ABSTRACT
South Africa's education system has been characterised as a tale of two systems: one functional, and other dysfunctional. The challenge facing education in South Africa and any assessment related to education is complex. This chapter aims to investigate differences in South African Grade 4 students' reading literacy achievement across language subgroups against the background of transformation and goals of equity, equality and redress. South African students' poor performance in reading literacy was first evidenced by the Progress in International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS) 2006 results. The prePIRLS 2011 assessment consisted of a reading literacy test in the form of two types of texts: reading for literary experience, and reading to acquire and use information. PrePIRLS 2011 was embedded in a detailed translation verification process and likely made use of what Lauscher refers to as equivalence based translation approach in an attempt to reproduce the source text as closely as possible.
