Johannesburg - The chief executive of Citizen Leader Lab, Komala Pillay, has expressed concerns about the recent findings revealing that South Africa is facing a reading problem.
The results of the 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) show that 81% of grade four learners are unable to read for meaning in any language.
With these unsettling findings, which also represent a decline of 3% from the 78% recorded in 2016, Pillay says children have been failed.
‘’We would like to call on the government and all South Africans to acknowledge that this represents a national crisis of catastrophic proportions. The decline in literacy skills is a clear indication of deeply entrenched systemic failures within our education system. Whilst we acknowledge that the Department of Basic Education is ultimately answerable for this crisis, we also believe that there are underlying systemic issues that are causing the unacceptably high illiteracy rate that will not be resolved by the government alone.’’
Pillay said it would take a collective acknowledgement that unless children can read, we will never create the future we all desire for our country.
‘’Along with this acknowledgement, we will need to set high but realistic literacy targets and run fierce and unrelenting campaigns that reach every corner of this land to ensure that these targets are reached and that every child can read for meaning by grade 4 at the latest. As an organisation, we draw a connection between literacy rates and our country’s unemployment rate, announced this week to be the highest in the world at 32.9%. We believe that it is no coincidence that we rank among the world’s poorest performers globally in literacy and have the highest unemployment rate in the world,’’ said Pillay.
When this news broke and dominated headlines, President Cyril Ramaphosa said the government would be working hard to try to improve the reading abilities of young learners.
He acknowledged that reading for young people has become a major problem, highlighting that the major focus should be on our education system.
Pillay added that, to this end, ‘’We call upon all stakeholders, including government, school leaders, business leaders, civil society organisations, parents, and individuals who care deeply about our country, to partner with us in tackling this crisis.’’
The Star