It was a Labor Government under former Education Minister Susan Close that led the country in introducing the phonics check in South Australia.  

The Malinauskas Labor Government has built on Labor’s record by being the first jurisdiction to introduce a numeracy check for Year 1’s – starting next year.  

It is a Labor Government again leading the country with the commitment to a second  phonics check in Year 2 – ensuring every child develops the fundamental literacy and  numeracy they need.  

This commitment comes as free sets of new readers – books that have been specially designed in collaboration with SPELD SA, a not-for-profit organisation that assists with children and adults with learning difficulties – have been funded by the Malinauskas Labor Government and are being distributed to 130 schools across the state to support reception and primary school students.  

The readers support the way in which reading is now taught – systematic synthetic phonics, a type of explicit instruction – to drive improvements in phonics. It's another resource the Malinauskas Labor Government is giving schools to teach literacy.  

In addition to the extensive existing efforts in early reading, the Education Department is also bolstering professional learning in literacy for early career teachers and free online literacy support and resources for parents to use.