Grahamstown NGO Gadra Education has announced that literacy levels in the isiXhosa Medium Foundation Phase (Grade1, 2 and 3) classrooms improved significantly during the course of 2012.
Grahamstown NGO Gadra Education has announced that literacy levels in the isiXhosa Medium Foundation Phase (Grade1, 2 and 3) classrooms improved significantly during the course of 2012.
Most significantly, at Grade 2 level, Gadra Education said, there had been an increase of more than 100% in the percentage of learners capable of reading at the expected level. At the beginning of 2012, less than a quarter of Grade 2s could read at the level expected of them then; by October almost 60% could read at the higher level expected of them at the end of the school year.
Almost as dramatically, whereas only a third of Grade 3s could read at the level expected of them then, by October more than 60% could read at the higher level expected of them at the end of the school year. In other words, there had been an 80% improvement in the percentage of Grade 3 learners capable of reading at Grade level, Gadra Education said in a recent press release.
The organisation conducted baseline assessments in February and said these had revealed alarmingly low literacy levels in Foundation Phase classrooms. Teachers had been shocked into action by the results of these assessments, Gadra Education said. Significantly, their resolution led to effective action on their part in the classroom.
Gadra Education’s Foundations for Literacy Programme has been running independent literacy assessments in all isiXhosa medium primary schools in Grahamstown since 2009. Gadra Education conducts independent assessments, despite the existence of the Annual National Assessments (ANAs). According to the organisation, this is due to the questionable reliability and restricted release of ANA results.
