Dear Editor,

The recent report about a significant number of grade 7 students in a Corporate Area high school being unable to read should trouble us all. This is not an isolated incident; it is a reflection of a deeper national crisis.

As a high school educator, I have seen this issue at first hand, and it is more widespread than many of us are willing to admit.

I recently began working with a student who had been failing every subject. Curious about what was behind the consistent low performance, I examined her work more closely. It became clear: She was grappling with serious literacy challenges. Spelling was a major issue. Her sentence structure was often incoherent. And, she struggled to understand instructions.

One assignment required students to write a simple e-mail in response to a specific prompt. Though she submitted an e-mail, it was entirely unrelated to the task. That moment revealed the extent of her reading difficulty. She couldn’t comprehend the prompt — not because she didn’t try, but because she simply couldn’t decode what it was asking.

Sadly, she is not alone. There are many like her in our schools — bright children with potential, lost in overcrowded classrooms of 40 to 50 students. In such an environment, struggling readers become invisible. And yet this student’s difficulties didn’t begin in high school.

It made me wonder: If I could quickly identify that this child had literacy challenges, why hadn’t it been flagged before? Why hadn’t earlier interventions taken place?

The truth is, we need a serious shift in focus. There must be sustained investment in literacy and numeracy at the primary level, with targeted support continuing into lower secondary school.

But this is not just the responsibility of English teachers. Literacy must be everyone’s business. Every subject teacher must find ways to incorporate reading, writing, and comprehension into their lessons. Whether it’s a mathematics problem, a science experiment, or a geography passage, students must be taught how to engage with texts, extract meaning, and communicate ideas. Without these skills they will continue to struggle — not just in English, but in every subject area. You cannot master chemistry if you can’t read the question. You cannot succeed in history if you cannot comprehend the source. Poor literacy limits everything — academic success, confidence, participation, and even behaviour.

It’s time to move away from rote learning and “swatting” for exams, which merely mask learning gaps rather than address them. We must adopt teaching strategies that foster critical thinking, comprehension, and effective expression. Students need to read and write more, across every subject, every classroom, every level.

If we truly want to raise a generation of empowered, capable young people we must prioritise literacy with the urgency and seriousness it deserves.

Teddense Thomas

Teacher

teddensetkt@gmail.com