Page 51 - University of Pretoria Research Review 2017
P. 51

         Foreword
Introductory Messages
DEVELOPMENT AND CHANGE
PEOPLE AND CONTEXTS
Human Rights and Dignity
Children’s literacy levels remain low
Celeste Combrinck, Centre for Evaluation and Assessment
The international Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2016 results, released in December 2017, showed no significant progress in children’s literacy levels since the previous assessment in 2011, and placed South Africa last out of 50 countries participating in the study.
HEALTH AND WELL-BEING
PLANET AND SUSTAINABILITY
Awards
Lead Researchers
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 Researchers at the Centre for Evaluation and Assessment were responsible for the South African part in this global study on reading and literacy levels among Grade 4 and 5 learners.
The CEA works closely with the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA),
as well as several international research organisations that coordinate and collaborate on the PIRLS study across the globe. At the end of 2015, the CEA tested
the reading ability and literacy skills of 12 810 Grade 4
learners across South Africa in all 11 languages. In addition, more than 5 000 Grade 5 learners were
tested in Afrikaans, English and isiZulu. The data were processed and analysed by the international research group and then returned to the CEA for further analysis.
The PIRLS assessment is undertaken at five-year intervals. In the 2016 study, more than 319 000 learners participated worldwide. The results show that almost 80% of South African Grade 4 learners fall below the lowest internationally recognised level of reading literacy in their language of learning. This means that the majority of learners cannot read well enough to learn successfully, across the curriculum. The Grade 5 benchmark data show a glimmer of improvement: results of students assessed in reading literacy in isiZulu, as well as in English and Afrikaans, show a moderate improvement. Although learners still fall well short of the international average, this may suggest that given an extra year to settle into a new language (the school years up to Grade 4 being in children’s home languages), reading literacy improves.
Alongside the CEA’s responsibility for the PIRLS assessment in South Africa, CEA researchers also investigated over 1 000 other factors in the school, classroom and home environments to find contributing factors to the poor performance of children in South Africa. The groups most at risk were those in deep rural areas and townships, those learning in African languages, and boys. Except for the gender imbalance, which is similar internationally, the other factors mirrored the material realities of contexts in which access to quality education remains grossly unequal.
CEA published three detailed country reports in 2017, which are available on their website: https://www.up.ac. za/centre-for-evaluation-and-assessment.
 Lebone College of the Royal Bafokeng, Rustenburg
CEA@UP











































































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