MPs call for rethink of literacy strategy
An influential select committee is urging the Government to review its literacy strategy after concluding one in five 11-year-olds are still failing to meet expected standards.
Describing the failure level as “unacceptably high” the House of Commons Education Select Committee calls for an “urgent review” of the way reading and literacy is taught to children from a young age.
However, the report acknowledges that the teaching of reading is an “extremely complex” area and it is difficult to discover which methods are most effective at improving literacy among pupils.
Committee chairman, Labour MP Barry Sheerman, said that literacy was the key to education achievement throughout a child’s life and all children needed the “best teaching possible.”
“The committee fully acknowledges that the acquisition of reading is an extremely complex subject, which is influenced by factors outside a school’s control, such as socio-economic background, neurological development, the language of instruction and the experiences and stimuli a child encounters at a very early age.
“However, we do consider that teaching methods also have a significant impact on a child’s chances of becoming a fluent reader.”
Responding to the findings, Labour insisted that progress has been made since coming to power, arguing that its National Literacy Strategy has helped the proportion of children reaching the required standard at 11 to increase from 67 per cent in 1997 to 83 per cent in 2004.
But the report suggests part of that increase may be down to “teaching to the test” by staff, rather than any real improvement in terms of reading ability.
As such, the MPs recommend that the DfES commissions an independent evaluation of trends in reading standards among primary school children to clarify the problem faced.
And, the MPs said there should be large-scale trails of synthetic phonics to see whether they can help children.
Shadow Education Secretary Tim Collins said the report was evidence that the current strategy was letting children down and called for a greater focus on synthetic phonics.
Mr Collins said: “The next Conservative government will put synthetic phonics at the heart of our literacy strategy. We recognise, as ministers stubbornly refuse to, that synthetic phonics work best only if applied first, fast and exclusively. We are determined to make sure that every child who is capable of learning does so before leaving primary school and we will not allow failed sixties theories or twenty-first century political correctness to stop us.”
Liberal Democrat education spokesman Phil Willis said it was important to stress that “one size doesn’t fit all”.
He said: “In addition to phonics as the basis of reading programmes we need to free teachers from the tyranny of testing and targets and allow them to practise the methods that are best for their pupils.
“What teachers are crying out for are smaller class sizes so that they are able to spend more one-to-one time with each child.”
