Addressing SA's literacy challenge from the early years is fundamental to improving quality and efficiency throughout the education system. Our country’s constitutional promise is that all South Africans should achieve their potential and the ability to read for meaning is the primary capability that propels learning as a means of achieving that potential.
In our constitutional democracy based on democratic values, social justice and fundamental human rights, creating access to the conditions necessary to achieve literacy is the responsibility of the state, through the basic education system, and supported by families.
All of the data available on achieving foundational literacy shows not only that our children are not achieving the levels of reading performance our curriculum requires for learners to succeed in primary school, but that pervasive inequalities in the conditions in which children learn to read perpetuate disparities in reading success, influencing future unequal paths in education and resulting life opportunities.
Learning to read requires the realisation that symbols in text – squiggles on pages – can represent the meaning of the spoken word. This realisation comes from environments in which text is used for sharing information, for pleasure and communal activities. What follows is the acquisition of the correspondence of elements of the written text to its corresponding sound and propelled by meaning making.
Reading to children and enjoying the process of understanding words through storytelling, along with plentiful chances to read accessible texts in the child's first language, supported by guidance when needed, are crucial for the early stages of literacy development and foster a lifelong connection with text for various purposes.
But these conditions are not equally available to all children at home and at school. Recognising the material inequalities which perpetuate inequalities in learning achievement and taking the necessary steps to correct systemic deficiencies – particularly in schools – is an essential first step and investment in addressing injustices of access to learning.
Children who cannot read for meaning by grade 4 continue to fall behind, as the curriculum relies on independent reading across all subjects. It must be a national priority to target the improvement of literacy (and numeracy) from the foundation phase of schooling as a powerful disrupter of inequality. The steps that are necessary must include attention to the learners most at risk of falling behind in foundational literacy and making the achievement of the conditions necessary for success non-negotiable.
Is SA succeeding in achieving the conditions necessary for early reading achievement? In 2024, the department of basic education released the results of the South African Systemic Evaluation (SASE) which was conducted in 2022 in schools across all provinces. This is a sample-based assessment. It does not assess all children as was the case with the Annual National Assessments but gives a dipstick sense of trends.
The results are unequivocal and confirm two key findings of international comparative studies in which SA participates: by grade 3 our learners are not reading at the required level; and the patterns of poorer reading follow the contours of under-resourcing at home and school. The department’s SASE established a baseline that in 2022 only 20% of grade 3 learners' level demonstrates the understanding and skills required for reading in grade 3.
These results are further disaggregated across and within provinces by socioeconomic quintile. The evidence is clear that reading achievement is lower in schools serving poorer communities. If we are to disrupt cycles of poverty, we must start with empowering children from our poorest communities to read confidently from the foundation phase.
Pervasive deficiencies in the learning and teaching environments in which children should be taking their first steps towards reading with confidence must be addressed. This requires foundation phase classrooms in which all learners have access to attractive books appropriate to the child’s reading development in their home/ first language, in which the number of children in the class conforms with national norms so that the teacher can be in touch with and respond to the reading needs of each child, and in which all teachers are professionally supported to improve their practice.
This is not the case in school’s serving the poorest children. While the department aims for a limit of 45 learners in a class, the department’s 2017/18 School Monitoring Survey showed that for grade 3, 48% of classes in the poorest schools across the country had more than 40 learners and 23% had more than 50 learners.
The survey also showed that only 46% of grade 3 children had language textbooks. We do not have enough data about the availability of reading material in classrooms or for learners to take home to read for pleasure. Children need access to reading material to learn to read.
Investment in improving literacy in the foundation years must be a national priority. This must go beyond broad declarations of intent and must be visible in evidence-based planning that is aligned to realistic assessments of the resources required and the resources available accompanied by a determination to address the resource gaps. This must be informed by the rigour of learning from research and from evaluations of what is working in interventions in which government and the private sector are collaborating.
Metcalfe is a professor of practice at the University of Johannesburg’s School of Public Management, Governance & Public Policy and is a national planning commissioner.
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