My son's infant school no longer listens to individual readers. The arguement is that its very time consuming and it does not require a skilled person to listen to a child practice reading. Instead the children do group reading once a week with the teacher.
My objection is that my son's best friend's mother cannot read. She can't read because English is her fourth language. She is attending a remedial literacy course, but her six year old son can read better than his mother.
I think its disgusting that nothing is being done to give the little boy the individual practice he needs. I think that more LSAs should be employed to listen to children read. I agree it does not require a teaching qualification to hear reading, but it does require the ablity to read yourself.