Many Students Around the World Can’t Read or Add, World Bank Says
Around the world, hundreds of millions of students are spending years in school while learning virtually nothing, and many countries are neglecting to even measure their progress, the World Bank warned in its flagship annual economic development report.
“Hundreds of millions of children reach young adulthood without even the most basic life skills,” write the report’s authors, Deon Filmer and Halsey Rogers, both economists at the World Bank. “Even if they attend school, many leave without the skills for calculating the correct change from a transaction, reading a doctor’s instructions, or interpreting a campaign promise—let alone building a fulfilling career or educating their children.”
While parents all around the world have long recognized there can be a big difference between having your kid in school, and having your kid learn anything, many countries have remained far behind the curve at recognizing and measuring the extent to which students are acquiring any knowledge. . .