By Lebone Rodah Mosima

The Portfolio Committee on Basic Education has warned that the inability of most South African learners to read for meaning by the prescribed age constitutes a violation of their constitutional right to basic education.

The committee was briefed on Friday by the Right to Read Campaign, a coalition of civil society and education organisations advocating for improved literacy outcomes and the right of every child to read with understanding.

“The Right to Read Campaign aims to make early-grade literacy a national priority through legislative reform and the development of binding regulations for the first three grades,” the campaign told the committee.

It said its work focuses on advocacy and communications, legal and education interventions, and community mobilisation, with the goal of developing regulations in partnership with the Department of Basic Education (DBE).

The campaign’s Right to Read and Write background paper, developed by 19 members of the Section 11 Committee, argues that a core outcome of the right to basic education is that children should be able to read and write with understanding in their home language by the age of 10.

The committee highlighted findings from the Funda Uphumelele National Survey (FUNS), released by the DBE in November 2025, which assessed foundational reading skills among Grade 1 to 4 learners and reading comprehension in Grades 3 and 4.

According to the survey, only about 30% of learners in Grades 1 to 3 are reading at grade level. The committee noted that if 81% of Grade 4 learners cannot read for meaning, as reflected in the 2021 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), it follows that most learners have not developed the foundational skills required for reading proficiency.

The survey also revealed stark disparities linked to socio-economic status and language. Grade 3 learners in quintile 5 schools were almost three times more likely to meet grade-level home-language benchmarks than those in quintile 1 schools.

Grade 3 English home-language learners were four times more likely to reach the required benchmark than Sepedi home-language learners, while the Western Cape recorded the highest proportion of learners meeting grade-level standards, followed by KwaZulu-Natal.

The committee further expressed concern about the number of learners who appear to gain little benefit from their first three years of schooling. Overall, 15% of Grade 3 learners were unable to read a single word, rising to 25% among Sepedi- and Xitsonga-speaking learners.

“Learners in quintile 1 schools are four times more likely to be unable to read a single word than learners in quintile 5 schools,” the committee said.

The committee also cited findings from two South African Standardised Assessment System (SASE) reports released in 2024, which found that only 20% of Grade 3 learners perform at or above the expected grade level.

The reports showed that learners taught in English and Afrikaans generally outperform those taught in African languages. More than 40% of Grade 3 learners in Setswana, Sepedi, Xitsonga, isiNdebele, Sesotho and Tshivenda were classified at the “emerging” performance level.

The committee stressed that learners require a minimum package of reading resources, including lesson plans, graded readers, vocabulary posters and other support materials. It described the new Foundation Phase catalogue as a potentially important intervention but noted that implementation remains uneven because provinces are not compelled to procure specific materials and some face budget constraints.

It said evidence from rigorously evaluated literacy interventions in South Africa points to three key success factors: quality teacher training combined with learning and teaching support materials (LTSM), the use of unemployed youth as teaching assistants, and teacher coaching supported by appropriate learning materials.

The committee noted that some interventions could be implemented through existing programmes and funding streams, including teacher development initiatives, LTSM provision and the Basic Education Employment Initiative (BEEI).

It said research papers on the “4Ts” of literacy — time, text, testing and training — are being prepared and will be submitted to the Department of Basic Education through the National Education and Training Council.

The campaign is also convening roundtable discussions with education experts and stakeholders and consulting communities, including parents, religious leaders and young people, to test proposed regulations and build consensus on solutions to the literacy crisis.

The committee said it would continue discussions on how binding regulations could strengthen the implementation of literacy policies and programmes aimed at addressing South Africa’s reading crisis.

INSIDE EDUCATION

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