Johan Fourie | PIRLS of wisdom: What can be done about SA's dire education outcomes

The PIRLS literacy study called SA's level of reading comprehension a "generational catastrophe". Johan Fourie asks what can be done. 

Countless newspaper columns over the past three decades have tackled South Africa's biggest headache: our failing education system.

The last two weeks were no exception. If you somehow missed the news, here are the headlines from the recently released PIRLS 2021 South Africa Report: 81% of Grade 4 learners in South Africa cannot read for meaning in any language. This is a decline of three percentage points in the five years between 2016 and 2021. To put South African children's reading ability in perspective: the average Brazilian Grade 4 child is three years ahead of the average South African Grade 4 child.