Influence of the availability of school libraries on the reading attitude and reading achievement of primary school learners in South Africa

Abstract

Given the importance of the ability to read, learners must have access to books in schools. The lack of functional school libraries in South Africa, especially in primary schools, is to the detriment of learners’ reading achievement. In the 2011 Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) study, Grades 4 and 5 children achieved the lowest scores in the reading comprehension tests of the 40 participating countries. The researcher proposes that one intervention that would help solve the low levels of reading literacy among learners would be for schools to have an official school library policy, and to have functional well-stocked school libraries. This study seeks to identify the self-reported reading attitudes of learners who took part in the PIRLS 2011 study using a secondary data analysis, and to investigate by means of a systematic literature review, materials published between 1994 and 2017 on the non-implementation of school library policies. This study recommends speeding up progress in meeting minimum norms for school infrastructure in order to create a space for functional school libraries in all schools. Secondly, it suggests that access to books for primary school learners should be improved, and lastly, that the national guidelines for school libraries on planning and reforming school libraries should be finalised and implemented. Key