In September-October 2021, Kazakhstan participated in international study of reading literacy achievement of 4th grade students PIRLS-2021 (Progress in International Reading Literature Study). Due to the postponement of the study from April to September-October 2021 because of the closure of schools, 5th grade students participated in the study. In PIRLS-2021, more than 10 thousand students from 389 schools from all regions of Kazakhstan have represented our country. Additionally, parents, teachers, and school principals participated in the study.
PIRLS is a monitoring study of the quality of reading and text comprehension of fourth graders. The study has been conducted every five years since 2001 by the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement (IEA). PIRLS-2021 is the fifth cycle of the study, marking 20 years of trends in the development of reading abilities. Overall, 61 countries and 7 benchmarking entities participates in PIRLS-2021. There are digital and paper-based version of PIRLS achievement test. The questionnaire is mainly conducted through an online survey system.
During the study, all sanitary regulations, international requirements and IEA standards were followed. The results of the PIRLS-2021 cycle will be released by the IEA in December 2022