Four in every five young students who were selected for an emergency literacy course went from having weak to strong reading and writing skills in 20 weeks.

The Reading Recovery Programme was introduced by the education authorities last scholastic year, targeting primary school students whose teachers felt were lagging worryingly behind in basic literacy skills. 

David Muscat, the head of the National Literacy Agency which ran the programme, told Times of Malta that 72 of the 86 students who took part in 2018, had reached the expected level for students their age.

A number of others who needed further attention had been referred to other courses.

Mr Muscat yesterday described the literacy experiment as a success. He said the RRP was an accredited school-based literacy course first set up by University College, London, for the lowest achieving children aged five to six.

 “Effective early intervention is designed to dramatically reduce the number of children with literacy difficulties in schools.

“It is a second chance, prevention programme delivered in the second year of school and in-volves a short series of one-to-one lessons for 30 minutes every day with a specially-trained teacher,” Mr Muscat said.

Weeding out difficulties at a young age

Malta's poor showing in international literacy ranking

His agency was set up back in 2013 following Malta’s poor showing in an international reading and writing assessment. 

The Progress in International Reading Literacy Study, an international survey of the reading achievement of 10-year-olds, had ranked Malta 35th of 45 participating countries back in 2011.

For the follow-up study in 2016 the results were even worse, with Malta placing 40th of 50 countries, the worst of the participating European states.

Since the publication of the reports, educators have highlighted the importance of weeding out literacy difficulties at a young age. 

Daily sessions hep struggling students shine

Mr Muscat said the focus of each daily lesson was to help the students grasp messages in reading and construct messages of their own in writing.

The course also helped students learn how to attend to detail in their writing without losing focus on the text’s meaning.

Research has indicated that similar reading recovery programmes have helped some 80 per cent of low literacy achievers catch up with the rest of class.  

The Reading Recovery Programme has an 80 per cent success rate.

Mr Muscat said the programme was not only meant to help students catch up with their peers, but also sustain those gains by remaining in the average band of literacy attainment throughout their schooling.

Many research and evaluation studies, he said, had found that similar programmes had helped students maintain and improve their gains in the subsequent years.

Locally, the 20-week course was based on one-to-one sessions of 30 minutes every day. The first pilot programme was offered in nine State schools by 15 complementary literacy teachers.

The authorities are now working to introduce the programme nationwide. This upcoming scholastic year will see some 30 more complementary teachers trained in and certified as reading recovery teachers. 

Mr Muscat said the programme would soon be up and running in 18 more primary State schools.