The mobilisation of resources required to improve learner reading outcomes for early grades in South Africa has gained ground. Basic Education Deputy Minister, Dr Reginah Mhaule, joined by South African academics and reading practitioners, funders and international benchmarking specialists, launched the Reading Benchmarks for the Sesotho-Setswana Language Group, Afrikaans Home Language and English as a First Additional Language (EFAL) reports, aimed at promoting reading across the curriculum at GET level. The launch took place at the DBE Conference Centre in Pretoria on 9 November 2022. This follows the first benchmarks for the Nguni language group that were launched virtually during the 2020 school calendar.

Government, under the current administration, has identified reading comprehension as one of the most important levers in strengthening learning outcomes in the GET band. President Ramaphosa, in 2019, called on the sector to prioritise language teaching to ensure that every child could read for meaning by age 10. In her presentation, Deputy Director for Research Coordination, Monitoring and Evaluation, Ms Nompumelelo Mohohlwane, said that there were several reading benchmarks for the Nguni language group, the Sesotho-Setswana, Afrikaans and EFAL that need special attention in monitoring reading progress in the classroom and the sector as a whole. “The reading benchmarks for all these languages require learners to master reading speed and fluency within a specific grade. As for the Sesotho-Setswana language group, the benchmark stipulates that by the end of Grade 1, all learners should be able to sound 40 correct letter sounds per minute. By the end of Grade 2, all learners should be able to read at least 40 correct words per minute. By the end of Grade 3, all learners should be able to read at least 60 correct words per minute”. 

As part of the interactive session, the presenters emphasised that reading benchmarks will differ from one language to the other. There should be no assumptions about the accuracy-speed and fluency-comprehension relationships for Setswana being the same for English language. Children learning to read in transparent orthographies, like African languages, should achieve accuracy much quicker than children learning to read in English. African home language serves as the language of learning and teaching (LOLT) until the third year (the end of the Foundation Phase) in most schools. The LOLT then switches to English from Grade 4 whilst home language instruction continues. It is therefore not sufficient to merely establish standards in home language reading. Benchmarks for EFAL have been established up to the Intermediate Phase.

Deputy Minister Mhaule iterated that early reading is the foundation that determines a child’s educational progress through school, through higher education and into the workplace. “As a Department, we continue to value reading as one of the apex priorities in the sector. Over the past few years, our efforts have included providing clarity on how to teach reading in African languages through the development of the Framework for Reading in African Languages, and more recently, the development of Foundation Phase Reading manuals. The development and public release of the Reading Benchmarks is another contribution to continue to create credible support mechanisms and measurements of reading for all our languages. These benchmarks were developed to provide a shared vision of what reading proficiency means for each of our languages. The methods and approach used ensure that they are relevant for every classroom regardless of quintile. We believe that this information will equip teachers to adjust their teaching to meet these early benchmarks starting from Grade 1, so that more of our children read for meaning at the appropriate age.”

At least nine languages have been benchmarked thus far, and the DBE intends to continue with this work. The next phase will see Xitsonga, Tshivenda and English Home Languages benchmarked by early 2024. In conclusion, Dr Mhaule expressed her gratitude towards the United States Agency for International Development (USAID); the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF); Research on Socio-Economics Policy (ReSEP); the University of Cape Town (UCT); Funda Wande; the Zenex Foundation and other partners, for their support in this regard.