, Read Text A and answer the questions that follows. South Africa’s massive
reading problem Luke Fraser 16 May 2023 Grade 4 learners in South Africa
have the worst reading ability in the world, with 81% incapable of reading for
meaning. This is according to the 2021 Progress in International Reading
Literacy Study (PIRLS 2021), which tested 12,426 learners across the country
and compared them to students at a similar age level across 42 other nations.
South Africa’s mean achievement score was 288 in the study, far below the
500 international average. Egypt was the second worst country in the study,
but its score of 378 was well ahead of South Africa. A major concern for South
Africa is that its achievement score has dropped significantly from the PIRLS
2016 study, where South Africa reported that 78% of children in Grade 4 could
not read for meaning in any language. However, researchers noted that 21 of
the 32 countries with trend data noticed a drop, with the Covid-19 pandemic
having a major effect on teaching hours globally. In the 2021 study, Singapore
(587), Hong Kong (573), the Russian Federation (567), England (588), and
Finland (549) had the highest overall scores: The results in South Africa
varied heavily across languages. Learners who were tested in Afrikaans and
English scored significantly higher than those who were tested in African
languages. Those tested in Afrikaans (387) and English (382) scored well
above the average, while nine African languages scored below the mean, with
Setswana (211) being the worst-performing language. Moreover, the Western
Cape (363), Gauteng (320) and Kwa-Zulu Natal (297) outperformed the 288
mean, with more remote provinces Limpopo (244) and North-West (232)
significantly lower. The biggest area of concern is that 81% of learners in the
study were below the study’s low international benchmark, meaning that 81%
of students cannot read for meaning. Moreover, only 11% of learners reached
the low international benchmark, while 94% of students internationally could
reach the low international benchmark. For South Africa, only 2% of readers
could reach a high benchmark, while 1% reached the advanced benchmark.
State of education The Centre for Development and Enterprise (CDE)
previously said that South Africa has one of the worst-performing education
systems in the world. “The President speaks of a ‘silent revolution’, while the
minister talks of a ‘system on the rise’. The truth is that we face a silent crisis
in our schools: South Africa has one of the worst performing education
systems in the world,” said CDE’S Executive Director Ann Bernstein. The
CDE said that South Africa spends roughly 13% of government revenue on
