ONE in five Year 5 students could not pass a basic reading test in some parts of Australia, federal Education Minister Brendan Nelson said yesterday when announcing a national inquiry into literacy in primary schools.And he said employers were "sick and tired" of university graduates unable to spell or write, and teaching graduates who struggled with grammar.
The inquiry was prompted by an open letter from 26 educators, first published in The Australian, which warned the popular whole-language teaching approach was ineffective for new or struggling readers.
Dr Nelson hinted the problems of modern literacy teaching methods had also damaged teachers.
"Some of the research that we've done has found that our trainee teachers themselves are having trouble," he said.

We are going to hold a national independent review of the way in which we train our teachers how to teach our kids to read, but also an examination of the way in which reading is being taught in our schools."
Whole-language teaching has its origins in the 1960s and 70s. It discourages reliance on the alphabetic system, or "sounding out" words, and suggests teachers and parents refrain from correcting every mistake.
Instead, children are taught how to read across all disciplines and use context and visual cues.
Previously, teachers placed greater emphasis on phonics, which relies on knowing the alphabet and decoding words by breaking them into sounds.
Whole-language techniques have increasingly come under scrutiny over the past 10 years and have been gradually abandoned by many educators in Britain and the US.
But the Opposition questioned Dr Nelson's decision to announce an inquiry into literacy, warning struggling students need urgent help.
"An expensive, protracted inquiry will be too late for the tens of thousands of children struggling to read right now," Opposition education spokeswoman Jenny Macklin said.
Dr Nelson said he planned to announce the terms of reference and inquiry panel, which would include at least two parent representatives, in the next few weeks.
One of the 26 experts, Macquarie University's Professor Max Coltheart, said teachers were asking for help.
"Most of the teachers that we've discussed this with weren't trained to teach reading and have to make it up as they go along," he told ABC radio.
However, Rosemary Sandstrom, program director at the University of South Australia's primary school teaching degree, said claims students were failing to learn how to read and write were overstated.
"I think (critics) are from an older school and possibly not familiar with the current teaching practices in a holistic way," she said. "There's a huge international following for Australia's teaching methods and our materials that are used to teach."
Western Australia's Education Minister Alan Carpenter also said it was "nonsense" to suggest literacy standards were lower than they were 30 years ago, with international studies revealing Australia was performing strongly.
Unions yesterday renewed their push to reform the basic skills test which measures student's literacy, claiming the test was stuck in the 1960s.

This is a subject that i hold dearly to my heart. As a child who learn't to read in the late 60's early 70's i can catergorically say that today's methods are completely different. When my daughter was in grade 1 i was approached by her teacher to see if i would spend 2hrs, 3 days a week at the school listening to the grade 1's and 2's individually read to me for 10 mins at a time. I immediately had no hesitation, it would be a great way to find out what "A" was doing in class and how the teachers also faired under my microscope!! I was amazed at how poorly these kids performed. I was also amazed to find out that phonics were not used, sounding the words out was out of fashion, and pulling the kids up if they made a mistake was also off the list. Of course me being me ignored all of this and taught my own way.........at least my kid could spell and read so i must be doing something right!!! I also found out off the kids that they were not reading at home.............mum and dad had no time to listen. Well, its nearly 3 years on. These kids are still poor readers and spellers. Infact, nearly a whole grade fell below the literacy standards. We have a huge problem in Australia....no denying it as the 2 Uni morons from the west are trying to do....i have seen it myself.
Nothing aggrevates me more than teenagers and young people who can't spell.........I HATE IT!!!! It drives me insane. I'm not talking about those with serious problems such as dyslexia. I am talking about those who come out of teaching degrees and teach their bad habits to others!!!!! Parents need to wake up too. Our kids will be running our countries when we're old....are we turning out nations of absolute drop kicks!!?? For gods sake, make time to listen to your kids read everynight for 10 mins, practice spelling words. Make it fun for them and they'll want to do it. Ok i have a headache...lol.