The reading crisis leaving thousands of children 'functionally illiterate' - What You Need To Know

Primary schools in the UK are using discredited methods to teach reading, which risks making thousands of children unable to read.
ITV News' Wales reporter Rhys Williams has been investigating this teaching method, and seeing the effects first-hand.
So, why is this 'outdated' method still being taught?
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[@sunray83b]

Bigger class sizes, budget cuts, lack of discipline, many (but not all) , low income households not being as well run, parents needing to work more, many (but not all) children having bad sleep hygiene and poorer nutrition, lack of courses freely available for parents, videos on streaming services replacing books often times. It's a perfect storm.

[@RDCFemmes]

Class size has nothing to do with it. Where I was from, somewhere in Africa, the average class size is 25 children and we still learn to read. It is a French country, some schools now are bilingual so children in a developing country in a big class can read in two languages (French and English) in a French speaking country and children in a first world country, can't read the only language they know.

[@Mpz3cat]

If you were reading with your child at home then you’d know she’s not at the level she should be and could’ve taken action

[@IshtarNike]

This is true. He easy provision of iPads and electronic entertainment have destroyed these basic forms of home education. Why read them a story book when their only interest is playing on the iPad. They're addicted to it by the time they can even start to think about reading.

[@snsn7251]

This is not new. It's been going on since as far back as 20 years ago

[@noramaddy4409]

Many parents in low socioeconomic areas are in dire need of education. Fancy spending a few thousand on tattoos instead of picking up a few educational activities and reading books for your child? Many parents allow their child to watch TV or a tablet right up to before bedtime-wait for it-10 pm! What happened to children being in bed by 8 pm sharp?

[@lilbabydoodoo]

yes let's blame these marginal cases and not the fact single parents are forced to work multiple jobs to afford to care for the child and they don't have as much time to educate them. it's a purposeful ploy from the govt to keep people undereducated

[@42l58]

No local libraries? Oh well, if parents couldn't be bothered!

[@edmundprice5276]

Perhaps we need to pressure tech companies to have a text based user interface, minimal use of symbols. I learned to read at the same time as i learned to use a PC. I was born in 2000

[@theukeconomist6518]

Why aren't the parents helping their own kids to read, surely the parents should read with their kids at home, too?

[@celticcheetah6371]

Not all parents can read fluently themselves.

[@TheQuietGuyAtTheBack]

Absolutely. It starts at home. I don’t understand why the parents aren’t more engaged with their children’s education? Lazy parenting?

[@claudiamayer-g9h]

Parents are busier earning money mostly in lower income with 10-12 hours/day (particularly health professionals)

[@theukeconomist6518]

@@celticcheetah6371 Then they should reconsider having children if they can't give that child the support they need to thrive in life.

[@SpocksCat]

@@theukeconomist6518 So the poor shouldn't have children? And decrease the surplus population, hm?

[@mlady8137]

Theres no contradtion here with reading methods he discussed. Both phonics and contextual reading menthods can be uses simultaneously. We teach children to prioritise their phonic knowledge first and then if they are still stuck to think about context, read on or look at a graphic for help. Sometimes good old fashioned guessing is encouraged too. It all works together.

[@ibRebecca]

I remember when we had to read out loud in class when I was 15 and I was shocked at how slowly people read, not fluently at all. This was mostly boys too.

[@gabrielajonczyk5663]

It is a behavioral issue - children aren't with words, paper and books but with images. As a dyslectic person that is not native English speaker I would advise children to just be bored with the text that is on paper in the calm environment. Children that don't see their parents read won't read either.

[@siewheilou399]

How about their reading skill level in Welsh and Scottish?

[@boroto2boroto]

Because Welsh is spelt quite logically compared to English, apparently Welsh kids learn to read Welsh much faster than English kids learn to read English - once you know what letter makes what sound, you're good to go in Welsh! English is much more difficult.

[@jujutrini8412]

I took it as my personal responsibility to teach my kids to read.

[@Bunfire123]

I wonder if a lack of church attendance has any correlation. Church often encourages reading from a early age. (Sunday school material, verses, hymns, breaking down long names etc).

[@mlady8137]

That's interesting....

[@WolfsburgWarehouse]

👂💨No child left unarmed.

[@katejackson7432]

my kid cud read b4 infant school. we need things like sure start back t help new perents learn how fast small children can learn t read. even if u only spend an hr a day at bedtime.

[@benu_bird]

Just looking at your writing, I seriously doubt that.

[@katejackson7432]

@@benu_bird i have arthritis so i cant read?

[@katejackson7432]

@@benu_bird there are many perents who honestly believe that its schools job. often they dont have faith in thier ability t teach the basics. i know this to be the case and have on multipul occasions had friends tell me as much when they wud comment on my son reading for fun as a toddler. places like sure start did a great job of empowering perents and teaching them skills to increase learning in early years and stats are there to show it

[@benu_bird]

@@katejackson7432 I didn't say you didn't know how to read. I questioned your ability to teach a child to read considering your writing.

[@katejackson7432]

@@benu_bird right coz no1 uses shortened words on small keyboards. oddly enuf im not fussed if u believe me. my son was accepted via bursury to the best public school in the area and has enjoyed a huge amount of books and storys from around the world wich does matter to me

[@esthermarcen7587]

My Finnish nephew who is 11 can read and understand English quite well, he has had English as a second language for the last 4 years, what is Wales doing? that is crazy to me.

[@Fashionmadebyhand]

My child is exceptionally intelligent, however isn't interested in studying. As he didn't like studying , I left it to the school to teach him. He was about to go to year 2 and still didn't know some of the alphabet letters and couldn't read at all. Fortunately I started as a TA job in January in a different school and realised that in year 4 /5 some kids couldn't read. I was shocked and realised this is what's happening to my child. I started teaching him at home 10mins first then increased it to 20 to 30mins daily, and started tuition one hour a week.. Within 8 months he is reading year 3 books, and he just started year 2. So if your child isn't interested in studying, schools don't bother! This is my experience and some of the other mums I know. Parents are teaching them themselves or sending children to tuition! Schools are for children who want to study, for rest it's merely for funding reasons!

[@StratsRUs]

As Planned

[@bradleedenney]

Was hoping to you would mention the race factor. Is there a culture that reading is not fundamental?

[@williama-d6]

my dad was telling me we got taught phoenix in primary school

[@dog79-p5l]

Itv doesn't telling the whole truth ask as well how many Welsh children are in these classrooms? 10-20%? Here's your problem

[@Ballinalower]

Never mind, they are learning the important things like men can have babies.

[@FreudsSlipper]

Dear Wales, your damp,cold&misty, murky&grey-skies neighbour here 👋🙂🇮🇪 Welsh students, firstly, shouldn't be obliged to learn English at all until they get to Secondary School anyway. It should be taught as a "Second Language", which is what it is to ALL CELTS. And equally, all Celtic Nations ought to come together to distill European-centricity and Anglo-centricity *out of* Psychology, Cognitive Science, Educational Psychology, and Education itself. And then *reform* those Theoretical, Academic, and Applied fields so that they are actually *pertinent* to the Celtic Language, Culture, Ethos, Collectivism, Psychology and Disposition. Welsh phonetics, like Gaeilge, are extremely different to those of English. Ireland is the greatest evidence of learned&prioritised early years Anglophone phonetic learning obstructing the effective learning, and fluent pronunciation, and retained permanency of, the indigenous language. Whereas Wales has a stronger presence&practice of, at least verbal, bilingualism. But eh...yyyyehhh lads...emm....verbally naming 'the thing in the picture' is a shockingly blatantly dumb process 😬 ..in any language or culture 😬 sorry 😬 But it's true 😬 Word within 'context of sentence' should be very last resort *AND* at a much older age when reading fluency is established. If pupils don't learn phonetically, they will struggle, and likely fail, to learn International Languages as they will fail to grasp the necessity of breaking down and learning diverse phonetic pronounciations of same or similar *looking* letters, and learning pronounciations of entirely new script (like Arabic Script/Alphabet or Hangul or Cyrillic). There really is no use in being beligerantly dissident for the sake of it, if it is educationally, academically, and professionally, holding your population back.

[@jonathanhill9504]

Yeah, stop teaching a universal language that half your country and all your neighbor countries speak and force them to use Welsh, a dying language with no future prospects 😂

[@00Xander00]

I hope they aren't forced to learn Welsh in primary schools. It's a super hard thing to learn and wouldn't be fair on them as they may develop a belief that spelling is hard which would make them less confident with being able to read/write which will be a fundamental problem later on. I've just Googled it whist writing this. Yes, not only do they learn Welsh, but they learn it as their PRIMARY language :O. Shame on UK government for allowing Wales to even have their own 'government' in the first place. It's about time Wales becomes a part of England anyway. Not that I hate Wales or Welsh people, but the opposite. It's not fair on them. It's England anyway in my mind. Imagine if England had to learn English from 1000 years ago as the primary language just because culture stuff. You can only cram so much into a curriculum. Shakespeare & school uniforms diverts people to want to learn anyway, never mind having to learn another language for no beneficial reason, other than old people obsessed with a fake culture. It's a superficial shame.

[@WelshChapman]

This may be an unpopular opinion in our woke world: It all starts at home. As parents, it's your duty to help develop your child ready for the adult world and if they fail, you've failed Fat lazy parenting makes my skin crawl

[@pennyhall6973]

Thought we had teachers for this.

[@07Flash11MRC]

Teachers can't parent the kids. This is an issue of parents not doing their jobs.

[@pennyhall6973]

@@07Flash11MRC I’m sure you’re right, but I can’t help but think reading is so incredibly important the people being paid to deliver the skill set ought to be able to do it. If they can’t, then maybe they need to be better trained and supported.

[@07Flash11MRC]

@@pennyhall6973 Teachers are paid to teach, not to parent. Besides, parents get plenty taxpayer money to raise feed and clothe their children. Additionally it is also wrong to force teachers to also be the childrens' and their parents' therapist´, psychologist, baby-sitter, etc.

[@antaje407]

I'm from the US and a teacher. Teacher can only do so much. It takes a village to support our learners. Now what needs to be research is if the parents also struggle with reading and intervention methods for ELAR classes. We're having a similar problem here where our students are becoming behind on reading.