Inadequate foundational decoding skills constrain global literacy goals for pupils in low- and middle-income countries

Michael Crawford; Neha Raheel; Maria Korochkina; Kathleen Rastle

doi:10.1038/s41562-024-02028-x

Inadequate foundational decoding skills constrain global literacy goals for pupils in low- and middle-income countries

Michael Crawford
, Neha Raheel
, Maria Korochkina
, Kathleen Rastle

The World Bank
Royal Holloway, University of London

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

18 Citations (SciVal)

3 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Learning to read is the most important outcome of primary education. However, despite substantial improvements in primary school enrolment, most students in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) fail to learn to read by age 10. We report reading assessment data from over half a million pupils from 48 LMICs tested primarily in a language of instruction and show that these pupils are failing to acquire the most basic skills that contribute to reading comprehension. Pupils in LMICs across the first three instructional years are not acquiring the ability to decode printed words fluently and, in most cases, are failing to master the names and sounds associated with letters. Moreover, performance gaps against benchmarks widen with each instructional year. Literacy goals in LMICs will be reached only by ensuring focus on decoding skills in early-grade readers. Effective literacy instruction will require rigorous systematic phonics programmes and assessments suitable for LMIC contexts.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	74-83
Number of pages	18
Journal	Nature Human Behaviour
Volume	9
Early online date	8 Nov 2024
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-024-02028-x
Publication status	Published - 1 Jan 2025

Bibliographical note

Copyright © The Author(s) 2024. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.

Data Access Statement

The EGRA database and supporting information is available at https://osf.io/6s23f/.

Funding

This work was supported by a research grant from the Economic and Social Research Council (ES/W002310/1) awarded to K.R. The funder had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish or preparation of the manuscript.

UN SDGs

This output contributes to the following UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)

SDG 4 Quality Education

Access to Document

10.1038/s41562-024-02028-xLicence: CC BY 4.0

Inadequate foundational decoding skills constrain global literacy goals for pupils in low- and middle-income countries
Copyright © The Author(s) 2024. This article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, which permits use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons licence, and indicate if changes were made. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article’s Creative Commons licence, unless indicated otherwise in a credit line to the material. If material is not included in the article’s Creative Commons licence and your intended use is not permitted by statutory regulation or exceeds the permitted use, you will need to obtain permission directly from the copyright holder. To view a copy of this licence, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/.
Final published version, 1.53 MBLicence: CC BY 4.0

Cite this

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abstract = "Learning to read is the most important outcome of primary education. However, despite substantial improvements in primary school enrolment, most students in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) fail to learn to read by age 10. We report reading assessment data from over half a million pupils from 48 LMICs tested primarily in a language of instruction and show that these pupils are failing to acquire the most basic skills that contribute to reading comprehension. Pupils in LMICs across the first three instructional years are not acquiring the ability to decode printed words fluently and, in most cases, are failing to master the names and sounds associated with letters. Moreover, performance gaps against benchmarks widen with each instructional year. Literacy goals in LMICs will be reached only by ensuring focus on decoding skills in early-grade readers. Effective literacy instruction will require rigorous systematic phonics programmes and assessments suitable for LMIC contexts.",

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Inadequate foundational decoding skills constrain global literacy goals for pupils in low- and middle-income countries

Abstract

Bibliographical note

Data Access Statement

Funding

UN SDGs

Access to Document

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