CAPE TOWN: Illiteracy among South African children has risen from 78 per cent in 2016 to 81 per cent, and eight out of 10 school children struggle to read by 10, a new study said.
According to the BBC, South Africa ranked last out of 57 countries assessed in the “Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (IRL)” study that tested the reading ability of 400,000 students internationally in 2021.
The country’s education minister blamed the results on school closures during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Describing the results as “disappointingly low,” Angie Motshekga also said the country’s education system faced significant historical challenges, including poverty, inequality, and inadequate infrastructure.
She added that “reading instruction often focuses solely on oral performance, neglecting reading comprehension and making sense of written words” in many primary schools.
The study showed that 81 per cent of South African children couldn’t read for comprehension in any of the country’s 11 official languages.
Alongside Morocco and Egypt, South Africa was one of only three African countries that participated in the assessments to monitor literacy and reading comprehension trends of nine- and 10-year-olds.
Based on tests taken every five years at the end of the school year, a new study places countries in a world education league table.
Singapore secured the central spot in the rankings with an average score of 587, while South Africa ranked last with 288 points – below second-last Egypt’s average of 378. The scores are benchmarked against an international average of 500.
The study also showed that girls were ahead of boys in reading achievement in nearly all assessed countries, but the gender gap has narrowed in the recent testing round.
South Africa’s struggles with its educational system are longstanding, with important inequality between white and black students due to the segregation of children under apartheid.
Education is one of the single most significant budget expenses for the government, which can lead to disappointment over bad performance in studies like this.
The lack of suitable reading materials and inadequate school infrastructure, often things like school toilets, have contributed to the issues.
