It is expected a report into where Aotearoa New Zealand is at in terms of literacy achievement will reveal the "dire state" of it, an expert says.
The Education Hub, whose mission is to bridge the gap between research and teaching practice, is expected to release the report tonight.
It says over the past year it has conduced an extensive literature review.
Carla McNeil, founder and managing director of education consultancy provider Learning Matters, told Breakfast: "It's no secret that we expect this report to reveal the dire state of literacy in New Zealand."
A 2020 UNICEF report found that only 64.4% of 15 year olds in the country have more than a basic proficiency in reading and maths, meaning 35.4% - over a third - struggle to read and write.
"We think it will really clearly articulate exactly those statistics," McNeil said, "indicating that our children, right across the country, from various socio-economic, demographics and cultural backgrounds really are struggling with literacy".
McNeil also told Breakfast she envisages the report will point to a number of contributing factors to explain why literacy rates are the way they are.
She explained this includes increasing absenteeism, socio-economic, demographic and cultural implications.
McNeil also expects the report will pinpoint aspects such as the inconsistency of evidence-based teaching approaches.
She went on to explain she felt teachers are teaching what they believe is necessary, rather than clear, concise evidence-based direction.
"Every teacher in New Zealand deserves the right to have that knowledge and to have the assessment tools that measure those finer skills and learning to read, write and spell, and then of course they need the resources to be able to do that."
McNeil said improving literacy rates was no about putting more wallpaper on the wall and modernising what is being done.
"We need to strip back the wallpaper off the wall, we need to really look into why we have so many children who can't learn to read. We need to follow the science of reading and we need to think about building a strategy for literacy in New Zealand that really clearly outlines what must be taught to ensure we don't leave reading to chance."
McNeil said she was "hopeful and somewhat excited" the report would contain clear recommendations and next steps.
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