Learning Poverty and Foundational Literacy

Why many children attend school but still cannot read a simple text, what surveys like ASER reveal, and how targeted teaching can help.

Over recent decades, school enrolment has risen dramatically around the world. But being in school is not the same as learning. The World Bank uses the term learning poverty to describe the share of 10-year-olds who cannot read and understand a simple text. Before the pandemic, it estimated this at over half of children in low- and middle-income countries, and the pandemic made it worse.

What surveys reveal

In India, the Annual Status of Education Report, or ASER, run by the organisation Pratham, tests children in rural households on basic reading and arithmetic. For years, its surveys have found that a large share of children in Class 5 could not read a text meant for Class 2, and many could not do simple division. Results improved in the most recent surveys after pandemic-era declines, but gaps remain large.

Why learning lags

Curricula move too fast: teachers must cover the syllabus even if children have fallen behind.
Large classes and teacher absence.
First-generation learners without support at home.
Language: children may be taught in a language they do not speak at home.

Teaching at the right level

A promising approach is Teaching at the Right Level, developed by Pratham. Children are grouped by their actual learning level rather than their grade, and taught basic skills through focused activities. Randomised evaluations, including studies by J-PAL researchers, found large gains in reading and arithmetic.

India’s NIPUN Bharat mission, launched in 2021, aims for every child to achieve foundational literacy and numeracy by the end of Class 3.

A Class 5 student who cannot read

A Class 5 student sits through lessons on Class 5 textbooks, but cannot read fluently. Each day, she falls further behind. In a Teaching at the Right Level session, she is grouped with others at her level and practises reading short words and sentences. Within weeks, she begins reading simple paragraphs, finally able to learn from her regular lessons.

The economic stakes

Foundational skills underpin all later learning, and research links learning, not just years of schooling, to earnings and economic growth. Economists Eric Hanushek and Ludger Woessmann found that measures of cognitive skills explain growth differences between countries better than years of schooling.

Thinking more years of school guarantees learning

Enrolment and years of schooling are important, but children can pass through grades without mastering basics. Measuring and improving actual learning matters as much as getting children into classrooms.

Key takeaways

Learning poverty means children cannot read a simple text by age 10.
ASER surveys have shown many Indian children lag well behind grade level.
Teaching at the Right Level produced large gains in randomised evaluations.
Actual learning, not just years of schooling, drives earnings and growth.