Department 'hard at work' to ensure children can read with understanding

Despite a dismal performance in an international assessment on reading, the department of basic education says it is hard at work to ensure children are able to read with comprehension.

This emerged at a media briefing on Sunday where minister Angie Motshekga elaborated on the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (Pirls), released last month, which placed South African grade 4 pupils last out of 57 countries in the global benchmark process.

The study revealed local pupils achieved an average score of 288, well below the international average of 500. 

Khulula Manona, chief director for foundations for learning at the department, said after the Pirls report in 2016, the department developed reading benchmarks.

“These are enabling teachers to know and track where learners should be, what key literacy skills learners should acquire at which stage and how to immediately intervene if they see learners are lagging behind,” Manona said.

She said the department also implemented a primary reading improvement programme.

“This has ensured we are able to focus on a level within a school that is able to provide that in-classroom support for teachers.”

The department had also focused on skilling and upskilling department heads to be able to support teachers in schools.

“We continue to interface with communities with parents through the learn to read campaign. We use that campaign to get South Africans to rally behind the department in ensuring that reading and literacy is not only a matter and issue of schools but communities at large come along on this journey.” 

She said the department will also support teachers through a better and expanded repertoire of instructional methods.

The department is also seeking to eliminate large classes at foundation phase.

Dr Mark Chetty, the department director of national assessments, said South Africa's score dropped from 320 in the previous Pirls cycle in 2016 to 288 points in 2021.

“This translates to 81% of grade 4 learners and 56% of grade 6 learners that are not reaching the low benchmark of 400 points. 

“Grade 6 learners, however, did score 384 points, with Afrikaans learners scoring an average of 456,” Chetty said. 

He said the Western Cape had the highest scores with 363 for grade 4 and 460 for grade 6.

Girls outperformed boys, being almost a year and a half ahead of the boys.

He said a significant and substantial negative effect of school closures during Covid-19 was observed in pupils' reading achievement. 

“This effect is even more pronounced for socioeconomically disadvantaged learners who do not have sufficient home resources and are located in more rural provinces.” 

Chetty said the positive was that South Africa’s national assessment data from the Early Learning National Assessment (Elna) showed positive growth points. 

He said the department was tracking reading comprehension skills at grade 3, 6 and 9. This local national assessment was modelled on the same design as Pirls 

“Our grade 3 learners score around 438 points. We are using a scale of zero to 1,000 — around 400 is a benchmark that countries use internationally.

“Our grade 3 learners are performing above the 400 benchmark. As they stay in the system, their growth in reading comprehension skills incrementally gets better, increases to 522 at the grade 6 level and 592 at grade 9 level.” 

Motshekga said there were steps the department could take but it is also about what parents could do to help their children to read with comprehension. 

“While as the department we play a very important role in supporting early learning skills and teaching children how to read, an entire ecosystem must also be involved,” she said.

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