Reading ability of pupils ‘satisfactory’

Press, 8 December 1988, Page 15

Reading ability of pupils ‘satisfactory’

By

JENNY LONG

Most Standard 2 children in Christchurch have satisfactory reading ability, according to a three-year survey.

Of the children tested at Standard 2 (eight years old), 96 per cent are reading satisfactorily. The remaining four per cent are given extra help. The study, by the Education Department and Canterbury Education Board, covered all schools within a 20 kilometre radius of central Christchurch. The district adviser on reading, Mrs Nada Beardsley, said that more than two thirds of the children needing extra help were boys. A large number of the children tested had hearing problems. This year,

about one quarter of the under-achievers had a hearing loss. Mrs Beardsley said there was a clear relationship between broken attendance and reading difficulty. On average, children with reading difficulties had been absent for more than eight school weeks in their first three years of schooling. A number of children had missed 20 school weeks. Mrs Beardsley said the programme had been started to provide a second “safety net” for children having difficulty reading.

The reading recovery programme operates for children, aged six, who are still having difficulties after normal classroom teaching. The programme has not been available in all Christchurch schools. In Timaru, where reading recovery is available in all schools, only eight Standard 2 children required help this year. Mrs Beardsley said the two services and good teaching in the classrooms appeared to be meeting the reading needs of Timaru children.