28th June 2011

Shocking literacy and numeracy results

Pupils from state schools cannot read or count, results of the Annual National Assessment tests suggest.

The tests were written in February by over 6 million pupils from all nine provinces. Basic Education Minister Angie Motshekga on Tuesday announced that literacy levels stand at 35 percent among Grade 3 pupils. This group scored 28 percent in numeracy.

Grade 6 pupils scored 28 percent for languages and 30 percent for maths.

The tests, which looked at numeracy and literacy levels among Grade 1 - 9 pupils, were not used to grade the pupils but to give the department and the education sector as a whole, insight into whether the pupils know what they are meant to have studied in their previous grades.