy, with pupils scoring an average of 28%.

Though the average performance of Grade 6 pupils in the language test was 28%, they performed better in maths, scoring an average of 30%.

Among Grade 3 pupils, the Western Cape performed best in both literacy and numeracy, with 19% of pupils scoring 70% or more for literacy and 9% scoring the same for numeracy.

In Mpumalanga, only 5% managed to score 70% or more for literacy and 1% managed to do the same for numeracy.

"There has been an under-emphasis on the development of basic skills of reading, writing and numeracy at the foundation levels," Motshekga said.

The National Professional Teachers' Organisation of SA labelled the results "shocking".

Though the tests showed deficiencies in the basic education system, Motshekga said there is "no quick fix" to address the low numeracy and literacy levels.

But she was confident the department's interventions would bear fruit.

The interventions include the phasing in of the Curriculum and Assessment Policy Statements in the foundation phase next year.

The number of subjects for pupils in Grades 4 to 6 will be reduced from eight to six in 2013.

Motshekga said principals and deputy principals will also sign performance contracts.

The University of the Witwatersrand's Professor Graeme Bloch said: " The bottom line is still that schools in Khayelitsha don't have libraries."

Mugwena Maluleke, general secretary of the SA Democratic Teachers' Union, said: "The results are a reflection of the health of our education."

Naptosa president Esrah Ramasehla said the department needs to focus on teacher training if the results are to improve to 60% by 2014.