Johan FourieCountless 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.
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