Disparity in school children's reading skills in 11 African countries

Abstract

To promote SDG Goal 4 and "education for all", this study investigates children's basic reading skills in 11 low-income and lower-middle-income African countries, using standardized reading tests from the Multiple Indicator Cluster Surveys (MICS). Research specifically examining children's reading skills and disparities across socioeconomic groups in African contexts remains scarce. This study addresses a critical knowledge gap by providing comparative evidence on reading skills disparities across diverse social backgrounds, including children with disabilities. Our study provides new evidence on the "Learning Crisis in the Global South", revealing alarmingly low levels of reading skills but with considerable variation across the 11 African countries studied. Substantial reading skills differences exist between children with disabilities or from disadvantaged backgrounds-those living in rural areas, and from poorer, less educated families-and their non-disabled and non-disadvantaged peers. Notably, these disparities are often more pronounced in countries with higher overall reading proficiency. Moreover, there are persistent gaps between children with and without disabilities across the countries and socioeconomic groups in this study. Encouragingly, strengthening education systems is a promising way of improving the reading skills of children with disabilities. These findings underscore the diverse challenges faced by children from different backgrounds in varying contexts.

Fig 1. Estimated proportion of 14-year-old children with satisfactory reading skills across social groups by country, with 95% confidence intervals. Note: The predictions are calculated at the means of covariates, with separate predictions for each country. “Lowest quintile” refers to children from families in the lowest quintile of the asset index. “No school” refers to children from families without any schooling, while “Other” includes all children from families with some level of formal education. CA: Cenral Africa Republic; CH: Chad; DRC: DRCongo; GH: Ghana; LE: Lesotho; MD: Madagascar; ML: Malawi; TGA: The Gambia; TO: Togo; TN: Tunisia; ZI: Zimbabwe.

Fig 2. Estimated proportion of 14-year-old children with satisfactory reading skills by country groups, with 95% confidence intervals. Note: The predictions are calculated at the means of covariates, with separate predictions for each country group with low, middle or high reading skills proficiency. “Lowest quintile” refers to children from families in the lowest quintile of the asset index. “No school” refers to children from families without any schooling, while “Other” includes all children from families with some level of formal education. Low: Cenral Africa Republic, Chad, DRCongo, and The Gambia; Middle: Ghana, Madagascar, Malawi, and Togo; High: Lesotho, Tunisia, and Zimbabwe.

Fig 3. Estimated proportion of 14-year-old children with satisfactory reading skills for CWD and CWOD across various social groups (Country FE), with 95% confidence intervals. Note: The predictions are calculated at the means of covariates across all countries, with separate predictions for various social groups related to rural and urban residences, family wealth index (lowest, highest and middle quintles), and the highest educational level among household members.