We are facing a major literacy crisis and need a fundamental mind shift in our reading culture at schools

Wednesday, 8 September was International Literacy Day. At the invitation of the embassy of Finland, Minister of Basic Education Angie Motshekga and I had the opportunity to virtually address a world audience. Allow me to share an excerpt from my speech:

“Literacy is a basic human right: the basic principle of Education For All and a requirement in reaching the overarching goal of poverty alleviation. Therefore it is concerning that our learners perform as poorly as they do when one compares their levels of literacy to other developing countries. The results of the TIMSS (Third International Mathematics and Science Study) and PIRLS (Progress in International Reading Literacy Study) assessments confirm this. Our children especially struggle to formulate answers to comprehension questions.

“Willard Waller wrote in 1930 already that the school culture forms the groundwork of learners’ achievements. It involves the school’s values, norms, traditions and reading culture. A reading culture speaks of a positive attitude towards reading, by learners, parents and teachers. The task of principals is to promote this culture which is currently absent from most schools by ensuring that the reading period comes into its own, and by ensuring that the reading period is once again central to the school day. With a little creativity by teachers, this period can actually be fun. Parents must still read stories with their children (and sometimes switch off the TV).

“Poverty is another big problem and is closely linked to a reading culture. Very little of the yield of South Africa’s mineral riches have reached poor schools. Out of 23,000 public schools, 18,000 don’t have a library. This explains the absence of a reading culture in our schools. We have always known that there are great inequalities in our education system. The pandemic has only confirmed this. Teachers had to switch to online tuition, Zoom lectures and Google classrooms almost overnight.

“Unfortunately, only a small group of schools could continue with online classes. For the greater majority of schools, it was impossible to maintain social distancing in crowded classrooms. The result is that learners have to rotate. Especially the foundation phase was hard hit because these learners could not attend schools every day – something which is essential to learn to read and write effectively. As a result, today we have a group of learners in Grade 2 who can hardly read or write!

“We must simply find a solution to the problem. The country no longer has mineral wealth and State Capture has plundered the state coffers. There is no money to build schools. It leaves us with only one option: digital tuition. We have heard of a successful digital literacy project in the Breede River Valley in the Western Cape. More such projects are needed.

“There is one more obvious solution. Most efforts to improve literacy are aimed at learners and teachers in the foundation phase. Yet the PIRLS tests indicate that learners in the intermediate phase are faring just as poorly – if not worse. Only one in five learners in Grade 4 can read with comprehension. Reading tuition can thus not stop after the foundation phase. Reading development in the intermediary phase is just as important.

“I have first-hand experience of a rural school, which improved their literacy rate from 0% to 100% in just four years. To achieve this, a mind shift is required in the reading culture at schools. All teachers – irrespective of their field of study – must become teachers of reading.” DM