New Zealand's dismal reading record has brought calls for a return to the old ways of teaching.
In a country that used to have some of the highest literacy rates in the world, one in five high school students are now struggling to understand their textbooks.
And a parliamentary committee is suggesting that methods discredited decades ago should return to the classroom.
The Parliamentary Education Select Committee is urging the government to set national standards for literacy and to form a national body to account for the standards.
The goal is to take an international benchmark and have nearly all New Zealand children reading within, or above, the normal range by the age of nine.
The report, tabled in Parliament on Tuesday, is the result of the Education Select Committee's inquiry into the teaching of reading.
It comes at a time when Ministry of Education figures show that one in five children leave school without a national qualification and principals are pointing to poor literacy and numeracy as a key factor.
The select committee wants schools to return to phonics teaching in reading programmes, rather than the current whole language style of teaching.
It also recommends a report on the effect smaller class sizes for school beginners would have on raising success levels and wants urgent research into the actual literacy levels of pupils entering secondary school and the reasons for failure.
Debate has raged in New Zealand over two styles of teaching the basic art of reading.
Some experts favour using phonics, while others prefer the whole language approach.
However, most schools indicated to One News that they use a blend of the two systems.
Principals said while phonics is essential, it should not be used in isolation and comprehension has a key role in learning to read, especially for children with English as a second language.
The principals say they are increasingly dealing with new immigrants who often only have basic English skills.
