UNICEF warns of alarmingly low learning levels: only one-third of 10-year-olds worldwide are estimated to be able to read and understand simple text

NEW YORK, 16 September 2022 – Ahead of the Transforming Education Summit, UNICEF warns of alarmingly low learning levels. Before the pandemic, it was estimated that half of the 10-year-olds around the world could read and understand simple text. Today, only a third of them would manage to do so.

"Lack of resources in schools, insufficient compensation and qualification of teachers, overcrowded classrooms and outdated curricula are hampering our children's ability to reach their full potential," said Catherine Russell, Chief Executive of UNICEF. "The direction for our education systems determines, by definition, that of our future. If we do not reverse current trends, we will surely suffer the consequences of the failed education of an entire generation. The low levels of learning we experience today reduce our future opportunities."

The situation in Madagascar is just as alarming. Only 15 per cent of children attend preschool classes. This figure rises to 76 per cent for primary school, and only 56 per cent of students graduate and go on to secondary school. Moreover, a worrying percentage of 27 per cent of students attend lower secondary education, and only 13 per cent of them access upper secondary education.

Prolonged school closures and lack of access to quality learning during the COVID-19 pandemic have exposed and exacerbated the pre-existing learning crisis, depriving millions of schoolchildren around the world of basic literacy and numeracy skills warns UNICEF.

In Madagascar, around 70 per cent of educators are community teachers (paid by parents and the community), and the lack of teaching skills directly impacts the quality of education and learning. Among children aged 7 to 14 who attend school, only 7 per cent possess basic skills in mathematics and 23 per cent in reading. Research conducted by PASEC – an international evaluator of learning outcomes in French-speaking countries in 2019 – showed that the longer children stay in primary school, the worse their learning outcomes are.

To draw attention to the learning crisis and the need to transform education globally, UNICEF today revealed to the public its installation called "Learning Crisis Classroom", a model classroom illustrating the proportion of children who have not acquired the basic skills. The installation will be on display on 16-26 September on the Visitors' Plaza at the United Nations Headquarters in New York.

A third of the tables in the model classroom is made of wood and fully functional, as suggested by the iconic UNICEF backpack placed on the chairs behind them. These tables represent one-third of 10-year-old children worldwide who are able to read and understand simple text (the indicator of the acquisition of minimum reading comprehension skills). Almost invisible, the remaining two-thirds of the tables are made of a transparent material to illustrate that an estimated 64 per cent of children are unable to read and understand simple text by the age of 10.

At the Transforming Education Summit gathering world leaders, UNICEF calls on leaders to commit to ensuring quality education for all children. It urges governments to act and invest in order to get all children back to school and keep them in the education system, to improve their access to remedial classes, to support teaching staff and equip them with the tools they need, and to enable schools to provide a safe and caring environment for all children to learn.

A delegation led by the President of Madagascar, the Minister of National Education, the Minister of Technical Education and Vocational Training and the Minister of Higher Education and Scientific Research is taking part in the Transforming Education Summit which is held in New York on 16-19 September. A young Malagasy student brings the voice of the youth in Madagascar during a day of mobilization organized by young people on 16 September 2022.