Repeating first grade can actually give struggling kids a huge reading boost over the classmates who moved on.
March 19, 2026
Original Paper
<p>Early Grade Repetition in South Africa: Implications for Reading</p>
SSRN · 6307179
The Takeaway
Education policy often treats grade repetition as a failure of the system that wastes time and money. However, this study found that repeaters in South Africa often catch up to or even surpass their peers in reading fluency, suggesting the 'remedial' year provides a foundation that the standard curriculum misses.
From the abstract
<span>Early grade repetition in South Africa has been used as a remedial strategy in the absence of comprehensive remediation approaches within the education system. Compared to other uppermiddle-income nations and certain Sub-Saharan African counterparts, South Africa has high Grade 1 repetition rates although there has been a slight reduction in repetition rates during the COVID-19 pandemic. Given the prevalence of early grade repetition, it is important to examine these patterns, the accuracy