A Global Competition for Innovative Solutions to Advance Reading and Literacy
Sources
- UNESCO, Adult and Youth Literacy Fact Sheet. (2011)
- Ibid.
- UNESCO, EFA Global Monitoring Report 2011.
- UNESCO, Global Monitoring Report, Facts and Figures. (2011).
- Center for Universal Education at Brookings. Global Compact on Learning: Taking Action on Education in Developing Countries. (2010).
- eddataglobal.org
- UNESCO, EFA Global Monitoring Report 2011.
- Gove, A. and P. Cvelich. 2011. Early Grade Reading: Igniting Education For All. A report by the Early Grade Learning Community of Practice. Revised Edition. Research Triangle, NC: Research triangle Institute(citing Piper, B. 2010. Ethiopia Early Grade Reading Assessment: Data Analysis Report: Language and Early Learning, available at <https://www.eddataglobal.org>website.)
International Literacy Day Fact Sheet
- “We had to leave behind all of our possessions . The only thing we could bring with us is what we have in our heads, what we have been taught—our education . Education is the only thing that cannot be taken from us.” —Woman who fled from Darfur to Chad, 2004 (Women’s Refugee Commission)
- EFA Global Monitoring Report 2011: The Hidden Crisis: Armed conflict and education. Prepared by Global Monitoring Report Team. Pg. 200 Available here: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0019/001907/190743e.pdf
- 793 million adults worldwide -- 1 out of 4 people -- cannot read these words
- UNESCO, Adult and Youth Literacy Fact Sheet. (2011)
- 64% of them are women
- UNESCO, Adult and Youth Literacy Fact Sheet. (2011)
- Just 10 countries account for 72% of the total number of illiterate adults
- EFA Global Monitoring Report 2011: The Hidden Crisis: Armed conflict and education. Prepared by Global Monitoring Report Team. Available here: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0019/001907/190743e.pdf
Recent studies show that for many students in low-income countries, very little learning is occurring in the classroom. For example, in Mali, Pakistan, and Peru more than 70% of children in primary grades could not read at grade level.
EQUIP 2 (2008). Opportunity to Learn: A high impact for improving educational outcomes in developing countries. USAID, Washington, DC.
Twenty-one developing countries are currently spending more on arms than on primary schools; if they were to cut military spending by 10%, they could put an additional 9.5 million children in school.
EFA Global Monitoring Report 2011: The Hidden Crisis: Armed conflict and education. Prepared by Global Monitoring Report Team. Pg. 2 Available here: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0019/001907/190743e.pdf
In 41 countries, women are twice as likely as men to be illiterate.
EFA Global Monitoring Report 2011: The Hidden Crisis: Armed conflict and education. Prepared by Global Monitoring Report Team. Pg. 6 Available here: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0019/001907/190743e.pdf
The vast majority of illiterate adults (73%) live in South and West Asia and sub-Saharan Africa, although the Arab States also registered high levels of adult illiteracy.
EFA Global Monitoring Report 2011: The Hidden Crisis: Armed conflict and education. Prepared by Global Monitoring Report Team. Pg. 65 Available here: http://unesdoc.unesco.org/images/0019/001907/190743e.pdf
61 million primary school-age children are out of school.
UNESCO, Global Monitoring Report, Facts and Figures. (2011).
Children in low-income countries are completing primary school at only 67% of the rate of high-income countries.
Gove, A. and P Cvelich (2010). Early Reading: Igniting Education for All. A report by the Early Grade Learning Community of Practice. Research Triangle Park, NC: Research Triangle Institute.
Early grade reading competency is critical for continued retention and success in future grades.
USAID (2009). Accountability and Teacher Absenteeism in Basic Education. USAID Educational Strategies Research Papers.
Ravela, P., etal (2008). The Educational Assessments that Latin American Needs. PREAL.
Reading skills build the foundation for all future learning. And yet, in some sub-Saharan African countries, children with five years of education have a 40% chance of being illiterate.
Center for Universal Education at Brookings. Global Compact on Learning: Taking Action on Education in Developing Countries. (2010).
The little available data of student performance in low-income countries reveal that many students are not mastering the basic skills of reading, thus undercutting economic productivity.
Gove, A. and P. Cvelich. 2010. Early Reading: Igniting Education for All. A report by the Early Grade Learning Community of Practice. Research Triangle Park, NC: Research Triangle Institute.
Educated women are less likely to marry early and more likely to have smaller and healthier families. They are also more likely to get a job and earn a higher wage.
Children of mothers with secondary education or higher are twice as likely to survive beyond age 5 as children of mothers who have no education.
A child born to a mother who can read is 50% more likely to survive past age 5.
According to a recent analysis, half the reduction in child mortality over the past 40 years can be directly attributed to better education for women.
Educated women are more likely to send their children to school and better able to protect their children from malnutrition, HIV infection, trafficking, and sexual exploitation.
171 million people could be lifted out of poverty if all students in low-income countries left school with basic reading skills – that is equivalent to a 12% drop in the number of people living on less than $1.25 a day.
Education for All Monitoring Report 2010: UNESCO, Education and the Millennium Development Goals (Paris: UNESCO, 2010) http://www.unesco.org/fileadmin/MULTIMEDIA/HQ/ED/GMR/pdf/gmr2010/MDG2010_Facts_and_Figures_EN.pdf
Research has found that countries that have experienced surges in literacy rates by 20-30% have seen simultaneous increases in GDP of 8-16%.
Fiske, Edward B., “Basic Education: Building Blocks for Global Development,” Academy for Educational Development (1993), at 16.
Every additional year of schooling has been estimated to increase income per worker by 8.3%, on average.
Soto, M. (2006). The Causal Effect of Education on Aggregate Income. Working Paper 0605. International Economics Institute, University of Valencia.
No country achieved rapid economic growth without investing in education and reaching an adult literacy rate of at least 40%.
Center for Global Development. Education and the Developing World, (2004)
A study in Ethiopia found that having a textbook boosted children’s oral reading fluency by 9.6 words per minute, and having other books at home boosted their fluency by 8.3 words per minute.
Gove, A. and P. Cvelich. 2011. Early Grade Reading: Igniting Education For All. A report by the Early Grade Learning Community of Practice. Revised Edition. Research Triangle, NC: Research triangle Institute(citing Piper, B. 2010. Ethiopia Early Grade Reading Assessment: Data Analysis Report: Language and Early Learning, available at <https://www.eddataglobal.org>website.)
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