As schools around the nation scramble to respond to the alarm bells set off by falling scores on “the nation’s report card,” we—two university professors who teach reading courses and who are former ...

South African learners consistently struggle with reading comprehension, performing poorly in both international and local assessments. A significant issue is that 81% of grade 4 learners (aged 9 or ...

While the world celebrated International Literacy Day, South Africa faced a harsh reality: 81% of Grade 4 learners reportedly can decode words but cannot read for meaning, according to PIRLS 2021.

While this problem has received considerable attention, no clear explanation has emerged. In my recent PhD thesis, I considered a crucial, but often overlooked, piece of the puzzle – the curriculum ...