Government called to set laws to boost reading rate among pupils through campaign launch

Government, civil society and the education sector are called to mobilise to prioritise the strengthening of early-grade literacy due to the high number of pupils who cannot read.

The Right to Read Campaign was launched on Wednesday at the Constitutional Hill in Johannesburg in response to the alarming literacy rate in the country.

This after the 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) revealed in May that 81% of Grade 4 pupils cannot read for meaning in any language including their home language.

The campaign is made up of a collation between the South African Human Rights Commission, the Legal Resources Centre (LRC), Equal Education (EE) and SECTION27 with the aim of mobilising society at large to improve literacy through legislation.

LRC attorney Cameron McConnachie said the PIRLS results were a wake-up call for the country.

“We cannot continue to let our [pupils] down in this manner. We need to take urgent action to address the reading crisis and binding regulations are an essential part of that,” he said.

The campaign proposes binding regulations for the country to have minimum obligations to improve the reading crisis and for the right to basic education to be realised.

According to the coalition, the regulations should have requirements for time spent teaching literacy including specialised training for all foundation phase teachers. The regulations should also have the minimum amount and quality of texts and learner/teacher support material that is provided to teachers and pupils as well as regular testing of learners’ literacy abilities.

Constitutional Court Justice Edwin Cameron, who also attended the launch, said such regulations are important first steps that require effort from all.

"Recognising the right to read, defining it, and creating a framework for assessing reading comprehension are important first steps from which focused, strategic advocacy and litigation may follow. This will require effort from all of us," he said.

The government is also called on to provide adequate funding to ensure that foundation-phase teachers have access to training and resources to teach literacy effectively.

Another demand is for regular monitoring and evaluation of the implementation of the national reading strategy to ensure its effectiveness.

Foundation phase teacher Thabisa Booi said the crisis cannot be solved in isolation.

“We need everyone to get involved in this campaign. We need the government, civil society, and the education sector to work together to ensure that all learners in South Africa have the opportunity to learn to read for meaning in any language,” she said.