English children lead the West for reading

Phonics credited for fourth place in world rankings as nine and 10-year-olds outstrip Europe and US

CHILDREN in England are the best readers in the western world, an international study has found. English nine and 10-year-olds came fourth in world rankings for literacy, after beating the United States and every other country in western Europe which participated.

The Government said England’s focus on phonics, which teaches children to read using sounds, has helped to develop more confident young readers over the past decade.

Rishi Sunak said that improving literacy rates was “central to our plan to grow the economy”. He said: “While there is always more progress to be made, pupils and teachers across the country should be incredibly proud of this achievement today.”

England has improved its position since the last Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (Pirls) tests in 2016, when it was joint-eighth, overtaking Finland and Poland. Singapore was first in the latest results, followed by Hong Kong and Russia. The latest Pirls study was conducted in 2021. England was among only 11 of 43 countries that did not record a significant decline in their scores since the last test in 2016. England’s score of 558 was above the international average of 520 and the European average of 524. The country moved to fourth place after Finland and Poland’s scores dropped to 549.

Two of the countries that previously beat England, Northern Ireland and Ireland, were not included in this year’s rankings because of delays to testing caused by the pandemic. Scotland and Wales did not participate.

In the latest results, the US score was 548. South Africa had the lowest score of 288. China did not participate.

Girls outperformed boys in many countries, but the gender gap in England has narrowed, although this was driven by a slight decline in girls’ performance since the last test.

Nick Gibb, the schools minister, said the decline for girls was “very minimal”.

He said the results taken by nine and 10-year-olds were proof of the success of phonics, which teaches children to recognise the sounds that letters make and blend them to make words.

He said: “The approach that the Government has taken, in the face of quite a lot of opposition from vested interests, has been successful in seeing children’s reading improving in this country.”

Mr Gibb said he wanted to ensure that the progress made by primary school children was sustained through secondary school.

More than 4,000 pupils in England completed a reading assessment and questionnaire online that was used to determine the rankings.

Dr Dirk Hastedt, executive director of the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement, which runs the study, said: “England was among the very few countries that were able to maintain the achievement levels that they’ve shown in 2016.”