Dear Editor,

The fact that a significant number of first formers is reading below their grade level is cause for national concern.

However, despite all the talk regarding literacy intervention programmes, one gets the feeling that there is no national consensus concerning how to adequately address the reading crisis we face as a nation.

The crisis is multi-layered and therefore the solutions must adhere to similar principles. Undoubtedly, our schools must be the primary vehicle for achieving reading readiness for all students. As such, phonics should be compulsory at the primary level from grades one to four. The Primary Exit Profile (PEP) should be only for grades five and six.

By the time they reach high school, many students are ill-equipped to decode and sound letters. These skills should be mastered at the primary level. Teachers do try despite the resource limitations; however, class size remains a barrier to literacy. All grades at the primary level should have two teachers. We cannot continue to have 30 students in a class with one teacher and expect miracles to happen when those who create policies have already handicapped the system and subsequently the learning outcomes. We need to return to basics.

Marion Joseph, a renowned expert on reading instruction who came out of retirement in the 1980s to wage a personal crusade for the adoption of phonics in the State of California, said, “Phonics stresses fundamental instruction in the letters and letter combinations that make up sounds, thus allowing children to ‘sound out’ words and later whole sentences and passages.”

Governor Gavin Newsom, who has struggled with dyslexia, a disorder affecting his ability to read, included $200 million in the 2025-26 state budget to train teachers in phonics. Meanwhile, Assembly Bill 1454 is moving quickly through the legislative process. Sponsored by pro-phonics legislators, including Assembly Speaker Robert Rivas, it requires the state Board of Education to adopt phonics-based instructional materials and include phonics in reading teacher credential programmes.

The success of schools is largely associated with support from the homes. In too many instances our children do not see parents or guardians reading, especially the fathers. Unfortunately, the culture does not support reading and this, too, is yet another barrier to literacy.

The male who reads is rapidly disappearing. Women and girls are by far the most users of library services globally. This gendered reality regarding reading has far-reaching implications for the national discourse concerning falling literacy rates among our high school students. Girls are encouraged to go and pick up a book, while no such instruction is given to the boys. This gendered approach to socialisation and schooling needs to be revisited. Additionally, there is a culture which dictates to boys that reading is anti-masculine and, sadly, this subculture, which is reinforced by popular culture, has turned off many of our boys from education in general and reading in particular. This lack of motivation for reading must be addressed with a sense of urgency.

Our public libraries have become architectural relics of a bygone era. In fact, some community libraries have closed over the years. Our school libraries are not as robust as they once were, yet we wonder when as a society we arrived at this counter culture to reading.

If California can build a phonics-led consensus to address the dismal reading levels of its students, it means we can too.

There is no need to reinvent the wheel to tackle illiteracy. What is needed is consensus-building and the forging of partnerships to interrogate and dismantle all barriers to literacy.

Wayne Campbell

waykam@yahoo.com