The Progress in International Reading Literacy (Pirl) study 2016 ranked South Africa 50th out of the 50 countries assessed.
The results showed that the lowest level of attainment was across nine of the 11 African languages tested. Children who have learned English and Afrikaans were more likely to be able to read, while 80 per cent of those learning in one of the indigenous languages struggled to achieve a basic level of reading.
Despite highlighting the poor literacy results, the Pirl study also revealed that between 2011 and 2016 there had been improvements in performance for five of the 11 South African languages, including English at grade 4 level.
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