15% of Grade 3 pupils can’t read a single word

South Africa’s reading crisis is showing little sign of improvement, with the latest findings painting a bleak picture of early literacy in the country. The 2030 Reading Panel’s 2026 report, released on Tuesday, reveals that 15% of Grade 3 pupils in South Africa cannot “decode even a single word by the end of their third year of formal schooling”. At the same time, only 30% of pupils in Grades 1-3 are reading at grade level in their home language.

The findings suggest that either not enough is being done by the Department of Basic Education (DBE) or that existing interventions are failing to produce meaningful results. Speaking at the Mlambo Foundation Reading Panel Conference, Basic Education Minister Siviwe Gwarube said the data confirms a long-standing problem. She pointed out that both the 2030 Reading Panel’s 2026 report and the Funda Uphumelele National Survey confirmed what “international and national assessments have long indicated: learning gaps begin in the early grades and not in matric, not in the intermediate or senior phase, but in the foundation phase itself.” Gwarube rejected suggestions that reading had been sidelined.

She said literacy had not been “deprioritised” by her department, but was central to its plans, including early childhood development (ECD) and mother tongue-based bilingual education. Despite interventions, the Reading Panel reported that 89% of Grade 3 pupils could not read in Sepedi, while 69% of pupils could not read in IsiZulu, 67% were unable to read in Tshivenda, and 52% failed to read in English. The report further detailed the percentage of Grade 3 pupils reaching grade-level home language (HL) benchmarks by province: