In Saturday’s Guardian (Letters, 28 Jan), schools minister Nick Gibb defends the government’s view that phonics are the only way to reach children to read. His central justification is that something must be done: “International studies rank England 25th for reading – down from seventh nine years ago.”
In the very literal sense, Gibb is correct. In 2000, the OECD’s Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) placed England in 7th position in its table (p.53). In 2009, it was in the 25th row of a similar table (p. 56).
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