Almost 80% of South African pupils do not develop basic reading skills by the time they reach grade five, a new international study released on Thursday shows.
The Progress in International Reading Literacy study was conducted in 40 countries and carried out locally by the University of Pretoria’s Centre for Evaluation and Assessment.
It shows that South African pupils achieved the lowest score compared with children in the other 39 countries.
Only 2% of South African grade-five learners reached the highest international benchmark compared with 7% internationally.
The Russian Federation, Hong Kong, Singapore and Italy were among the countries whose pupils obtained the highest scores.
Almost 80% of South African pupils in grade four and five did not reach the lowest international benchmark, in contrast to only 6% in the rest of the countries tested.
While almost half of the children tested in English and Afrikaans attained the lowest benchmark, between 86% and 96% of children writing in the other nine official languages did not manage to attain even the low benchmark.
The study represents the first baseline study of reading literacy in South African primary schools, across all 11 languages.
South Africa had the largest number of pupils taking part in the study, with 16 073 children in grade four and 14 657 in grade six being tested.
The study shows that early literacy activities at home are important. Good pre-literacy skills that are developed before school are related to higher achievement.
South Africa is behind in introducing more complex reading skills, whereas internationally the more complex skills are introduced earlier. Where more advanced skills are introduced in grade one, achievement is higher.
Few children are exposed to early reading-literacy activities with their families and less than half have books in the home. Also, 60% of South African primary schools do not have a library or classroom libraries.
The study also shows that parents’ levels of education are strongly related to reading achievement. — Sapa