http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/sout ... af8b25f798
.Author and 2015 Senior Australian of the Year Jackie French calls for schools to scrap outdated literacy programs
April 18, 2016
Tim Williams Education reporterThe Advertiser
RENOWNED author and 2015 Senior Australian of the Year Jackie French wants the State Government to ditch school literacy programs she says don’t work and leave struggling students in “despair”.
“We need a lot more support for teachers, a heck of a lot more for kids, but also for the adults who missed out (at school),” the award winning writer, who will speak at a Dyslexia SA event next month, told The Advertiser .
Her comments follow a stinging letter she wrote to Education Minister Susan Close, criticising the use of outdated teaching methods and programs such as Reading Recovery that were “not only failing to teach children to read, but, each time a child fails, leading them to despair”.
Dyslexia SA is highlighting the letter in a campaign calling for early screening for the disorder, mandatory teacher training about learning difficulties, and recognition of dyslexia as a disability.
Reading Recovery has been increasingly criticised for focusing too much on “whole language” learning, which involves guessing at unfamiliar words by their context, rather than the sounding out of words known as phonics.
French said it was an example of literacy programs that were “like a placebo” — reliant on the skill and dedication of teachers devoting a lot of one-on-one attention to students for often limited and short-lived results — instead of the efficacy of the schemes themselves.
The Education Department said Reading Recovery was not widespread and funding for it was cut at the end of last year, but schools with tutors trained in the program could still be implementing it.
It said annual funding for learning difficulties has risen 60 per cent since 2010 to $14.1 million this year, allowing early childhood educators to be well trained in observing and monitoring young children’s development and use a range of assessment tools and interventions.
However, Dyslexia SA president Dr Sandra Marshall said “frantic parents and anxious children” lacked access to early screening, assessment, and literacy intervention, pointing to the Victorian Government’s recent decision to screen every child for dyslexia when they start school.
SA Primary Principals Association president Pam Kent said early screening for dyslexia and better teacher training was needed “because there are students that slip through the net”.
Ms Kent said schools needed a range of literacy approaches for different students and Reading Recovery was effective for some children