The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) is implemented locally by the Centre for Evaluation and Assesment (CEA) at Pretoria University. On Tuesday, the latest report from 2016 was released, the results are incredibly worrying.

Before we look at the main findings of the report, it’s important to understand what exactly the report tests students on.

Students between Grade 1 – 3 were tested across the country in all 11 official languages. Each student or school was tested on their first language or the language the student was most familiar. So, whatever was the most common language at the particular school, was what those learners were tested on.

Now, let’s look at some of the biggest takeaways from the report.

8 of 10 SA children cannot read: Arguably the most worrying, the report found that 78% of South African Grade 4 students are unable to read for meaning. This means that they could not reach the lowest international PIRLS benchmark.

“They could not locate and retrieve explicitly stated information or make straightforward inferences about events and reasons for actions.”

If you compare our 78% with the rest of the world, things get even worse. In America, this number is only 4%. England boasts an even lower number with just 3%.

South Africa scores last out of 50 countries for reading: SA children scored the lowest mark in the latest testing done for the 2016 report.

While the study was predominantly made up of high-income countries, other middle-income countries were included like Iran, Chile, Morocco, and Oman.

No real improvement since 2011: While the report shows that there was a significant improvement from 2006 to 2011, things stagnated after that. Over the last five years, there has been NO improvement to reading scores.

To make things even worse, the tiny percentage of SA kids reaching the high reading benchmark has also dropped. In 2011, 3% of Grade 4 students reached it. In 2016, it was just 2%.