Hundreds of WA children are still “functionally illiterate” when they start high school, with many up to five years behind their peers.
The Fogarty Foundation, an education support group that seeks to improve educational outcomes in disadvantaged communities, said it had found 70 per cent of Year 7s in low socio-economic high schools were reading at Year 5 level or below and 35 per cent were at Year 3 level.
“The vast majority of these students are from two to five years behind when they enter high school and are functionally illiterate,” Fogarty EDvance program director Ingrid Sealey said.
“They cannot access the curriculum material necessary to learn at high school level.
“Without targeted support, they struggle to improve and can fall further behind, become disengaged with school and behavioural issues grow.”
Edith Cowan University senior lecturer Lorraine Hammond said universities did not train secondary teachers to teach students how to read, so they struggled to help students who lacked the literacy skills they required.
