South Africa flops in international reading skill test

Almost 80 % of Sout African elementary School students did not reach the lowest benchmark in an international test comparing the reading skills of children. South Africa was the country with the worst scoring out of 40 countries in the international reading literacy study, in which an average of just 6% did not reach the benchmark. In South Africa, about 30.000 4th and 5th graders from 400 schools were tested in all 11 official languages. The pupils in SA were tested in October 2005, just months after Tyobeka wrote a letter to elementary school principals admitting many South African children could not read "at all" and instructing principals to get teachers to teach reading. South Africas 4th graders scored 253 points, while 5th graders scored 302 Points. Children from the top scorer the Russia scored 565 points and the international average score was 500. "We perhaps were expecting to be below the international average, but not 250 points below it," Sarah Howie, director of the university's Evaluation and Assessment Centre, said. Website of the Article