Illiteracy at 90% for 10 year olds living in the World`s poorest Countries

In this country it is almost unthinkable that large swathes of the population might be unable to read or write. Literacy is such a necessity in today`s world, it`s difficult to imagine how anyone could get by, being unable to compose an email or text message, read a street name, or write a letter. We may enjoy good literary standards, but unfortunately there are a great many people living in parts of the world who are not so fortunate.

In the world`s poorest countries illiteracy is the norm, with nine out of ten children being unable to read or write at the age of ten. This statistic is effectively mirrored in the wealthier countries, where only 9% of children of the same age are illiterate.

The problem isn`t just confined to a small group of countries though - a recent study compiled by the UN and the World Bank looked into the levels of literacy among 135 low and middle income countries, and found that more than half of 10 year old children were unable to read a simple text.

The World Bank is funding a programme which aims to cut the rate of `learning poverty` by at least half by 2030. It defines learning poverty as the percentage of ten year olds who cannot understand and read a simple story. After compiling a vast database with the UNESCO institute of statistics, it estimated that currently 53% of children fall into this category in low and middle income countries.

`In poor countries, the level is as high as 80 percent. Such high levels of learning poverty are an early warning sign that all global educational goals and other related sustainable development goals are in jeopardy.`

The World bank is joining other institutions in tackling the eight Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) - 8 targets that each of the 191 UN member states agreed to tackle back in the year 2000.

Here are the list of these eight Millennium Development Goals:

• Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.
• Achieve universal primary education.
• Promote gender equality and empower women.
• Reduce child mortality.
• Improve maternal health.
• Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases.
• Ensure environmental sustainability.
• Develop a global partnership for development.

It is of course commendable that these targets have been set, and encouraging that international financial institutions such as the World Bank are involved - and even if the initial deadline for the completion of these goals was 2015, this should be taken as evidence of the entrenched and profound nature of the problems, rather than as a failure of the programme. The World Bank describes its new target of cutting `learning poverty` by at least half before 2030 as `ambitious, yet achievable.`

The Unesco Institute for Statistics however has published a report that declares matters are progressing too slowly, saying the new global goal on achieving quality education for all by the year 2030 is unlikely to be met. It has predicted that, given the current rate of improvement, approximately 43% of children will still have not attained the required standard of reading proficiency by the deadline. In order for the target to be reached improvements would have to meet an `unprecedented` scale. With 260 million children currently not in school, it is easy to understand the huge scale of the challenges.

Learning how to read is a `milestone in every child`s life`, according to Jaime Saavedra, the global director for education global practice at the World Bank. Reading is `a precondition for active participation in society a gateway to all other learning outcomes`, he said.

`Eliminating learning poverty is as urgent as eliminating extreme poverty, stunting or hunger,` Saavedra went on to say

Education standards in the UK are fairly high in global terms. Though we fall outside the top 20 in the PISA rankings (which primarily measures mathematics and the sciences), when it comes to basic literacy standards the country performs fairly well. Without reading skills the learning of all subjects will be impacted; and once a certain age has passed, even the most basic of literary skills become extremely difficult to acquire.