South Africa has been ranked at the bottom among 57 countries assessed in the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, revealing that eight out of ten school children in the country face difficulties with reading by the age of ten. The global study, conducted in 2021 and involving 400,000 students worldwide, highlighted a rise in illiteracy rates among South African children from 78% in 2016 to 81%.
The education minister of South Africa attributed these concerning results to the impact of school closures during the Covid-19 pandemic. Angie Motshekga referred to the country’s education system as facing significant historical challenges, such as poverty, inequality, and inadequate infrastructure. She further emphasized that reading instruction in many primary schools tends to focus solely on oral performance, neglecting reading comprehension and the ability to make sense of written words.
According to the study, an alarming 81% of South African children exhibited a lack of reading comprehension in any of the country’s 11 official languages. South Africa, alongside Morocco and Egypt, was among the three African nations that participated in the literacy assessments for nine- and ten-year-olds to monitor trends in reading comprehension.
The global education league table, based on tests conducted every five years, placed Singapore at the top with an average score of 587, while South Africa ranked last with 288 points, below Egypt’s average of 378. The scores were benchmarked against an international average of 500.
The study also highlighted that, overall, girls outperformed boys in reading achievement in nearly all assessed countries, though the gender gap has narrowed in recent testing rounds.
South Africa has long struggled with its education system, with significant disparities between black and white students stemming from the era of apartheid. Education is one of the government’s largest budget expenses, leading to disappointment over poor performance in studies such as this. Insufficient reading materials and inadequate school infrastructure, including facilities like toilets, have contributed to the crisis.
The 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study results reveal that 81% of Grade 4 learners in South Africa struggle to read and comprehend in any language. Education experts are urging the Department of Education to develop a coherent and adequately funded plan to address learning setbacks resulting from the Covid-19 pandemic.
The reading levels of South African children have been in a dire state for some time, and the release of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2021 results underscores the significant ground that has been lost by the current cohort of learners.
According to the Department of Basic Education, the PIRLS 2021 data, released on Tuesday, shows that 81% of Grade 4 learners were unable to comprehend written texts in any of South Africa’s 11 official languages. Previous iterations of the study in 2016 and 2011 reported percentages of Grade 4 students lacking reading comprehension at 78% and 82%, respectively, indicating that recent learning setbacks have set progress back by a decade.
The PIRLS 2021 study took place amid ongoing disruptions caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. School closures, delayed reopenings, and rotational timetables resulted in reduced instructional time. A recent research note titled “Covid-19 and the South African curriculum policy response” estimated that most learners received only a fraction of the usual instructional time in 2020 and 2021, ranging from one-third to half of what they would typically receive in a normal year.
