Since the Covid epidemic, fewer primary school students are able to read for comprehension, and the majority of second-graders are not familiar with the alphabet. Nevertheless, there is no national reading strategy, sufficient funding, reliable reporting, or advancement in the implementation of crucial interventions, despite the fact that there is a literacy crisis.
The findings of the 2023 Background Report for the 2030 Reading Panel, authored by renowned education economist Nic Spaull and published on Tuesday, demonstrate that the nation is regressing in terms of literacy, the foundational component of schooling.
To guarantee that all South African children aged 10 or older can read for meaning by 2030, former deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka assembled the 2030 Reading Panel. Nothing short of a comprehensive national revamp of the educational system, the study concludes, “would be likely to produce this result.”
The research indicates that the proportion of grade 4 students who are unable to read for meaning has climbed to at least 82%, from the 78% recorded in 2016. This extrapolation is based on data from the Western Cape.
According to the research, 60% of kids do not know the majority of the alphabet by the end of first grade, according to statistics from the Department of Basic Education (DBE) Kindergarten Reading.
More over 30% of students still don’t know every letter of the alphabet by the end of second grade. According to the survey, these kids “never genuinely catch up” and are “perpetually behind and in catch-up mode.” What steps are being taken to prioritise literacy? Fearfully little, according to the article.
The Presidential Youth Employment Initiative (PYEI) Educator Assistant Program is the most well-known nationwide reading initiative. Nearly 30,000 Educator Assistants (EAs) will serve as “Reading Champions” in 2023, with the goal of enhancing foundation phase students’ reading skills.
The study acknowledges this with some skepticism given that the sole criteria for entry are quite minimal—30% in matric and proficiency in the school’s native tongue—and that the Reading Champions will not get in-person instruction or go through a selection procedure.
The Western Cape and Gauteng are two provinces where there are some glimmerings of promise. The Western Cape provincial government has chosen education NGO Funda Wande as a partner to implement a Reading for Meaning initiative across the province in all Afrikaans and isiXhosa schools.
The R111 million program will get complete funding from the Western Cape Education Department during the following three years. To establish a grade R curriculum in all schools in Gauteng, the province Department of Education is collaborating with WordWorks, another education NGO. The R107 million budget for the three years is supported by a group of donors to the tune of 80%, with the remaining 20% coming from the provincial budget.
The Reading Strategy & Campaign 2022- 2030 was recently introduced by the Eastern Cape Department of Education, however no funding has been allocated for these initiatives. If no quick action is taken, the research predicts that South Africa won’t reach 2016 levels of progress until 2026.