Reading Recovery: 30 per cent fewer New Zealand kids getting intensive literacy support

Fewer children are getting intensive literacy support through the Reading Recovery programme. Photo / 123rf

In the last three years, 31 per cent fewer students have received one-on-one literacy support through Reading Recovery.

Ministry of Education data released today showed 8336 six-year-olds received individual teaching in 2019 compared with 5789 last year.

Between 2021 and 2022 alone, 6 per cent fewer students received that intensive literacy support.

The new data comes on the back of data released to the Herald showing less than 40 per cent of schools with 6-year-olds now offered Reading Recovery.

Today’s data confirmed only 37 per cent of schools offered the programme in 2022 compared to 41 per cent the year before and 55 per cent in 2018. Even fewer schools were offering the programme this year.

The Ministry of Education said the decline in intensive individual support would “somewhat reflect” the move to allocate some resourcing to whole school and small group Reading Recovery in 2021.

As for the drop in the number of schools offering the programme, critics say it reflects the move away from the whole language method of teaching children to read and write and the adoption of the structured literacy method of teaching.

However, those leading the Reading Recovery programme argue the drop was because of a lack of teachers and resources to provide one-to-one support, more children needing help and the politicisation of the programme influencing parent views.

In its annual monitoring report, the Ministry noted students entering Reading Recovery were, on average, slightly older than in previous years but were of comparable age and outcome levels by the time they finished the programme.

Last year, 55 per cent of Reading Recovery students caught up to their peers and needed no additional support - an increase on 2021 but similar to the 56 per cent success rate pre-Covid.

Of those who needed one-on-one support, 74 per cent caught up and 15 per cent were referred on for further support.

Lifting Literacy Aotearoa spokeswoman Jennie Watts claimed those who completed the programme only made “short term” gains and many schools were moving away from the programme because they believed there was a better way to teach.

A survey they carried out in July found a quarter of schools had switched to structured literacy and 80 per cent of those had already stopped offering Reading Recovery and instead provided further structured literacy-based help to struggling students.

Watts also claimed the number of students needing intervention dropped dramatically when structured literacy was introduced school-wide.

Amy Wiggins is an Auckland-based reporter who covers education. She joined the Herald in 2017 and has worked as a journalist for 12 years.