Data from the Department of Education shows that only 30% of Grade 1-3 learners in South Africa are currently reading at grade level in their home language. By Grade 4, the picture is even more concerning, with 81% of learners unable to read for meaning.
The figures are stark, but they also expose a deeper concern: is this what happens when children are expected to learn to read in the same way, at the same pace, simply because they are in the same grade?
As we observe International Literacy Day, a few considerations are necessary.
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What’s causing the struggle?
According to Tasleem Sather, Education Programme Lead at SPARK Schools, one of the most important shifts is to look beyond whether a learner is struggling and understand where this struggle is occurring.
“Reading is not one skill. It is a progression of interconnected skills, from recognising letters and sounds and decoding words through to vocabulary, fluency, and comprehension,” she says. “Two learners can both be described as struggling readers, but for very different reasons.”
These skills also affect learning beyond the literacy classroom. Early difficulties with writing, number sense, or mathematical concepts can become bigger barriers as the curriculum becomes more demanding, from completing a scientific experiment to interpreting the requirements for an art project:
“The earlier educators can identify precisely what a learner knows and where the gap is, the more targeted the response can be.
“It changes the conversation from ‘this child is behind’ to ‘this is the particular skill this child needs help developing in,’” says Sather.
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What does personalised learning look like in practice?
This is where personalised learning offers a practical approach. Despite the name, it does not mean creating a different lesson plan for every learner. Instead, the learning objective remains consistent while the level of support, pace, challenge, or method of instruction is adjusted according to what educators know about individual learners.
In a literacy lesson, for example, an educator might work with a small group that needs explicit modelling of a particular skill, while another group practises collaboratively, and learners who have already demonstrated mastery work independently. As learners progress, the groups can change.
Technology can support this process by giving educators additional information about learner progress and creating opportunities for personalised practice. But the technology itself is not the intervention.
“Data can tell us something about performance, but it is the educator who brings the context,” says Sather.
“Educators need to interpret what they are seeing and decide whether a learner needs more modelling, more practice, a different explanation, or a greater challenge.”
Can confidence change how children read?
There is another dimension to early literacy that can easily be lost when the focus falls too heavily on measurement: children need to experience reading as something meaningful and enjoyable.
Exposure to age-appropriate books, including books in a child’s home language, helps develop vocabulary and comprehension while building familiarity and confidence. For children who associate reading with difficulty or failure, creating positive experiences with books can be particularly important.
“South Africa’s literacy challenge is too large to address with a one-size-fits-all approach,” Sather says.
“Personalised learning can help us move from identifying that learners are behind to understanding why they are behind and responding to these gaps earlier.
When we can give learners the right support at the right point in their learning journey, we have a better chance of preventing early literacy difficulties from becoming long-term educational barriers.”
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