Citizen Leader Lab Calls on all South Africans to address shocking literacy rates
As an organisation, we are deeply troubled by the recent findings from the 2021 Progress in International Reading and Literacy Study (PIRLS) assessment, that 81% of grade 4 children in South Africa cannot read for meaning. This represents a decline of 3% from the 78% recorded in 2016.
Every child has a constitutional right to education. At an 81% illiteracy rate, we are in breach of constitutional responsibilities to our children. We have failed them dismally. It is iniquitous that – according to Professor Nic Spaull, an education economist from Stellenbosch University – in a country our equivalent in terms of GDP, Brazil, the average Brazilian Grade 4 child is three years ahead of the average South African child at the same level. According to Spaull, in Brazil 61% of Grade 4s can read at a basic level compared to 19% in South Africa.
We would like to call on government and all South Africans to acknowledge that this represents a national crisis of catastrophic proportions. The decline in literacy skills is a clear indication of deeply entrenched systemic failures within our education system. Whilst we acknowledge that the Department of Basic Education is ultimately answerable for this crisis, we also believe that there are underlying systemic issues that are causing the unacceptably high illiteracy rate, that will not be resolved by government alone. It will take a collective acknowledgement that unless our children can read, we will never create the future we all desire for our country.
Along with this acknowledgement, we will need to set high but realistic literacy targets and run fierce and unrelenting campaigns that reach every corner of this land to ensure that these targets are reached and that every child can read for meaning by grade 4 at the latest. As an organisation, we draw a connection between the literacy rates and our country’s unemployment rate, announced this week to be the highest in the world at 32.9%. We believe that it is no coincidence that we rank amongst the world’s poorest performers globally in literacy and have the highest unemployment rate in the world.
Literacy is the cornerstone of personal development, empowerment and socio-economic advancement. Without it, persistently high unemployment rates will continue to undermine social cohesion, perpetuate inequality and stifle economic growth. These dual challenges of literacy and high unemployment demand our unwavering attention and can only be addressed through a collaborative, co-ordinated effort from all sectors of society.
From an economic growth perspective, business requires talented human capital to successfully deliver maximum shareholder value and grow the economy. But this pool of talent can only be created when all our youth are able to read. Citizen Leader Lab is resolutely focused on championing change, facilitating partnerships between the private and public sectors and implementing solutions to address these challenges head-on. In terms of our work in schools, research shows that capacitated and supported school principals, create an enabling environment for quality teaching and learning to occur. This is a bedrock for improving educational outcomes, including literacy rates.
To this end, we call upon all stakeholders, including government, school leaders, business leaders, civil society organisations, parents and individuals who care deeply about our country, to partner with us in tackling this crisis. We believe that the business sector has a major role to play in this crisis. We hence call specifically on C-suite executives in the private sector who have the power and influence to partner with government and civil society organisations like Citizen Leader Lab to effect change.
We would like to extend an invitation to you to participate in our Execs Back to School program and experience life in a South African public school – the very context creating our appalling literacy rates.
This half-day event will create awareness of the challenges facing schools and particularly school principals, and the role that the private sector can play to help tackle the systemic issues that are contributing to the literacy crisis.
Finally, we steadfastly believe that we can reverse the current literacy trajectory, and by extension, rampant unemployment in South Africa. Our goal as Citizen Leader Lab is to commit to playing our part in reducing illiteracy among our youth to under 50% by 2030. But we cannot do this alone.
To get involved or for more information about Execs Back to School, please e-mail [email protected] or visit www.citizenleaderlab.org
