Saturday 14 September 2013

Motshekga's maths and science task team

"Forty-three percent of South African grade five learners failed to reach the lowest international benchmark, in contrast to 5% of grade four learners internationally. This means that they have not yet mastered the basic reading skills required to access and retrieve information for reading comprehension purposes," the Pirls report stated. It further revealed that about 90% of the grade four learners tested in English or Afrikaans attained the lowest international benchmark, while between 24% and 57% of children writing in all nine official languages did not achieve it.