The effects of poor reading and writing in the attainment of quality education in Tshwane west district primary schools in Pretoria

Abstract

This qualitative study aimed to ascertain the effects of poor reading and writing on the attainment of quality education in primary schools in the Tshwane West District. A sample of four Heads of Departments and eight teachers were purposively and non-randomly selected to take part in the study. The face-to-face interviews were conducted using Tikly’s model for understanding education quality in Africa. This assisted in the framing of the interview questions and bringing relevance to the needs of the study. The study found that issues relating to language barriers, lack of parental involvement, overcrowding, and resources are the main causes that affect the attainment of quality education in primary schools around the Tshwane West district, are rife. This then showed that the policy from the Department of Education does not coerce the community to work hand in hand with the school to jointly assist the learners in reading and writing. The recommendation is that there should be a policy change that should ensure that there is synergy between the community and the schools to assist learners with reading and writing that would address issues of a language barrier, overcrowding, and resources.

Keywords

• quality education
• reading
• writing
• parental involvement