SA pupils struggle to read for meaning: Study
Almost 80% of Grade four pupils in the country cannot comprehend what they are reading.
As far as reading is concerned, the story is not a good one for many of South Africa's primary school children.
According to the latest PIRL study, there has been no significant progress nationally since its last report in 2011.
Our country was placed last out of the 50 countries taking part in the study aimed at Grade 4's.
Researchers at the University of Pretoria, who assessed the results, say what is troubling is that the majority of learners cannot read well enough to succeed in subjects across the curriculum in Grade 4 and higher grades.
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It was also found that boys performed worse than girls with 84% of boys not being able to reach the lowest benchmark, in comparison to 72% of girls.
Experts say the reason for these reading challenges may lie in the difficult transitions for children.
Aside from moving on to textbooks and other written material, many African language schools transition from being taught in an African language to being taught in English.