Shocking Number Of 10-Year-Olds Are Unable To Read, Report Says

Roughly 70% of 10-year-olds in low and middle-income countries cannot read following school lockdowns, according to the World Bank, while American children of the same age are experiencing similar issues.

A report released by the international financial institution and other entities last month found most 10-year-olds in those nations are “unable to understand a simple written text” — a sharp increase from 57% before COVID led governments around the world to shutter schools.

“Political leaders and society must swiftly move to recover this generation’s future by ensuring learning recovery strategies and investments,” World Bank Global Director for Education Jaime Saavedra remarked. “We owe it not only to the children and youth of this generation, but to ourselves — in their minds rests our future.”

Increased “learning poverty” was most severe in Latin America and the Caribbean, where the number of children at the end of their primary school careers who could not work through a simple text surged from 50% to 80%. Children in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa now have 78% and 89% learning poverty rates, respectively. – READ MORE