One of the state's largest school networks has defended the under fire $55 million-a-year program that help students with reading problems, after a review by the NSW government found that the program did not work.

Last week, The Sun-Herald revealed the Reading Recovery program had few long term benefits and was offered in too many schools, according to a report by the NSW Department of Education's Centre for Education Statistics and Evaluation.

St Joseph's Primary reading recovery teacher Narelle Cartwright with a pupil. Credit:Carlos Furtado

The report found that the program had some impact on students who are really struggling with basic reading but the improvements are short-lived.

Earlier this year, influential US literacy academic Louisa Moats told Victorian bureaucrats that it was indefensible to spend money on the program, which is used in 960 NSW schools.