NATIONAL NEWS - The Department of Basic Education (DBE) says it will be implementing an integrated and holistic reading plan that is African-languages-centred to ensure equality in the development of reading in schools.
The department hosted a media briefing yesterday to address and outline its response to the Progress in International Reading and Literacy Study (Pirls) results that revealed that 81% of Grade Four children could not read for meaning in any language.
The challenges with reading for comprehension highlighted by the report included the lack of a culture of reading in many households in South Africa, poorly-resourced schools, and a lack of emphasis on reading during the early childhood development phase.
Minister of Basic Education
Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga says learning should not start in Grade R but at home.
She says that though the department played a very important role in promoting reading in early childhood development, the parents also had a crucial role to play.
“We can buy kids sweets and cakes, which they will enjoy for a moment, but if we buy them books, it will empower them for life.”
Chief education specialist at the DBE, Dr Mark Chetty, says prior to the pandemic, the department was making strides in the learning system, and there were indications that the learning system was on the rise.
He says the department was also participating in the study so that they would be able to know the trends and their improvement margins.
“The Covid-19 pandemic has disrupted education systems globally, affecting the most vulnerable pupils the hardest. We lost a lot of contact time and teaching time during the pandemic. As we interpret the findings, we should keep that in mind.”
Chetty says other studies show that Grade three pupils score above 400 out of 1000, which is above the national benchmark, and their reading level increased as they got older, as it reads at around 600 at Grades six and above.
“We see a consistency in the reading level with different languages, and we see that girls are performing better than boys even at that age. The boys are at risk, but the girls are ahead by a year.
Director of policy development and innovation
Kulula Manona, the director of policy development and innovation, says the department has implemented a plan to adopt an African-language-centred approach when developing teaching material in indigenous languages. She says this will be done to ensure equality in the development of reading in schools.
Manona adds that this approach will be implemented without neglecting the English language, as it is still regarded as a teaching language in the country.
“Even before Pirls evaluations, we were on a trajectory to improve, and we had implemented a number of programmes as interventions to improve post-Covid-19, as well as revising the annual teaching plans.
“After the 2016 Pirls report, we have developed reading benchmarks in indigenous languages that we didn’t have before; we find that they help teachers track the pupils’ development even in those languages.”
Manona says the department had been using English knowledge to create and develop African language material, which they found lacked African context.
She says that was a recipe for disaster, and it will change.
“This has made us confront the science of reading, and we are looking at implementing a holistic approach in all languages for better results.”
