News24 | Only 3 in ten Grade 1 to 3 pupils can read at grade level, report reveals

• New national data which was released by the 2030 Reading Panel has indicated that only three out of 10 pupils in Grades 1 to 3 can read at their grade level in their home languages.
• Pupils in quintile 1 schools (poorest schools) are four times more likely to be unable to read a single word than learners in quintile 5 schools (wealthy schools).
• Minister of Basic Education Siviwe Gwarube said the survey had diagnosed the problem and had also given precise insight into where support should be directed.

Only three out of 10 pupils in Grades 1 to 3 can read at their grade level in their home languages.

In some languages, up to 25% of Grade 3 pupils can’t read a single word.

Across the system, 15% of Grade 3 pupils scored zero on reading assessments, “which means they are unable to decode even a single word by the end of their third year of formal schooling”.

This new national data was released by the 2030 Reading Panel in Johannesburg on Tuesday.

The panel’s 2026 report drew on nationally representative data for foundational reading skills across all South African languages and analysed data from the Department of Basic Education’s Funda Uphumelele National Survey (FUNS), which measured reading outcomes in Grades 1 to 4 in all home languages against national benchmarks for the first time.

Former deputy president Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, who chairs the panel, said in the report that the data has shown the scale of the challenge “and exactly where intervention is most urgent”.

“Importantly, it also shows us where success is being achieved,” she added.

Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube told delegates that the evidence told a clear story that FUNS, conducted across more than 27 000 pupils in 710 schools, which was published late last year, showed that only about 31% of pupils in Grades 1 to 3 were reaching home language reading benchmarks.

“This confirms what international and national assessments have long indicated: learning gaps begin in the early grades and not in matric, not in the intermediate (Grades 4-6) or senior phase (Grades 7-9), but in the foundation phase (Grades R,1, 2, and 3) itself.”

She said the survey did more than diagnose the problem.

“It gives us precise insight into where support must be directed, from letter-sound recognition to oral reading fluency, and it provides the system with benchmarks to guide improvement at classroom, district and national level.”

They now understand the problem with far greater clarity than ever before, she said, adding that that “clarity demands action”.

“Some partners have expressed concern about the removal of explicit reading targets from the Medium Term Development Plan.

“Yes, the wording of targets has changed. But the strategic ambition has not weakened. In fact, it has expanded. We are moving from a narrow focus on individual targets toward a system-wide focus on strengthening the foundations of learning.”

Gwarube said reading had not been deprioritised but that “it is being embedded at the core of how the entire system functions from Early Childhood Development, to Mother Tongue-based Billingual Education, to curriculum design, teacher preparation, learning materials, assessment and classroom support within the early primary grades”.

Gwarube said that “instead of treating reading as a standalone programme, we are rebuilding the ecosystem that produces readers”.

“The most powerful reading intervention begins before a child enters Grade 1. That is why the government is making unprecedented investments in Early Childhood Development.”

She said that the government committed R10 billion to support ECD centres across the country, which was “a decisive investment in access, quality and sustainability”.

“The Reading Panel itself has played a critical role in sustaining national attention on early grade reading, translating evidence for the public and encouraging provinces to learn from one another.”

Meanwhile, the report stated that the Western Cape and KwaZulu-Natal were the top-performing provinces.

It stated that pupils in quintile 1 schools (poorest schools) were four times more likely to be unable to read a single word than learners in quintile 5 schools (wealthy schools).

“Sepedi (25%), Xitsonga (25%) and siSwati (23%) have the highest proportion of learners in Grade 3 who scored zero. “While the proportion of siSwati learners reaching benchmarks in Grade 3 is close to the national average of 31%, as little as 14% of isiNdebele learners and 11% of Sepedi learners reach the benchmark.

“The provinces where these languages are most prevalent also have some of the highest proportion of Grade R learners with zero scores,” the report stated.

The document stated that it was clear that “we are far from meeting the presidential injunction that all Grade 4 learners are reading with comprehension”.

“There are, however, early signs of momentum at a national level.

The panel recommended that reading be restored as “a standalone national priority”.

The panel is an independent group of respected South African leaders from civil society, business and former government officials working together to provide long-term, apolitical leadership to address the country’s pressing reading crisis.

Solutions not magical

Professor Sizwe Mabizela, the vice-chancellor of Rhodes University, said five years after the inception of the panel, it has learnt that the challenge is neither obscure nor inexplicable.

“The solutions required are not magical; they are practical and achievable. They include: strong, meaningful and sustainable support for teachers; coherent and well-structured early-grade instruction; the provision of appropriate learning materials in every classroom and the effective use of instructional time.”

He said that they had learnt that progress did not arrive on hope alone but “arrives when plans meet budgets, when commitments come with accountability, and when leadership stays steady and long enough to carry reforms through the political seasons”.

“That is why our recent reports are so direct: anything we do not properly plan and budget for will only make results deteriorate further.

“If we do not invest with discipline, the system will slide backwards, quietly, steadily, and at the cost of children’s futures.”

He said the work couldn’t be the government’s work alone.

“In effect, Dr Mlambo-Ngcuka told us that government carries obligations, but the nation as a whole carries responsibilities, business, civil society, universities, all of us.”