A Meaningless Reading Crisis in South Africa

All students must engage in one of the most taxing tasks throughout their academic lives, reading. Reading for meaning is a strong learning strategy that may help someone gain the knowledge, understanding, and abilities they need to successfully participate in society at large (NAEYC, 2020).

I’ll be concentrating on South Africa’s dilemma with regard to reading for meaning in this article. In addition, I’ll explain what the problem comprises, identify the relevant parties and the people impacted, and provide some potential remedies to assist cope with the current situation.

I primarily concentrated on performing the field search by carrying out various sorts of research, including looking at publications and articles online and using various libraries to find out more about my subject. To support my findings, I have also shared first-hand observations I made as a student teacher in classrooms.

78% of Grade 4 students in South Africa, according to a PIRLS survey published in 2016 and conducted by the minister of basic education, Ms. Angie Motshekga, cannot yet read for meaning-making. The 2017 study by Howie, Combrinck, Roux, Mokoena, and Palane

Reading for meaning helps with all types of communication, allows comprehension, and allows learners to use their metacognition. The main goal of reading, regardless of the motivations, is to comprehend the material. 2020’s Hammond, Flook, Harvey, Barron, & Osher

There is continuing discussion about South Africa’s reading issue. Those from underprivileged economic origins, however, are the communities and people that are most impacted. Family who are illiterate and lack the ability to acquire books and other resources for their families suffer the most since they are unable to provide their kids the help they need.

Schools in underprivileged communities struggle to educate students to read for meaning since they have little resources available to them. Due to a lack of funding, the majority of schools in underprivileged areas do not have a school library.

In addition, there is a dearth of basic teacher education when it comes to teaching kids to read for comprehension. The fact that the majority of South African youngsters have difficulty reading as a result of being enrolled in institutions that do not provide teaching in their native tongues is also a significant contributing factor. Children who speak Xhosa or Afrikaans are being taught in classes that only provide English as a second language. It’s crucial for us to understand that when kids read for meaning, they connect it to prior information in order to make sense of it. Mcelod (2018)

Children who struggle to grasp what they are reading are unable to connect their learning. Since English was the language of instruction and Xhosa was the language of instruction, I saw in my classroom during my teaching practicum at Marconi Beam Primary School in the Joe Slovo informal settlement that children found it difficult to comprehend the topics being presented.

I would recommend the following tactics to help with the reading issue. First and foremost, we must motivate parents to read to their kids. Parents must make the time to read to their children even if some households are very busy working to provide for their families’ needs, in order to instill a love of reading in them.

Second, we must enhance beginning teacher preparation and make books easier to get for schools. Not all schools have the money to purchase books, but we may devise programs to get other schools from wealthier backgrounds to “support a school” and give all of their surplus materials to schools in need. In places where the schools are having trouble, we need to make arrangements for teachers to be picked up from their schools and transported to the locations. We also need to make sure that schools send their instructors to frequent workshops.

Another method is to make sure we promote reading everywhere we can and have programs in place to visit schools and demonstrate different reading modes and strategies to students. The 2017 study by Howie, Combrinck, Roux, Mokoena, and Palane

My research has led me to the conclusion that teaching kids to read for meaning is a crucial skill. Even if reading for meaning remains a difficult component, with constant support and direction, we can easily get over this crisis as a group.