GCSE pupils with reading age of 12
A QUARTER of all 15-year- olds have a reading age of just 12, a study has claimed.
And the research reveals those who lag in literacy suffer in their GCSEs – even in subjects such as science and maths – because they struggle to understand questions which in recent years have become increasingly ‘text heavy’.
The findings will renew concern about the levels of literacy in schools amid a decline in reading for pleasure, especially since ‘more demanding’ GCSEs were introduced by the Government in 2017.
Researchers analysed the results of a standardised reading test taken by 370,000 15-year- olds, and compared them with their GCSE results in 2018/19.
The report by test provider GL Assessment said: ‘Our study showed that there is a significant correlation between reading ability and GCSE results across all subjects. This was not just the case in English, but in maths and science too.’
The study found that 25 per cent of the 15-year-olds have a reading age of 12 and 20 per cent have the skills of an 11-year-old. Some 10 per cent have a reading age equivalent to a nineyear-old. There is also a gender gap in literacy skills – 53 per cent of 15-yearold girls have the expected or ‘higher’ reading ability for their age, compared with 47 per cent for boys.
The report added: ‘ Given the importance of literacy to the whole school curriculum, it follows that those students who struggle with it are at a significant disadvantage – a sizeable minority are years behind their peers at 15.’
Crispin Chatterton, director of education at GL Assessment, said: ‘Our analysis makes clear how important it is for children to be good readers.
‘Students who have poor reading skills will find it more difficult to access wide swathes of their GCSE courses – and those who lack subjectspecific language skills, which are difficult to acquire if students don’t have good reading skills, will be doubly disadvantaged.’
Professor Alan Smithers, director of the Centre for Education and Employment Research at Buckingham University, said: ‘It is very concerning. Without good reading skills, children are not going to get as much out of their lives as they could have.’
‘Years behind their peers at 15’