Reading literacy achievement in South Africa

What is it about?

Our book takes a close look at how well young children in South Africa can read. It uses data from the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) to examine reading skills in South African kids. We discuss how difficult it is to measure reading skills using this international survey, how the actual teaching in schools might not match what the curriculum plans, and how the PIRLS study can help teachers and students do better in reading. We're really proud to have contributions from experts in our book. It covers a lot of important topics, like how to make reading better, the challenges of teaching in many languages, the specific difficulties of reading in African languages, and what all these findings mean for teachers and the wider community.

Featured Image

Photo by Ismail Salad Osman Hajji dirir on Unsplash

Photo by Ismail Salad Osman Hajji dirir on Unsplash

Why is it important?

This book is important because it's the first to really study how South Africa has been involved in the PIRLS study over ten years, from 2006 to 2016. It doesn't just show the data; it also gives extra analysis and background about South Africa's schools. The authors have added new insights into teaching reading and how young children learn to read. The book tackles big questions about what education aims to achieve and how the PIRLS study helps us understand this. It looks closely at classrooms where many languages are spoken, and it compares these to other countries, both rich and poor. The book also talks about the challenges of comparing different countries in the study and the limits of using teacher surveys to understand what happens in classrooms. It's a valuable resource for academics, researchers, and specialists who are interested in teaching reading, especially in places like South Africa. The book offers ideas for improving how reading is taught in early grades, which is really important for training new teachers and for understanding how reading skills develop. Finally, the book looks back to see if the PIRLS study has been good at tracking progress and if it's still useful after COVID-19. This helps us understand these big international studies better and guides future strategies, especially for making things better for teachers and students.