Phonics trend will help reading

The value of phonics (linking the sounds of letters to read words) to teach reading has been proven repeatedly in Australian and international research. Despite the entrenched opposition of teachers’ unions and some academics, it is encouraging that more than 1000 schools across the nation have voluntarily signed up to a new federal-sponsored phonics screening check for Year 1 children. The Morrison government developed the initiative after its efforts to convince states and territories to introduce system-wide phonics screening drew a cool response from some. The modest $10m invested in the program was well spent.

Only South Australia, so far, has introduced the program in all state schools. Since 2018, the proportion of Year 1 students achieving the required benchmark has improved from 43 per cent to 63 per cent. NSW and Tasmania are trialling the checks in some schools.

To their credit, almost one in four primary schools in Victoria — state, Catholic and independent — have taken matters into their own hands and signed up. So have 194 schools in WA and 204 Queensland schools, Rebecca Urban reports on Monday. As MultiLit strategy director Jennifer Buckingham, who consulted to South Australia in the lead-up to its trial of the screening check, said, the trenchant and irrational opposition of teachers’ unions and some professional associations to the Year 1 phonics check does not represent the views of a large number of teachers in classrooms. The turnaround is welcome, with schools finding that phonics is improving students’ reading.

Today’s Year 1 children should grow up to enjoy a vast range of ­career opportunities, demanding skills far beyond the “basics’’ tested in the National Assessment Program — Literacy and Numeracy. But the “basics’’ are the building blocks of further learning. The decline in Australia’s performances in international education rankings is alarming. Eleven months ago, we had our worst showing in the Program for International Student Assessment test, with 15-year-olds doing significantly worse in reading, maths and science than a decade ago.

It is intolerable that too many young Australians are entering adulthood handicapped by poor literacy skills. Their economic opportunities and quality of life are on the line. Phonics has been demonstrated to make a positive difference. Even if recalcitrant states do not mandate it, more schools with their students’ interests at heart should act of their own volition.