It's a crisis that Grade 3s cannot read, but remedies are in play

Amid the shocking revelation that 15% of children who have had three years of schooling cannot read, some provinces are being proactive with initiatives that can save a generation of pupils.

- By Takudzwa Pongweni

Tutoring children and helping them to read can improve literacy development.

(Photo: Supplied/Help2Read)

Imagine sitting at a scuffed wooden desk, staring down at an open textbook. The teacher is speaking, pointing to the page, expecting you to follow along. But, to you, the letters are just a tangled sea of black ink, meaningless squiggles, sharp angles and disconnected circles that look more like broken twigs than a story.

For hundreds of thousands of South African children who have spent three years in a classroom, this is their everyday reality. Only about 30% of pupils in Grades 1 to 3 are performing at grade level in their home language. The depth of this crisis is staggering: 15% of Grade 3s scored zero on reading assessments. This means they are unable to decode even a single word by the end of their third year of formal schooling. In some languages, up to 25% of Grade 3 pupils are unable to read a single word.

The 2030 Reading Panel's Background Report, released on 24 February, reveals a system in crisis but not without hope. Drawing on nationally representative data on foundational reading skills in all South African languages, the report analyses data from the Department of Basic Education’s newly released Funda Uphumelele National Survey (FUNS). For the first time, this survey has measured reading outcomes in Grades 1 to 4 in all home languages against national benchmarks.