Up to 90% of 10-year-olds in world's poorest countries struggle to read

Nine out of 10 children in the world’s poorest countries are unable to read a basic book by the age of 10 – a situation mirrored in reverse in rich countries, where only 9% cannot do so by the same age.

Data compiled by the World Bank and the UN also shows that when low- and middle-income countries are taken together – a total of 135 states – more than half of all children cannot read a simple text at 10 years old.

The World Bank is setting a new target to cut the rate of what it calls “learning poverty” by at least half before 2030, a goal it describes as “ambitious, yet achievable”.

In low- and middle-income countries it is 53%, while in the poorest nations it is 90%.

Following the focus of the millennium development goals on getting children into school, the majority of these children are in education, but not yet completing primary school with “fundamental skills”. A further 260 million children are still not in school.

The challenge of turning access to education into quality learning was highlighted by the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (Unesco) as far back as 2013–14 and underpins the 2030 sustainable development goal on education.

The new target has emerged from closer collaboration between the World Bank and the Unesco Institute for Statistics. The two organisations are compiling a more systematic database of existing learning data, ensuring it is comparable across countries, in order to help track trends more accurately.

The report finds that progress in tackling the gap in literacy is too slow to meet the global goal on achieving quality education for all by 2030. It predicts that at the current rate of improvement, approximately 43% of children aged 10 in 2030 will still not be reading proficiently. Tackling this deficit requires improvements at an “unprecedented” rate and scale, according to the analysis.

Jaime Saavedra, global director for education global practice at the World Bank, described learning to read as a “milestone in every child’s life”. Reading is a foundational skill, “a precondition for active participation in society – a gateway to all other learning outcomes”, he said.

“Eliminating learning poverty is as urgent as eliminating extreme poverty, stunting or hunger,” said Saavedra.

The report acknowledges that education is a human right with “inherent value”, and evaluates its role as a driver of development, growth and competitiveness: lack of fluency in reading can have far reaching consequences for success in learning or the job market. The new target is designed to support countries to develop education systems that young people will leave as “employable, productive citizens”.

Experts have previously debated whether global targets should be tracked by age or grade. The World Bank’s decision to link their target to age allows the status of children who are not in school to be included.

How best to tackle disadvantage from early childhood is an ongoing debate in the sector, with some arguing that an indicator on learning in the early years (grades two to three, or ages seven to eight) is crucial to be able to assess where learning can go off track. Others fear this would lead to global testing at too early an age. The People’s Action for Learning, a south-south network, has developed citizen-led ways of assessing basic reading and numeracy competency for younger pupils over the past decade in countries like India, Pakistan, Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda.

Joseph Nhan-O’Reilly, head of education policy and advocacy for Save the Children, welcomed the initiative as a way of concentrating minds and resources on “ensuring that children actually learn when they have access to school in the developing world”.

He acknowledged that learning quality is high on the global agenda, but stressed the need for urgent action. “Rigorously tracking reading achievement at age 10 and using the very best evidence available to help children learn to read will help ensure that education leads to learning,” said Nhan-O’Reilly.

“We need governments to develop national action plans to ensure that they’re actually implementing meaningful activities that will ensure children can read at age 10. To do so, developing country governments will need more and better support, including financing and world class technical support.”