Bangladesh Children Struggle With Reading Despite Literacy Progress

A survey checked whether children in Bangladesh could really read and understand simple stories.

It found that about half of children aged seven to 14 did not meet the basic reading standard.

The results improved only slightly compared with 2019.

Class V students also performed slightly worse than they did six years earlier.

Many children could read most of the words but could not finish all the reading tasks.

Education experts said saying that someone can read and write is not enough to measure learning.

Children also need to understand what they read and use basic mathematics.

The survey suggests that being in school does not always mean children are learning enough.

Experts said Bangladesh needs to understand the problem clearly before setting improvement targets.