The 2030 Reading Panel released this week lays bare the scale of South Africa’s foundational literacy crisis00.
The report, in its fifth year, analyses data from the department of basic education’s Funda Uphumelele National Survey (Funs), which for the first time measured reading outcomes in grades 1 to 4 in home languages against national benchmarks.
The findings reveal only 30% of pupils in grades 1 to 3 are reading at grade level in their home languages. In some languages up to 25% of grade 3 pupils cannot read a single word.
Across the system, 15% of grade 3 learners scored zero in reading assessments, meaning they are unable to decode one word by the end of their third year of formal schooling.
The report also showed the language breakdown highlights stark disparities in the system as Sepedi (25%), Xitsonga (25%) and siSwati (23%) recorded the highest proportions of grade 3 pupils who scored zero.
While the proportion of siSwati pupils reaching benchmarks in grade 3 is close to the national average of 31%, as few as 14% of isiNdebele pupils and 11% of Sepedi pupils reach the benchmark.
English stands out as the highest-performing language, with 48% of pupils reaching the benchmark.
It is followed by Tshivenda at 33% and isiZulu at 31%, placing these three languages in the top tier of performance in the study.
In the middle of the spectrum, siSwati recorded a success rate of 27% while Afrikaans and Setswana both reached 26%.
The lower end of the chart shows several languages where fewer than one in five pupils reached the benchmark.
This group includes isiXhosa at 19%, Sesotho at 18% and Xitsonga at 16%.
The lowest percentages were recorded for isiNdebele at 14% and Sepedi at 11%.
Pupils writing in English were more than four times more likely to reach the benchmark than the lowest-performing African language, Sepedi.
Pupils writing in English were more than four times more likely to reach the benchmark than the lowest-performing African language, Sepedi.
“The provinces where these languages are most prevalent also have some of the highest proportion of grade 3 pupils with zero scores,” the report noted.
The report further highlighted deep socio-economic inequalities as it showed that across languages, pupils in quintile 1 schools are four times more likely to be unable to read a single word than pupils in quintile 5 schools.
The data also demonstrates a strong relationship between oral reading fluency (ORF) and comprehension.
Among grade 3 and 4 pupils classified as non-readers, 86% scored below 25% in written comprehension and only 7% of those who met the benchmark scored below 25%.
On the higher end of the scale, only 2% of non-readers scored above 50% for written comprehension compared with 66% who met the benchmark.
The report explained Funs disaggregates pupils’ performance into six categories. The first four being zero scores, non-readers, pre-readers and emerging readers classified as below benchmark and the zero scores refer to pupils who cannot provide a single correct answer, meaning they are unable to identify a single letter or read a single word correctly.
Pupils who reach the benchmark are grouped into two additional categories, namely those who meet the benchmark and those who exceed it.
The latter refers to pupils who not only achieve the expected grade-level standard but also meet the benchmark for the subsequent grade.
There is no “exceeds benchmark” category for grade 1.
The report also identified inconsistent patterns between early letter-sound knowledge in grade 1 and later reading fluency.
“Interestingly, there are inconsistent patterns in reaching the benchmark based on letter sound knowledge in grade 1 and reaching ORF benchmarks in later grades,” the report said.
“A total of 37% of isiXhosa pupils reach the grade 1 benchmark, whereas only 19% reach the grade 3 benchmark. isiZulu sees very poor results in grade 1, with only 12% of pupils reaching the benchmark, however, more than double the number (31%) reach the benchmark in grade 3,” said the report.
The department of basic education suggested a possible reason for the discrepancy in isiXhosa performance is that letter-sound knowledge is a constrained skill that can be taught through rote learning while reading words, sentences and paragraphs requires more complex skills.
The findings also point to promise and persistent inequality in early childhood education.
“New research on grade R learning outcomes shows there are clear benefits to attending grade R, however there are disparities between socio-economic classes,” the report said.
After a year of grade R, early learning outcomes measure (ELOM) scores of pupils in no-fee schools improved by up to 8.6 points. The scores of pupils in mid-fee schools increased by more than double to 18.7 points.
“With grade R compulsory under the Basic Education Laws Amendment Act, these persistent inequalities, which closely mirror those in the rest of the schooling system, must be confronted if grade R attendance is to have the intended impact,” the report warned.
Despite the policy shift the report also projected spending on grade R is expected to decline by 1% between 2025 and 2027.
“Introducing additional, underfunded or unfunded mandates risks adding further dysfunction, leading to minimal or unequal gains in learning outcomes. Moreover, this approach regards expanding the system as the solution, rather than addressing the long-standing underperformance in grades 1 to 3,” the report said.
The findings also revealed only 30% of pupils in grades 1 to 3 are reading at grade level in their home languages, and in some languages up to 25% of grade 3 pupils cannot read a single word.
Speaking at The Venue in Melrose, basic education minister Siviwe Gwarube said the evidence tells a clear story.
“The Funda Uphumelele national survey conducted across 27,000 pupils in 710 schools published late last year shows us about 31% of pupils in grades 1 to 3 can read in their home language,” she said.
Gwarube said learning gaps begin in the foundational stages.
“Learning gaps begin in the early grades, not in matric, not in the intermediate phase and not in the senior phase but in the foundation phase itself.”
She said the survey does more than diagnose the problem.
“It gives us precise insight into where support must be directed, from letter sign recognition to oral reading fluency, and it provides a system with benchmarks to guide improvements in the classroom, the district, and the national level.:
Gwarube said South Africa places too much emphasis on matric results as the primary marker of success.
“Matric is not the primary mark of success but a matric result is an exit year indicator. I’m more passionate about understanding whether or not when children get to grade R, are they ready to go to school? Are they ready to learn and read? That for me is a far more powerful indicator than whether children have exited the system,” she said.
“That, for me, says this is your problem. This is how you fix it. This is your core port of learning for the next 30 years. This is where your interventions are needed.”
She stressed celebrating matric results should not overshadow early childhood development.
“It’s not to diminish the work the matric pupils, teachers and provinces do, not at all. We have to celebrate that. But I’m saying let’s put more stock in whether kids are ready to start formal schooling.
“I have an ambitious dream that one day this country will be excited about an assessment that assesses grade R pupils on whether they’re ready to school as much as we’re excited about matric results. For me that says we’re a country that’s mostly focused on systematic improvements than saying this is the only marker of success.”
Gwarube said the department is implementing several goals to improve literacy and numeracy outcomes in the foundation phase which include:
- Defining and preparing to introduce a minimum integrated package of support to improve literacy and numeracy outcomes.
- Introducing a new catalogue of learning and teaching materials in grades 1 to 3 to ensure classrooms have access to high-quality graded readers, big books, teacher guides and learning materials in all official languages.
- Strengthening curriculum delivery through structured programmes tailored to African languages, providing teachers with clear guidance on decoding, blending and reading instruction.
- Launching the national home language reading programme, equipping teachers with lesson plans, assessments and classroom tools grounded in evidence-based instruction.
“We don’t believe inequality starts in grade 12. We believe the learning gap starts in the foundation phase,” Gwarube said.
The keynote speaker at the event, Dhir Jhingran, spoke about what it takes for large scale change in education outcomes and said this has become a national crisis.
“This is not a good-to-have goal. It is a minimum guarantee that our school systems must provide. When more than half the children cannot read with understanding in the early grades, we’re not facing a routine challenge, it is a national crisis,” he said.
The 2030 reading panel was convened by former deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka and aims to ensure all children learn to read for meaning by 2030.
“We are concerned. The target is an aspiration but we are also encouraged that we started five years ago and this year we have six provinces showing promising practices with implementing at large scale, which means the system is changing,” said Mlambo-Ngcuka.
She said she is worried about the three provinces that have not made significant changes.
The report revealed Eastern Cape, Free State, Gauteng, Mpumalanga, KwaZulu-Natal and Western Cape are implementing large-scale reading reforms.
Vice-chancellor of Rhodes University and panel member Sizwe Mabizela said progress is visible but insufficient.
“We are quite happy with the progress being made at the moment, however, we need to accelerate the work so we make sure the trajectory is one that ensures many more young people have an opportunity to develop the skills of learning to read for meaning,” he said.
The panel includes Thabo Makgoba, education specialist Andre Gaum, broadcaster and reading advocate Hulisani Ravele, University of the Witwatersrand professor Michael Sachs, education justice advocate Noncedo Madubedube, educationist and former Gauteng MEC Mary Metcalfe, Elinor Sisulu, Kentse Radebe, Colin Coleman, Veronica McKay, Faranaaz Veriava and secretariat head Sipumelele Lucwaba.
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