In 1845, Karl Marx famously wrote, "The philosophers have only interpreted the world, in various ways. The point, however, is to change it."
As we mark International Literacy Day, it is a timely moment to reflect on the 2030 Reading Panel’s February 2026 report and its implications for South Africa. Marx’s point feels particularly urgent, as we have spent years diagnosing our educational shortcomings, yet the majority of our foundation phase learners (Grades 1-3) are not reading at grade level.
The Department of Basic Education’s (DBE) Funda Uphumelele National Survey (FUNS) gives us, for the first time, a clear national picture of foundational learning in the early grades. The Survey’s diagnosis is stark: across Grades 1 to 3, only about 30% of learners are reading at grade level in their home language. In some languages, as many as one in four Grade 3 learners cannot read a single word. This represents a foundational break in the promise of basic education.
The case for systemic reform
South Africa does not have a large-scale, structured remediation programme in the early grades. For less than 5% of Foundation Phase learners each year, repetition becomes the fallback response. A 2025 study by Ros Clayton found that Grade 3 learners who narrowly miss the pass mark can make significant gains after repeating.
Repetition however, is an expensive and limited response. According to 2019 estimates, repeating a year cost the state about R17 000 per learner in 2018 or roughly R24 000 in 2026 rands, after adjusting for inflation. It reaches a small share of learners, while the much larger group who are not meeting grade-level expectations, are progressed to the next grade without structured catch-up support. And even where repetition shows benefits, Clayton’s findings are concentrated among learners who are just below the progression threshold, not those who are further behind.
The deeper problem, however, is not repetition itself but that South Africa lacks a coherent system for responding to its reading crisis and providing structured support early enough to help learners catch up.
So, what is to be done?
South Africa does not suffer from a lack of knowledge or viable solutions. We suffer from a system coherence deficit. Reading improvement is still treated as a collection of small scale initiatives when it should organise the Foundation Phase around a single, measurable goal. The Ministry’s intention to reorient the system towards the foundational grades is welcome, but that direction now needs a clear delivery architecture and routines that make the goal visible at every level.
Lessons from India’s system-wide approach
India offers a useful example through its “mission mode” approach, which treats foundational learning as a system-wide priority. Its 2020 National Education Policy identified foundational literacy and numeracy as an essential prerequisite for all further learning, translating this in 2021 into a national goal of universal literacy and numeracy in Grade 3 by 2026/27 through the NIPUN Bharat mission. The mission reaches roughly 930 000 schools, 27.5 million children, and 1.7 million teachers. For context, South Africa’s entire education system is only 25 000 schools, with 460 000 teachers and 13.6 million children.
The significance of operating in “mission mode” lies in how the system is organised around that single time-bound goal, creating political, administrative and financial convergence. India created national leadership structures and dedicated programme management units at each level of the education system, while roles and review routines were redesigned to give literacy and numeracy a defined place in the work of education officials. Budgets were aligned to the mission, key components such as teaching materials, professional development and assessment were costed, and progress is tracked through common monitoring systems.
The lesson for South Africa is not just to set an ambitious goal, but to make the goal the organising principle of the system. If every child reads for meaning by the end of Grade 3 is truly the priority, it should shape national and provincial budgeting and planning, classroom resources, teacher development, assessment, and the work of district and circuit staff. We do not need a series of disconnected interventions, but a system organised around one destination.
The philosophers and statisticians have interpreted the reading crisis in various ways. The point, now, is to change it.
Sipumelele Lucwaba is the secretariat of the 2030 Reading Panel