According to CNN Chile, Susana Claro, an academic at the Universidad Católica (UC, the Pontifical Catholic University of Chile) and co-founder of the Por un Chile que Lee network, warned that in segundo básico (second grade) half of students cannot yet read common words. She said this on the channel's program Influyentes, in conversation with journalist Paula Escobar.
The education PhD added that in cuarto básico (fourth grade) more than half of students do not understand texts suited to their level, meaning the ones the curriculum expects them to read at that age. According to her assessment, many of those children should already have been reading words in primero básico (first grade).
Claro ruled out a recent decline. "Since we started measuring, we haven't seen any backsliding in fourth grade", she explained. Over the last 30 years there was a very small increase, but the country has always been far from the goal set by academics themselves. "We have never really achieved it", she summed up.
To measure the consequences, the researcher followed four cohorts assessed from second grade through higher education. Students who did not learn to read in time never reach the appropriate level for the rest of their school years. They are about 10 points less likely to graduate from cuarto medio (the final year of secondary school) on time than their classmates and less likely to go on to higher education, even three years later.
Falling behind also affects self-esteem. According to Claro, in second grade a child begins to believe it is their fault, that they are "dumb" or lack the ability, even if nobody tells them so. By tercero básico (third grade) the teacher already assumes everyone can read, and many students learn to "pasar piola" (fly under the radar): they avoid reading aloud so nobody notices their difficulty.
Among the structural causes, the academic pointed to inequalities in children's home backgrounds and shortcomings in the training of primary school teachers. In her view, many universities do not teach how to teach reading. Language teaching courses have to cover too much content, and first grade requires a systematic, structured method.
To look for solutions, the Por un Chile que Lee network, with support from the Agencia de la Calidad de la Educación (the state body that administers the Simce national standardized tests) and other institutions, analyzed more than 3,500 schools of middle and low socioeconomic level. Those schools account for 65% of national enrollment.
The criterion was demanding: schools where more than 70% of students were reading for three years in a row. Only 20 schools met that condition. "It's not that we selected 20", Claro clarified. They are public and state-subsidized schools, urban and rural.
Despite differences in size and resources, the 20 schools share a positive school climate, high attendance, strong leadership from school management and a teaching strategy defined from the start of the year that does not depend on each individual teacher. All of them set the goal of having their students read in first grade.
Everyone takes part in those schools. Claro described the case of a head of the Unidad Técnico-Pedagógica (UTP, the school's academic coordination unit) who offers to read daily at lunchtime with children who do not read at home. The schools use systematic decoding methods, such as the Matte primer (silabario Matte), Leo Primero, Mundiletras or the Fundación CMPC method.
The researcher stressed the need to respond early to students falling behind, with tutoring and greater access to books. The available source does not detail the rest of her proposals or timelines for implementing them.
