EDITORIAL | Our children are doomed to failure if we don’t get them to read

Out of 57 countries in the latest Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, South Africa's grade 4s have come last

17 May 2023 - 23:31

Eight out of 10 pupils in grade four or, to be precise, 81%, cannot read for meaning in any of the official languages. The results of the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (Pirls), released on Tuesday, revealed our grade 4s were placed last out of 57 countries in an international reading assessment. In numbers, this means a staggering 914,000 of the 1.1-million grade 4s in 2021 could not understand what they read. South Africa’s Pirls score, which was 320 in 2016, dropped to 288 in 2021, well below the international average of 500. Singapore, Hong Kong and Russia were the top performers. ..