Eight out of every 10 children in South Africa can’t read properly. Not in English, not in their home language, not in any language. According to The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS), an international comparative reading assessment: 78% of Grade 4 learners in South Africa cannot read for meaning, and this is significantly worse for children tested in African languages—93% of Grade 4 students tested in Sepedi could not read for meaning with similarly large percentages among Setswana (90%), Tshivenda (89%), isiXhosa (88%), Xitsonga (88%), isiZulu (87%) and isiNdebele (87%). At this stage of a child’s development, the ability to locate explicit information and make straightforward inferences about events and reasons for actions is considered crucial for learning other subjects from Grade 4 onward. South Africa is unique among upper middle-income countries in that less than half of its primary school children learn to read for meaning in any language in lower primary school. Out of the 50 countries surveyed, South Africa came last.

According to Stellenbosch University economist Nic Spaull, there are three explanations: Foundation Phase teachers (grades 1-3) do not know how to systematically teach reading; the poorest schools in the country are extremely text-poor and there is wasted learning time during the school day. But this becomes more complicated when viewed through the language lens: the sobering reality is that because many children are quickly pushed into learning in a new language (English), and this is a major factor contributing to their low academic success. The negative effects of early illiteracy cascade to adversely affect the development of cognitive skills and later educational development.

Neuroscience research reveals that early childhood is the ideal time to develop the basic skills for reading fluency, and the degree to which children acquire language skills and become motivated, habitual readers, is a strong predictor of future academic success, educational attainment, employment and income. Additionally, the costs of addressing reading problems are much lower in early primary school. But improving literacy outcomes requires resource inputs—teaching, learning and leisure reading materials—for both teachers and children to use in class and at home. Research has shown that if children learn to read in a familiar language, not only do they stand a better chance of learning to read with meaning, but the transfer to English is easier. And yet, despite all this evidence that reading books are a cost-effective means of improving education outcomes, South Africa is very far from having abundant, accessible and affordable African language reading materials. Why?

Answering this is tricky—it’s almost impossible to separate the global challenge of English’s hegemony from national policy issues on language use in schools; or to prioritize the technical development of one language (through editing guides or benchmarking standards) at the expense of another (South Africa has eleven official languages). Other issues include cultural biases in books translated from English, the marketability of African language books deterring traditional publishers, and the dearth of information about the demand for African language children’s books. So, poor in-school early literacy results concatenate with many other factors that extend far beyond the domain of education departments.