Is the Reading Crisis in South Africa Sustained on Purpose?

Only about 20% of township children in South Africa learn to read in Grade 1, and the 80% failing to read there make little progress afterwards, as indicated by the international PIRLS tests. However, in the 1990s about 80% of African children learnt to read in Grade 1. How can reading be improved again, and learners also be helped to ᵤnderstand_ written English Second Language (ESL)? These questions are answered with the help of research in township classrooms regarding: • The suitability of the PHONICS APPROACH to initial reading, prescribed now, compared to the SYLLABIC APPROACH used formerly for reading African languages. • The suitability of using an untested Lesson Plan for ESL, a document_ which contradicts Government’s instructions by prescribing much WRITTEN ENGLISH IN GRADE 1, confusing African children with two writing codes. • The different results of two conflicting approaches to ESL teaching: form-focussed teaching and communicative language teaching (CLT). This comparison indicates that the Lesson Plan_ hinders the acquisition of sufficient ESL, though ESL is needed as education medium from Grade 4 onwards. It is concluded that grave injustice is done to poor children by keeping them semi-literate, so that most can only pass their grades by memorising lessons they cannot really read and understand.