Every five years, the international Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) provides an assessment of how well grade 4 learners around the world read for meaning. And every time South Africa participates, the results are shocking. In the 2021 survey, more than 80% of South African fourth-graders weren’t able to make sense of what they were reading in the test.
Policymakers have focused attention on developing literacy in the foundation phase (grades 1-3), because the skills developed during these early years will form the basis for learning in the higher grades.
But that’s not the only way to approach reading.
