"Absolutely on track": Professor refutes Hipkins' literacy and comprehension concerns

There's confidence that structured literacy is paying dividends for primary school students, despite some concerns from Chris Hipkins. 

The Labour leader and former Education Minister told Newstalk ZB yesterday the Better Start Literacy Approach is working, but comprehension remains a challenge for kids. 

Canterbury University Professor Gail Gillon told Mike Hosking their data shows gains in both reading and comprehension, and is questioning what data Hipkins is looking at. 

She says research around the world shows when children become good at decoding words, it's a big influencer in reading comprehension. 

However, Gillon says their dataset is for years 0-3, so it's unclear if the same impacts are being seen in the upper primary school years. 

LISTEN ABOVE