Learning crisis
“Why does school fail to teach 7 in 10 children in poor countries to read?”
Root causes (expand to see solutions)
The learning crisis hides inside a success story: most children in low-income countries now go to school, but school is not teaching them to read.
What's at stake
Children who never learn to read earn far less as adults and are excluded from formal work, leaving fast-growing economies short of skilled workers. And a parent who never learned to read cannot give their own child the early grounding school expects, so the next generation starts just as far behind.
The global picture
Sub-Saharan Africa
High severity
Most ten-year-olds here cannot read a simple story; in 2021 South Africa scored last of 57 countries in the PIRLS reading test, with 81% of Grade 4 pupils unable to read for meaning.University of Pretoria / South Africa Department of Basic Education, 2023
Even wealthy countries struggle: many 15-year-olds lack basic reading skills, and the pandemic caused an unprecedented drop in test scores worldwide.OECD, 2023