2023-11-19 17:00:39
Published19. November 2023, 6:00 p.m.
Education: Young Swiss are having more and more difficulty reading
The reading skills of 15-year-olds are deteriorating. At the same time, “fake news” is becoming more and more sophisticated. This is a danger for democracy, specialists warn.
A quarter of students at the end of compulsory education struggle to decipher a short text.
Freepik
In Switzerland, half of 15-year-olds have difficulty understanding simple texts, reports “NZZ am Sonntag”. The latest study from the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) showed that 25% of students at the end of compulsory education were unable to search for simple information in a short text. Their reading skills are considered insufficient.
Another quarter were able to filter out the most important information during this investigation. But these young people also remain fragile: when they were confronted with disturbing information or an unusual form of text, they also failed to decipher it. “These students are not sufficiently equipped for everyday life,” notes Maik Philipp, professor of didactics at the Zurich University of Teacher Education.
Worse: in a democratic society, people with reading difficulties have more than just a private and professional problem. It is also difficult for them to obtain enough information to participate in votes as citizens. They are susceptible to “fake news” and conspiracy theories, as they often appear in disguise on social media.
Intervene on time
In Switzerland, the basic skills of second and ninth graders are tested regularly. “But we don’t know what happens between the two. So it would be a great benefit if we could assess reading skills in fourth grade. It would thus be possible to intervene in time. Unfortunately, this is no longer possible with PISA,” analyzes Anke Schmitz, professor of didactics at the Zurich University of Teacher Education. Indeed, in the vast majority of cases, 15-year-olds whose reading skills were deemed insufficient in the study are only in school for a short period: they leave school shortly afterwards.
The new PISA study will be published in early December. Its results could fundamentally call into question the way reading is taught in Switzerland.
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