New stats on SA pupils’ reading skill ‘a catastrophe’
A movement advocating for quality early childhood
development says 81% of Grade 4 pupils cannot read for meaning in any language.
Real Reform for ECD has described the disturbing stat from an international study as a generational catastrophe.
Basic Education released the results of the Progress in International Reading Literacy study on Tuesday.
It assessed the reading skills of more than 12,426 Grade 4s.
The report revealed that local pupils achieved an average score of 288, well below the international average of 500.
The pupils were also placed last on a list of 57 countries.
Real Reform's Tess Peacock says our country has lost a decade of progress.
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"The average grade 4 in Brazil is three years ahead of the average South African child. The situation is that South Africa has seen the largest decline internationally and these statistics are the worst in the rural provinces, Limpopo, Free State, Mpumalanga and North West.
“We saw the decline only in African language schools. Not in English or Afrikaans schools. So it's an increase in inequality in the country and it's been called a generation capacity and it's really a major challenge for the country."
