Schools’ reading problem

Press, Volume CXIII, Issue 38183, 24 March 1973, Page 17

Schools’ reading problem

; (Bfj our education, reporter) I A serious lack of reading I ability is being encountered among new entrants to Christchurch secondary schools. Almost one out of ; every five third-formers is retarded in reading ability, and school principals consider that many punils will leave school “barely lit- ' erate.” ' State and private second-ary-school principals and .English teachers have ex-i I pressed a common concern: that each year as many as 20 pupils leave each of Christchurch’s secondary schools) I unable to meet the everyday; reading demands of the com- ! munity. These pupils do not! include those classified; “backward.” To gain a driver’s licence, read a newspaper, fill in official forms, or use a telephone directory, young people need to have a reading age of between 13 and 14 years. Figures from six State and private secondary schools indicate that more" than 15 per cent of their new entrants arrive with between four and five years backwardness in reading ability. Working on past figures, secondary-school principals lagreed that a “significant ■ number” — perhaps 20 children — would leave their schools at the end of next year unable to read as well as an average 10-year-old. Remedial reading given by secondary schools must concentrate, largely because of the pressure of” numbers, on those pupils with less backiwardness in reading, who lean be brought quickly up to I a suitable standard. The rest are “written off,” as principals consider that relatively I little can be done to make up for a marked lack of reading ability, once a 13 or 14- • I year-old reaches secondary I school. If the new entrant is backward in reading ability, then all his other work is handicapped. Reading experts in secondary schools agree that unless reading backwardness is checked by the time a child is eight years of age. the chance of later success is limited.

“Many of our young entrants are simply doomed to some sort of half-life as they will never be able to cope with the reading demands outside school,” one principal said. “By the time many come to us, they are so far behind they can never catch up.”

The director of the New Zealand Police Youth Aid Section (Inspector B. Mooney) said from Wellington that there was a marked co-rela-tion between lack of reading

[ability and crime. “A lot of’ young people who appear before us seem to have got ’ through secondary school; ; without any educational suc- ) cesses,” he said. “There are [certainly man.v who border ion the illiterate.” A lot of young people of-) fended, Inspector Mooney; said, because they were frus-; trated and unable to cope with the daily demands of the community.

“It. would certainly seem ; to me that a lack of reading ability features in this. I think the whole question is lone which is wide open fori investigation,” Inspector [ Mooney said. The responsibility of pri-

Ijmary schools to make sure (that children were given as 'much remedial reading assistance as possible was empha- ■ sised by secondary-school (principals. ! This year, with 312 State primary schools and 85 private primary schools to consider. the Canterbury Education Board has. under present regulations, 25 remedial-read-ing teachers who are each ’ allotted 10 hours a week to

work in particular schools. These teachers are part-time' employees of the Education Board and supplement the: remedial work conducted by’ two reading clinics at the, Christchurch East primary’ school. The district senior inspec-l tor of primary schools (Mr B. J. Wilson) said that, the De-; partment of Education had a ■‘far greater awareness that) the reading problem did exist I n primary schools.”

' The move towards reduced pupil-teacher ratios and recognition of the fact that every classroom teacher was a “remedial teacher” — in reading as well as other subjects — would help to alleviate some of the problems, he said.

Many primary schools in the Canterbury district were being given extra permanent staffing so that the remedial work could be more easily incorporated into school planning rather than have it provided in isolation through part-time remedial-reading teachers.

“The child requiring remedial help should be given it in the normal classroom situation. Our biggest concern is to help the permanent classroom teacher so that he can recognise and deal with these problems,” Mr Wilson said. “With some children, there are often pretty deep-seated problems which must be solved before the child can be helped to learn to read," he said.

Parents must realise that they could not expect all the by-products of good reading habits without themselves i contributing to them. i “There are so many homes! (where children are' simply] ( not aware of books, not, Talked with, or read to. This; I all contributes to a problem [before the child even starts' i school,” Mr Wilson said. (