England’s children have risen from eighth to fourth in a global comparison of literacy levels - making them the best readers in the western world
England’s children placed fourth in a global education league table, behind Singapore, Hong Kong and Russia, jumping from eighth position to enter the top five.
Schools minister Nick Gibb said the Government's reforms - such as a focus on phonics, which teaches children to read using sounds - are behind England's successful performance despite disruption from the Covid-19 pandemic. Overall, girls were ahead of boys in their reading achievement in nearly all the countries that took part in the 2021 study - and in England, girls had an average score of 562 and boys had an average score of 553.
He said: "In terms of girls, we don't want there to be any decline of any group within these reading surveys. He added that the commitment of 250,000 primary school teachers to reading who have "embraced" the phonics approach has also contributed. "These results also show a welcome narrowing in the attainment gap between boys and girls and the highest and lowest performing pupils. This shows that our approach is working."
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