Reading literacy of secondary school students - current requirements and achievements (Example of the third grade of Novi Sad secondary schools)

Reading literacy, consisting of prose and document literacy, is an integral part of functional literacy that has become one of the key goals and success criteria of contemporary educational systems around the world. Lower level of functional literacy limits not only the opportunities of an individual, but also the development and successful functioning of the whole society. This paper analyzes the average degree of prose and document literacy of the third grade secondary school students (N=703) in Novi Sad who are nearing the end of their secondary education. Their literacy rate is therefore likely to determine their forthcoming chances related to academic education or success in the labor market. The instrument employed in this research was a questionnaire consisting of 20 extracts from a variety of texts, 10 of which were related to prose and 10 to document literacy. The analysis of the results focused on average achievements in different types of schools as well as on specific problems observed in text processing and potential solutions. The findings indicate that the level of reading literacy of an average third grade student is relatively low, which might lead to their limited professional opportunities in the future. The analysis of the results also shows that students have serious difficulties in processing prose and scientific texts, particularly if the information is not displayed explicitly. Skills that were found to be insufficiently developed involve comparing, integrating or synthesizing information.