The principal objective of the study was to investigate the reading achievement of the firstrncycle students and then compare this with the achievement level expected of them. As arncorollary to this, the investigation sought to discover whether the reading objectives of thernfirst cycle are met or not.rnTo this end, an achievement test and two sets of questionnaires were employed to collectrnthe data. To prepare the test, the profile for the first cycle was closely analyzed. Therntextbooks for grade one, two, three and four were surveyed. Based on the objectives ofrnthe syllabi and the proportional representation of the sub-skills in the textbooks, a table ofrnspecifications was prepared. A test comprising literal comprehension, vocabulary inrncontext, word recognition (identification), information transfer, comprehension-at-wordrnlevel, comprehension-at-sentence level, reordering jumbled sentences and reading for thernmain ideas was developed as this would most likely gauge students' expected performancernat the level. This test was administered to 180 randomly selected students from sixrnschools: three from Government and three from Public Schools.rnThe test was piloted on 40 students and then was administered to the 180 samplernstudents. The result of the test indicated that from the total of 180 sample students 94rnstudents or 52% scored below the overall average of the test (54%).rnA close examination of student's performance further revealed that students performedrnbetter in comprehension-at-word level, information transfer and reordering jumbledrnsentences tests. They performed adequately in literal comprehension test. The studentsrnperformed below average in comprehension at sentence level, in Reading-for-the mainrnidea and word identification tests.rnThe results of teachers' questionnaire also corroborate the test results. The response ofrnteachers' questionnaire indicated that students' reading performance was below standard.rnFurther analysis of the questionnaire revealed that there were some problems whichrnaccount for such poor performance.rnOn the basis of the results, some recommendations were forwarded. Thesernrecommendations call for some remedial activities on the part of the teachers, supply ofrnreading materials on the part of the parents and school administrators, syllabus and otherrnminor policy adjustments on the part of the bodies concerned and improving readingrnpractice on the part of the students.