Too many high school pupils unable to read

Research by the department of education has shown that many high school pupils are unable to read.

This makes teaching even more difficult, with teachers having to focus on foundation and intermediate phase work in addition to the high school curriculum.

This week, Eastern Cape education MEC Fundile Gade made an urgent plea to institutions of higher learning, various stakeholders and the private and religious sectors to help shape the education system with a focus on reading.

While the Nelson Mandela Bay district has shown an improvement in literacy in the foundation and intermediate phases, experts say the decline in the number of literate children in high school could be attributed to the Covid-19 pandemic.

Gade spoke on Monday of the department’s Eastern Cape Reading Improvement Strategy.

Provincial education department spokesperson Malibongwe Mtima said an assessment had been done at 73 schools in the Nelson Mandela Bay district, which had included 349 teachers and 13,993 pupils, in English, isiXhosa and Afrikaans. 

“The reading assessment has shown some improvements in comprehension skills and passage reading compared with previous years (for grade 1 to 3),” Mtima said.

“Reading levels in the province have declined in the last few years and the situation was worsened by Covid-19.”

He said the Eastern Cape Reading Improvement Strategy would run until 2030.

This would be used as a guide and a reference as to what was needed in the various schools.

Institutions working with schools to improve reading would also be guided by the strategy.

This included teacher development, pupil support and the provision of resources to schools.

Mtima said parents also needed to come to the party.

“We are encouraging parental involvement and encouraging partnerships to help drive the reading programme.”

Solomon Mahlangu Secondary School principal Mncedi Mtengwana said they had found that many of their pupils could not read or write as a result of the lockdowns.

Mtengwana said as per the regulations at the time, pupils were attending school on a rotational basis, or studying from home.

Primary schools with a larger number of pupils were the worst affected, with discipline a cause of concern as pupils were not used to being in a schooling system full-time.

“We already had a literacy problem during the foundation phase, but due to Covid-19 the problem is worse than before, and I think this will continue over the next three years,” Mtengwana said.

“We have ended up having to work harder.

“There are extra classes after school and at weekends.

“We also urged parents to get their children to read newspapers at home.”

He said interventions needed to be made when pupils were in grade 6 or 7, and could not be left until grade 8 to 10.

“There is a lot of work in high school that they still have to cover.

“Remember, all subjects have to be done in English so it makes things worse when a child cannot even understand a question.

“How do you then expect the child to be able to answer?”

The Nal’ibali Volkswagen project co-ordinator in Kariega, Madoda Ndlakuse, who assisted five primary schools through its Nal'ibali project in KwaNobuhle, said it was important to ensure children understood what they were reading.

Nal’ibali uses the power of storytelling to help children understand what they are reading.

“I started working with Nal'ibali seven years ago,” Ndlakuse said.

“I recently held a workshop with parents to show them it is not enough for them to simply help their children with homework.

“They need to discuss the issues to sharpen the child’s brain.

“I discovered that children could not read or write confidently, let alone give their own opinions.

“And while others could read, they did not understand what they were reading,” Ndlakuse said.

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