Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube addressed the annual 2030 Reading Panel at the release of their latest report at Melrose Arch, Johannesburg on 24 February 2026. The Panel, chaired by former Deputy President, Dr Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka of the UMLAMBO Foundation, released its latest report based on the DBE’s Funda Uphumelele National Survey (FUNS), which was developed by the DBE over seven years through multistakeholder collaboration, to create reading fluency benchmarks in all 11 languages as Home Languages as well as English First Additional Language. The survey measured the percentages of children reaching those critical reading benchmarks by the end of Grades 1, 2, and 3. 27,800 learners were assessed across 710 schools nationally.
The findings revealed that only 30% of learners in Grades 1 to 3 are reading at grade level in their home language. In some languages, up to 25% of Grade 3 learners cannot read a single word, while 15% scored zero in reading assessments. Dr Mlambo-Ngcuka said the findings offer a clear picture of where urgent support is needed. “We can now see the full picture of where South African children stand in the most critical years of learning. The data shows both the scale of the challenge and where progress is being made.”
Minister Gwarube assured the 120 attendees at the 2030 Reading Panel that Reading has not been deprioritized but is being embedded at the core of how the entire education system functions from Early Childhood Development to Mother Tongue-based Bilingual Education, to curriculum design, teacher preparation, learning materials, assessment and classroom support within the early primary grades: “We are busy defining and preparing to introduce a minimum integrated package of support to improve literacy and numeracy outcomes in the Foundation Phase. We are also preparing to introduce a new National Catalogue of Learning and Teaching Support Materials in Grades 1 to 3, to ensure every classroom has access to high-quality graded readers, big books, teacher guides and learning materials in all official languages, whilst also strengthening curriculum delivery through structured phonics programmes tailored to African languages, providing teachers with clear guidance on decoding, blending, and reading instruction among other initiatives”.
Dr Dhir Jhingran, founder of the Language and Learning Foundation in India, one of the guest speakers at the 2030 Reading Panel, made input on what it will take for large scale change in education outcomes, especially where it relates to learners being able to read with comprehension.
The Report can be accessed at: https://www.readingpanel.co.za/resources