This report by GL Education provides the findings so far of the impact of the pandemic on students’ reading ability. The report is based on analysis of results from the New Group Reading Test (NGRT) and the Pupil Attitudes to Self and School (PASS) measure, which looks at student attitudes upon their return to school.
The report says that fears that children’s reading abilities have declined significantly during lockdown have been overstated. According to the analysis of data from almost 160,000 students, the decrease isn’t large – the equivalent of two months’ learning loss in reading.
It was reported that the government was considering emergency action after unpublished figures had found that 200,000 children were leaving primary school without being able to read properly.
Researchers, while not disputing those numbers, say they should be put in context. Some children’s reading abilities have declined but overall they have held up remarkably well and it is inaccurate to suggest, as some media headlines did, that ‘200,000 primary school children are illiterate’.
The report found that from almost 160,000 students, while reading scores at primary school in England have declined the decrease isn’t large – the equivalent of two months’ learning loss in reading. And the decline of students’ reading abilities at secondary school is much less – falling by less than a month’s learning loss in terms of reading.