I read the following on LinkedIn this morning.
Let this be our collective call to action - to reduce tech in classrooms and have classroom instruction center on texts. (Molly Ness, PhD)
Alarming new data shows U.S. students continue to fall behind their peers in reading as the country's achievement gap widens, according to results from the latest globally recognized international exam.
As usual the US and the UK will continue barking up the wrong tree.
it has a "shut-off device" that rejects new ideas
once a primary belief or ideology gets in.
Between 4–7 September 2026, I had a series of exchanges on LinkedIn with Dr. Karen Faulds, an educational consultant and assessor in the UK. I am preserving the discussion here for posterity because it illustrates a recurring problem: when entrenched practices are defended despite stagnant outcomes.
Pamela Snow once said I was “focusing too narrowly.”
Dr Karen Faulds suggested phonics may not foster a love of reading.
Both miss the point.
Claude Bernard put it cleanly: “It is what we think we know already that often prevents us from learning.”
Malaysia’s poor PISA performance is not about “context” or “Covid excuses” — it is about systemic negligence: wrong teaching of letter sounds, failure to remediate intelligent children who disengage, and a culture of denial among so‑called experts like Dr. Anuar Ahmad who block questions instead of answering them. Singapore screens and rescues its “shutdown kids” early, Malaysia labels them dyslexic and leaves them behind.
We know the brain can learn to read. Some children, like Emma Hartnell-Baker, pick up Enid Blyton at age three with no instruction. But most aren’t so lucky. They need teaching — and the science is clear: everything hinges on connecting letters to sounds.
Many intelligent children falter not because of lack of ability, but because of shame avoidance. When early struggles in reading are met with ridicule or punishment, these children misbehave to mask their difficulties. In supportive systems, they thrive; in punitive ones, they derail.
A new analysis by Chad Aldeman for The Collaborative for Student Success reveals a stark “Graduation Gap” across US states: high school graduation rates remain high, yet math proficiency lags dramatically behind.
Examples include Florida (90% graduation vs. 44% proficient in Algebra/Geometry), Connecticut (89% vs. 31% college-ready on SAT math), Rhode Island (84% vs. 23%), Washington D.C. (86% vs. 15%), and Tennessee (92% vs. 29%). Gaps are wider in math than reading, larger with externally validated tests, and especially pronounced for low-income students, English learners, and those with disabilities.
Here are extracts from the talk-show by YB Khairy Jamaluddin.
Malaysia’s grade inflation debate misses the deeper crisis: failing to identify and support intelligent children who struggle with reading early on. Until literacy reform takes priority, more A’s will mean less progress.
We are getting more A’s but our international Benchmarking is getting worse.
Is it because of grade inflation?
These are all views and comments that we hear but no one is incentivized to touch this because parents, students, teachers and the education industry, we have a huge tuition industry, everyone is incentivized to just continue to churn As, and not actually sit down and say, ’Hey, wait a minute, more A’s but Benchmark Internationally we are still doing badly’.
I recently reached out to Enc. Khairy Jamaluddin for a Zoom meeting after listening to the latest Keluar Sekejap podcast. In that episode, he and Enc. Shahril Hamdan highlighted a striking contrast: more than 13,000 students scored straight A's in SPM 2025 — yet Malaysia's PISA scores continue to fall badly. The discussion raised uncomfortable but necessary questions about whether our education system is delivering real excellence or just an illusion of success.
Why We Read, Watch, and Stay Silent — Even When the Glass Barrier Is Gone
Recently, the popular podcast Keluar Sekejap (hosted by Khairy Jamaluddin and Shahril Hamdan) sparked an important discussion: In SPM 2025, more than 13,000 students achieved straight A's — a number that looks impressive on paper. Yet Malaysia's PISA scores continue to decline. The episode asked a pointed question: Is our education system truly producing excellence, or are we creating an illusion of success? Many of us watched or read about that episode (and similar critiques). We nod in agreement privately. We share the concern about "shut-down kids," rote learning, dyslexia being overlooked, and students who master exams but struggle with real-world application and critical thinking. But how many of us actually comment publicly on Facebook, LinkedIn, X (Twitter), or even in the comments section? Very few!
Here is the video link to Keluar sekejap: https://x.com/i/status/2040334125614383385
For years I have argued that most children labelled “dyslexic” in English-speaking systems are not truly dyslexic. They are bright kids who shut down because of confusion introduced by poor teaching—especially the extraneous vowel sounds added to consonants (“buh” instead of pure /b/) that make blending impossible. Remove that confusion with pure sounds, structured practice, and high-frequency word automaticity, and they read fluently. I have seen it in more than eighty children I taught personally.
In Parts 1 and 2, we examined real-world evidence that most children labelled “dyslexic” in English-speaking systems are not truly dyslexic in the neurobiological sense. Singapore's top PISA reading performance (543 points in 2022, OECD average 476; 89% at Level 2 proficiency or higher) and low reported dyslexia rate (~3.5% of Primary 3 students per MOE data from 2016–2019) show what happens when explicit, pure-sound instruction prevents confusion from the start. Cross-language cases (kids reading Malay or clean Pinyin fluently but struggling in English) prove the issue is often instructional—extraneous sounds (“buh” vs. pure /b/) create artificial blending failures and shutdowns, not an innate phonological deficit.
In Part 1, we saw how Singapore's consistent top performance in PISA reading (543 points in 2022, well above the OECD average of 476, with 89% of students at proficiency Level 2 or higher) aligns with a low reported dyslexia rate (~3.5% of Primary 3 students per MOE data from 2016–2019). Their explicit, systematic early instruction—pure sounds from the start, no extraneous vowels on consonants—prevents most confusion and shutdowns that lead to labels elsewhere.
For over fifteen years I have been saying the same thing: the vast majority of children labelled “dyslexic” in English-speaking countries are not dyslexic at all. They are intelligent kids who shut down because they were taught reading in a way that created confusion. Once the confusion is removed, they read. I have seen it happen with more than eighty children I taught one-to-one between 2004 and 2019.Yet every year the numbers keep rising. In the US, UK, Australia and many other places, 10 % to 20 % of children are now being told they have dyslexia. That cannot be right. A real neurobiological condition that affects the way the brain processes spoken sounds should not suddenly explode to one in five children just because we changed the way we label it.
Singapore shows us the truth. The Singapore Evidence:
I read this Substack article from the Scottish Union for Education this morning:
It highlights falling standards but dodges the hard truths. Here's why it's yet another evasion from those who refuse to face the real problems.
Extract:
This is despite the fact that Scottish standards in reading, math and science have been falling, according to the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA).
Different Perspectives: Tweets That Echo Across Continents
Good evening, readers. The reading wars don’t respect borders — they leap from U.S. threads to Aussie classrooms faster than a kangaroo on caffeine.
Tonight’s dispatch takes us Down Under to Narelle Lynch, a 19-year veteran teacher from Australia whose tweets on phonics pitfalls and the power of context have fueled fierce exchanges since 2020. Trained by the THRASS Institute — a multi-sensory literacy framework blending phonics, morphology, and more — Narelle champions a holistic approach: grammar, syntax, etymology, and real-world transferability over isolated sound drills.
Echoes, Evidence, and the PISA Wake-Up Call
Shouldn’t we think before accepting anything we read?
Since 2016, when I first read that “reading is biologically unnatural,” I’ve disagreed. This post shows what happens when one researcher makes a claim—and others repeat it without question. Stanislas Dehaene. Pamela Snow. David Chalk. Regie Routman. The myth spreads. The consequences deepen.
Gatekeeping, Credentials, and the Fear of Accountability
Recap: What They Block
Parts 1 and 2 exposed the profit motives and herd-driven hit squads that silence my evidence-based solutions:
✅ Teaching pure /b/ instead of "buh"
✅ Free lessons over multimillion-dollar curricula
✅ Student success over PAD myths
But the ugliest motive? Gatekeeping.
Herd Mentality and the Comfort of Consensus
Recap: Why They Block
In Part 1, I exposed how my free, results-driven lessons threaten the dyslexia intervention industry. That’s why I’ve been blocked by prominent figures like:
Jo Anne Gross
Debbie Hepplewhite
