Factors affecting Grade 6 learners’ reading performance in a rural school in Maluti, South Africa

Abstract

Background: Rural learners face severe reading challenges that are unique to their environment. The challenges include parents’ low level of education, little or no parental support, lack of reading material, and parents’ low socio-economic status. It is therefore important that rural education research highlights these challenges in order to help in addressing them.Objectives: The study sought to explore the factors affecting the reading performance of Grade 6 learners from the Maluti District in the Eastern Cape.Methods: The study was qualitative in nature and a case study design was followed. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 10 purposively selected learners. Vygotsky’s sociocultural theory was used as a theoretical framework to anchor the study. Content analysis was used to analyse the data.Results: The findings showed that the reading performance of learners from rural areas such as the Maluti District was affected by several factors, specifically, the low level of education of their parents, a home environment that is not conducive for after-school reading, the parents’ socio-economic status, and non-availability of reading material at school and at home.Conclusion: Recommendations are made for appropriate interventions that seek to overcome the identified factors that hinder rural learners’ reading performance. The study identified a number of contributing factors that are likely to serve as barriers to rural learners’ reading performance. Knowing these factors is likely to assist teachers in making educated judgements regarding the teaching methods and the appropriate strategies to employ to help learners overcome the identified barriers to reading.

‘It's like a compass which I use to find direction’: Findings and learning from an evaluation of an App designed to support the teaching of reading comprehension in rural and township schools in South Africa

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Effectiveness of mnemonic instruction in enhancing of reading ability among learners with dyslexia in South Africa: analysis of age differences

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Leadership Issues: Investigation of the Etiology of Curriculum Delivery in Rural Institutions of Learning

“…Failure of learners have been attributed to different factors such as lack of infrastructure (Barrett et al, 2019), socio-economic background of learners’ family (Gobena, 2018), lack of parents’ involvement (Cekiso et al, 2022), among others. However, not much seems to have been stated with regards to leadership in terms of rapid curriculum change and delivery.…”