Two representatives from the Centre for Evaluation and Assessment (CEA), Prof Funke Omidire and Mr Gabriel Mokoena, attended a roundtable discussion at the Stellenbosch Institute for Advanced Studies on 19 June. Professor Jonathan Jansen invited academics to the Academy of Science of South Africa (ASSAF) presidential roundtable discussion on reading literacy in South Africa. The discussion, with the theme ‘The reading literacy crisis in South Africa— what can the Academy of Science do?’, was chaired by ASSAF President Prof Jonathan Jansen. The discussion follows the recent release of the PIRLS 2021 results. The study, which was conducted by the CEA, showed that 81% of South Africa’s Grade 4 learners cannot read for meaning. Presenters included Prof Crain Soudien, a sociologist and emeritus professor in education and African studies at the University of Cape Town, and Ms Mtsatse, the current CEO of Funda Wande and an experienced leader. Presenters pointed to some of the challenges facing education in South Africa and referred to factors such as poor teaching practice, massive inequality in education with a massive gap between the highest and lowest achievers, and children changing their
language of learning and teaching (LoLT) in Grade 4 without proper transition mechanisms in Grade 3.

Among the proposed solutions to the literacy problem in the country were addressing structural inequalities; addressing the literacy problem as a holistic challenge and building mothertongue literacy culture since there is very little publishing of mother-tongue fiction and non-fiction literature; raising the level of content that learners are exposed to; improving the skills and knowledge that teachers bring to that content; and increasing the level of student-active learning content. The Director of the CEA, Prof Funke Omidire, added that ‘While support is required across the grades in the different phases, additional efforts and resources have to be invested in the Foundation Phase. We have to get teaching and learning right in the
Foundation Phase, as success in future learning depends on that. The teachers have to be supported to develop the competencies required to teach reading, especially in the home languages. It is also important that only teachers whose first choice of career is teaching and who are passionate about teaching are the ones posted to the Foundation Phase.’