The International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievements (IEA) held its 9th and final PIRLS2021 National Research Coordinators’ (NRC) meeting in Amsterdam, Netherlands.

This three-day meeting, which started on Monday 13 February 2023, focused on describing the contents and release of the PIRLS2021 results and database and was attended by delegates from more than 50 countries. South Africa was represented by Prof Surette van Staden (National Research Coordinator), Dr Mark Chetty (Department of Basic Education) and Mr Mishack Tshele (CEA’s Data Manager).

The first NRC meeting for the 2026 cycle followed immediately afterwards, on 16 February 2023. The purpose of this meeting was to introduce the next cycle of PIRLS and to discuss plans for its implementation.

South African Grade 4 learners from all nine provinces were among the learners from more than 60 countries worldwide who participated in the PIRLS 2021cycle. A sample of Grade 6 learners also participated in the study in South Africa. PIRLS, conducted under the auspices of the IEA, is designed to provide internationally comparative data on how well children read by assessing fourthgrade students’ reading achievement.