The Minister of Basic Education, Angie Motshekga. File picture: Jason Boud
BASIC Education Minister Angie Motshekga has been slammed for saying learning losses – or losses in schooling hours – as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic have seriously affected the reading literacy levels of learners in South Africa.
She said this last month following the release of the Progress in the International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) in which South African learners came last in a reading ability study which included 50 countries.
The DA’s basic education spokesperson, Baxolile Nodada, said the pandemic was not wholly to blame. He said the department closed the schools for far too long and didn’t have plans while they were shut.
Nodada said 75% of learners who attend no-fee schools lost 50% to 75% of their learning time in 2020 and more than 25% in 2021.
“Even the ministerial advisory committee, packed with experts, advised the Department of Basic Education in July 2021 to send all learners back to school immediately. But this too was ignored and rotational timetables continued for another six months,” he said.
Nodada said it was distressing that the minister and her department failed to realise the travesty of nine and 10-year-olds that cannot understand what the letters on the page and the sounds they make mean.
“If you do not understand what you are reading, you cannot read. The minister has also consistently failed to address the fact that 56% of Grade 6 learners cannot read for meaning at a Grade 4 level. Despite the DA’s numerous requests, the minister has not provided budgeted reading or catch-up plans,” said Nodada.
Motshekga said: “The magnitude of our decline relating to the pandemic does not come as a surprise. South Africa was amongst the countries most actively gauging impacts on learning outcomes during the pandemic and the results we see now in PIRLS are in line with the earlier findings that we did say as the department.”
She further acknowledged that the department played a big role in the development of learners but she also encouraged families to breed a culture of reading at home. She said learning did not start at Grade R but at “grade zero”.
She said that besides the steps that the department could take, parents could also do their part.
It was recently reported that the provincial CEO of the National Professional Teachers’ Organisation of SA, Thirona Moodley, said they were not surprised as South Africa had ranked low even on previous surveys.
“We have not shown any improvement at all. We can only hope the department comes up with an effective intervention. Many schools lack resources.
“I think all the teachers must be retrained to teach reading because right now we need a totally different approach,” said Moodley.
Moodley also cautioned against blaming Covid-19 for ranking lower in this survey because,she pointed out, all the other countries also experienced lockowns during the coronavirus pandemic.