What happens to those who can read for meaning?

Much attention is paid to the 81% of South Africa's Grade 4s who cannot read for meaning. Leanne Kelly considers the stories of those from the 'other 19%'

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percent of respondents reported that primary caregivers read to them as children, with nearly 50% saying this happened "often" or "always".

Religious texts played an outsized role: 30% cited the Bible or religious books as pivotal to their literacy development.

Access to reading material in classrooms and libraries was also crucial, though uneven.

A full third of students relied on classroom libraries, and 37% on public libraries. But 85% reported that their foundation phase classrooms had no library or a poorly stocked one, with books that were old, damaged or in languages they couldn't fully understand.

And many students wrote about how difficult it was to learn in a language that wasn't their own.

The language barrier affected 25% of respondents, with many recounting how teachers would explain English lessons in isiXhosa — a coping strategy that both helped and hindered.

The power of one book

Grade 4 marks the transition from learning to read to reading to learn.

For many students in the survey, discovering one relatable text kindled their intellectual fires. For Nhlanhla, it happened when his English teacher gave him My Children! My Africa! by Athol Fugard.

When we meet under the trees outside Rhodes Library, his face lights up as he remembers relating to the character Thami Mbikwana — an intelligent young Black man who could envision a better world.