Durban - Education stakeholders, including academics, teacher unions and lawmakers, have agreed that it would take a joint effort to address the challenges faced by South African pupils after an international literacy study revealed that 81% of pupils in Grade 4 were unable to read for comprehension.
They have also warned that failing to act immediately could see an entire generation lacking the ability to read and write with comprehension. The report from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (Pirls) was released on Tuesday.
It showed that 81% of Grade 4 pupils cannot read for meaning in any language, up from 78% in 2016. The findings are based on a nationally-representative sample of more than 1.1 million pupils.
University of KwaZulu-Natal academic Professor Labby Ramrathan said the report should not come as a surprise, as it reflected the poor level of investment in education and the failure to hold those in power accountable for the decline in standards in the schooling system.
He said the leadership had become fixated with the economic and political aspects of government, and left the education space unattended.
“Ultimately there is no accountability or sanction for those responsible for the country’s education, and this makes it a continuous battle to get learners to read with the ability to comprehend,” said the academic.
He stressed that while the government, through the Education Department, should shoulder the responsibility for the state of affairs, an all-inclusive effort could see the numbers reversed in less than a decade.
Dr Makie Kortjaas of the University of KwaZulu-Natal’s School of Education said the government should lead the process, but also embrace other role-players in the education system, especially non-governmental organisations, which were doing amazing work in improving reading standards.
She also stressed parental involvement in the education process.
“It hurts to admit this, but parents appear to have outsourced their role here, leaving teachers to deal with this by themselves,” said Kortjaas.
Sibusiso Malinga of the National African Teachers Union (Natu) said teachers were at times overwhelmed by problems that included overcrowded classrooms and unruly pupils, and questioned whether parents were taking any interest in their children’s education.
“The fact is some parents work long hours and far from home, so by the time they return home they are too tired to do anything else, and that is how things get off track,” said Malinga.
He also expressed confidence that this could be addressed with everyone’s involvement.
SA Democratic Teachers’ Union (Sadtu) KZN secretary Nomarashiya Caluza warned that the struggle for reading with comprehension would continue to haunt the system, because greater emphasis was placed on the English language.
“The fact is that children who use English as their home language are at an advantage compared with other learners. This means that under the current circumstances African children, in particular, will continue lagging behind.”
Caluza said that before the new dispensation, pupils had focused on reading and writing in their home language, and this had set the foundation for other languages to be mastered easily.
“Part of going back to the drawing board should be to stop this fascination with things foreign and chasing unrealistic targets when we are not a First World country,” Caluza said.
Department of Basic Education spokesperson Elijah Mhlanga agreed with calls for an all-inclusive approach, saying this had been the crux of the report.
He stressed that the home environment was an important foundation for children to learn to read and write, adding that this called for family involvement in education, especially parents.
“If children are not reading at home after school or during weekends and doing their homework with the assistance from family, then the efforts from the department will not be enough,” said Mhlanga.