Attaining the Learning Target A Policy Package to Promote Literacy for All Children Acknowledgements The Literacy Policy Package was prepared by a team led by Michael Crawford, comprised of Maria Rebeca Barron Rodriguez, Elaine Ding, and Marcela Gutierrez Bernal. Work was conducted under the overall guidance of Jaime Saavedra and Omar Arias. The team is grateful to Hussein Abdul-Hamid, Dina Abu-Ghaida, Melissa Ann Adelman, Hanna Katrinna Alasuutari, Rita Almeida, Samer Al-Samarrai, Nina Arnhold, João Pedro Azevedo, Juan Baron, Roberta Malee Bassett, Tara Beteille, Andreas Blom, Adelle Pushparatnam, Marguerite Clarke, Rafael de Hoyos, Amanda Devercelli, Emanuela Di Gropello, Halil Dundar, Safaa El Tayeb El-Kogali, David Evans, Mourad Ezzine, Laura Gregory, Amer Hasan, Robert J. Hawkins, Aishwarya Khurana, Victoria Levin, Julia Liberman, Toby Linden, Meskerum Mulatu, Reema Nayar, Elizabeth Ninan, Harry Patrinos, Halsey Rogers, Alfonso Sanchez, Christopher J. Thomas, Michael Trucano, Waly Wane, and Jason Allen Weaver for their inputs. The team gratefully acknowledges the inputs from Luis Crouch, Amber Gove, Linda Heibert, Benjamin Piper, and other reviewers too numerous to mention. With apologies for any regrettable omissions and our sincerest thanks to everyone, named or anonymous, who graciously gave their time and expertise. Photo Cover: © Khasar Sandag/World Bank ABSTRACT “Learning poverty” is the measure of the number of children who cannot read and understand a simple story by age 10. Half of the world’s children experience learning poverty, failing to acquire foundational skills such as basic literacy by the end of primary. Learning poverty is a major component of the global learning crisis, and eliminating it is an urgent development objective, akin to the World Bank’s twin goals to ending poverty and increasing shared prosperity. To call attention to the magnitude and urgency of the learning crisis, the World Bank launched the Human Capital Project and set an accompanying learning target: by 2030, to halve the number of children who fail to learn to read by age 10. To achieve this goal, most successful countries will strengthen their education systems while also applying a set of targeted interventions to improve literacy. This paper describes that package of policy interventions, hereafter referred to as the Literacy Policy Package (LPP). The LPP describes how systems can apply targeted interventions to improve reading. It lays out key elements that have proven successful in rapidly improving reading proficiency levels at scale. These are: (1) Assure political and technical commitment to making all children literate; (2) Ensure adequate amounts of effective literacy instruction by supported teachers; (3) Provide quality, age-appropriate books and texts to children; (4) Teach children first in the language they speak and understand best; and (5) Foster children’s language abilities and love of books and reading. This paper describes the LPP and discusses what World Bank client countries and the Bank can do to successfully implement it. Photo: © Maria Fleischmann/World Bank 3 CONTENTS Abstract 3 Introduction 8 Section 1: The science behind learning how to read 14 Section 2: The World Bank’s Strategic Education Policy Approach and Literacy Policy Package 20 The World Bank’s Strategic Education Policy Approach 21 The Literacy Policy Package 24 Component 1: Assure political and technical commitment to making all children literate 26 Component 2: Ensure adequate amounts of effective literacy instruction by supported teachers 31 Component 3: Provide quality, age-appropriate books and texts to children 36 Component 4: Teach children first in the language they speak and understand best 42 Component 5: Foster children’s language abilities and promote the love of books and reading 49 Section 3: How can new education technology leapfrog progress towards universal literacy? 58 Examples of digital technology and software for literacy progress 59 Technology is not a panacea 62 Section 4: Looking forward 65 Bibliography 68 4 List of boxes Box S-1. Investing more or investing better in education? 11 Box S-2. The Literacy Policy Package is a cornerstone for systemic reform for education quality 13 Box 2-1. How many words-per-minute is fast enough for fluency? 28 Box 2-2. The gender gap in reading 43 Box 2-3. The Gambia: Results for Education Achievement and Development Project (READ) 46 Box 2-4. The Literacy Policy Package will aim to reach all learners -- including those with disabilities 48 Box 2-5. Read @ Home – getting books to children from hard to reach homes during the COVID-19 pandemic 49 Box 2-6. Dialogic reading techniques 51 Box 2-7. How to foster children’s motivation to read 52 Box 2-8. More components equals likelihood of greater success: Tusome Early Grade Reading Program use 4 of the 5 LPP components 56 Box 4-1. How far behind? —reading poverty varies greatly by region and country 66 List of figures Figure 1-1. The Path to becoming a highly skilled reader 18 Figure 2-1. How the Literacy Policy Package is fully integrated into the World Bank’s Strategic Education Policy Approach 22 Figure 2-2. Reading scores, oral and comprehension, ELINL program participants vs. control group, grades 1, 2, and 3 46 Figure 2-3. The Reading Virtuous Cycle (adapted from Willingham, 2015) 53 Figure 2-4. The Comprehensive Approach of the Tusome Early Grade Reading Program: A comparison of learning outcomes for Math, Kiswahili, and English 56 Figure 3-1. Technology uses in each of the Literacy Policy Package components 62 Figure 3-1 Sample of World Bank operations that are following one or more components of the Literacy Package 67 List of tables Table 1-1. Selected results from reading interventions in low- and middle-income countries 15 Table 2-1. Assessment Types and their key characteristics 27 5 List of Acronyms ECE early childhood education EGRA Early Grade Reading Assessment ELINL Early Literacy in National Language GEEAP Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel HCI Human Capital Index HCP Human Capital Project HIC high-income country LIC low-income country LMICs low- and middle-income countries LPP Literacy Policy Package PASEC Programme d'analyse des systèmes éducatifs de la Confemen PISA Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) RISE Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE SDGs Sustainable Development Goals TIMSS Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study 6 “ Literacy is a bridge from misery to hope. It is a tool for daily life in modern society. It is a bulwark against poverty and a building block of development, an essential complement to investments in roads, dams, clinics and factories. Literacy is a platform for democratization, and a vehicle for the promotion of cultural and national identity. Especially for girls and women, it is an agent of family health and nutrition. For everyone, everywhere, literacy is, along with education in general, a basic human right. - Kofi Annan Introduction 7 INTRODUCTION The 2018 World Development Report shows that far too many children fail to acquire basic skills of literacy and numeracy. Only about half of primary- school-age children in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) can read and understand a short text passage or story by age 10; these children experience “learning poverty” (World Bank 2019a). The crisis is even more pronounced in low-income countries (LICs), where 90 percent of children are in learning poverty (World Bank 2019a). Part of the problem is that too many primary-school-age children are not in school – globally this number is estimated at 59 million (UIS 2018).1 However, even when children are in school, many are failing to learn to read. Reading with comprehension is arguably the most important skill any child should learn in her early school years. Children need to learn to read before they can read to learn. The ability to read is a gateway to all types of academic learning. Without basic reading proficiency, children will most likely fail to become numerate and may experience great difficulty in mastering key socioemotional skills like self-regulation (Skibbe et al 2019). While proficient readers can progress in school, children who cannot read by late primary find it hard to catch up in school in later years and are at higher risk of dropping out from school altogether (World Bank 2018; Muralidharan and Zieleniak 2013). Like small children whose physical growth is stunted in their first years of life, children who experience learning poverty are hindered in their ability to learn and become productive members of society because of their failure to acquire this foundational skill early in their lives. High rates of illiteracy put the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in jeopardy. Current rates of progress will leave many countries falling short of these goals. Demographic trends in LICs aggravate the problem, as more and more children enter education systems that are unable to teach them foundational skills. As with stunting and extreme poverty, learning poverty urgently needs to be eliminated so that learners across the world can capitalize on their opportunities and realize their potential. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated the learning crisis, especially for the poor. The pandemic has led to massive school closures and a deep global economic recession. As a result of the pandemic, more than 180 countries have closed schools temporarily, leaving – at its peak in early April 2020 – close to 1.6 billion children and youth out of school. The World Bank’s initial impact estimate of this shock indicates that close to 10 million students are at risk of dropping out of primary and secondary education due to the decline in family income alone with girls and other vulnerable populations being most at risk (Azevedo et al 2020). In the absence of 1Thisrepresents a fraction of the total amount of students of primary and secondary school age out of school which is estimated to be over 250 million. Introduction 8 appropriate and effective policy responses, the learning losses from five months of school closures will lead the current generation of students to each lose the equivalent of US$16,000 in lifetime earnings (at present value), bringing the total loss to approximately $10 trillion for the current generation of students. We are not yet able to quantify the impact of the COVID-19 crisis on children’s and youth’s nutrition and mental health. In the long term, the COVID-19 pandemic will erode human capital accumulation, diminish economic opportunities, and increase inequality and social instability worldwide. The Learning Target promotes the elimination of learning poverty. Eliminating learning poverty is an urgent development objective, akin to the twin goals of ending poverty and boosting sharing prosperity. In “ response, the World Bank has adopted a new global Learning Target for its operational work with LMICs focused on foundational literacy: By 2030, reduce by at least half the share of children who cannot read by age 10. The Learning Target is an achievable goal to guide the World Bank’s support to basic education. The target is aligned with, and will help accelerate progress toward, SDG 4: “Ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all.” Moreover, achieving basic reading proficiency by the end of primary school is a precondition to ensuring that “all girls and boys complete free, equitable, and quality primary and secondary education” (SDG 4.1). Failing to achieve the Learning Target is an early warning that a country is off-track to achieve SDG 4. Progress toward the Learning Target will contribute to improvements in the Human Capital Index. To galvanize human capital accumulation, the World Bank launched the Human Capital Project (HCP) in 2017. The HCP helps create political space for national leaders to prioritize transformational human capital investments. It uses three tools to accomplish this: (1) the HCI, which quantifies the contribution of health and education to the productivity of the next generation of workers; (2) measurements of health and education outcomes and related research; and (3) country engagements to tackle the most significant barriers to human capital development. Introduction 9 The HCI compares children’s learning with that of their peers in the world’s leading education systems. The HCI has an education and a health component. The education component considers both attendance and test scores (learning), so variation is due partially to differences in educational access but mostly to differences in learning outcomes. Since children in the leading systems are almost all highly skilled readers, progress toward the Learning Target is also progress on the HCI. Both show increased likelihood that a child will be able to develop and use her human capital in adulthood. Reaching the Learning Target requires an unprecedented improvement in literacy. While literacy rates are trending in the right direction, progress is far too slow. At current rates, the Learning Target will not be reached. Under the status quo before COVID-19, the Learning Poverty rate in LMICs would decrease from roughly 53 percent to 41 percent by 2030. To reach the goals of halving learning poverty, countries needed to match or exceed the average rates of the fastest-improving 20 percent of countries in their respective regions. Doing this meant at least doubling the rate of progress globally. In Sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia, it required increasing the rate of progress by roughly 2.5 times. With the COVID-19 school closures and ensuing economic crisis, learning poverty is estimated to rise to 63 percent in a scenario of low-mitigation and no remediation. Thus, the acceleration needed is even greater (Azevedo 2020). The Learning Target seeks to catalyze a learning revolution. The Learning Target sharpens the focus of the World Bank’s global support to basic education. It stands to galvanize national and international efforts to fully eliminate learning poverty and spur a learning revolution. This starts with each country setting its own national learning target and aligning political and financial commitments to achieve it. As the largest external financier of education, the World Bank’s role is to help countries achieve these ambitious goals. Other development partners are similarly called to expand their efforts to help leverage and support the required national investments and policy reforms. Business-as-usual for countries and development partners is not an option. We need to be relentless in calling attention to the prevalence of learning poverty and the magnitude of the learning crisis – both show the urgent need to significantly accelerate efforts to increase the amount and quality of education. Eradicating the learning crisis requires large and persistent financial and political commitments. Progress will come most directly from country efforts, but international development partners will have to be more active and efficient in supporting and catalyzing successful reform efforts (Box S-1). Introduction 10 Box S-1 Investing more or investing better in education? Unlike what is seen with stock market crashes or epidemics, the crisis in education does not appear overnight. It results from decades of malfunctioning systems and strikes little by little; one student at a time. Most do not realize that there is a learning crisis, which leads to a lack of change. This invisible tragedy can be catastrophic, as providing a decent education to all is a precondition for having a viable economy and society. The macro-financial sector must acknowledge the crisis and redefine education as not only a right, but also as the key driver of growth, development, and competitiveness. Over the past decades, investment in education has increased substantially. However, there are vast and growing disparities in spending between income groups. In high-income countries (HICs), average government spending on the sector grew more than 54% in real terms since the year 2000. In low-income countries, during the same period overall public spending on education grew on average 227%. Despite this, the difference in spending in dollar terms remains astonishing: While high-income countries spend an average of USD$8,098 per child, low-income countries spend USD$188. With 2% of the expenditure of HICs, it is impossible for LICs to deliver the same learning experience. Providing a high-quality learning experience will require mobilizing significantly more resources in most countries. Changes to pedagogy for reading, texts and supplementary reading materials, teacher training and professional development, supervision, testing regimes, and other inputs all have cost implications. Most systems with low literacy will have to make improvements without dramatic increases in available resources. Economic growth, which has been the main source of increased education spending, is clearly not enough. In addition to continuous growth, countries need to: (1) increase government revenues as a share of national income (through, for example, taxation) or increase the size of the government sector; or (2) give more priority to education in the government budget. The countries that have had the most growth in education expenditures (Korea and Indonesia, for example) have done it through a combination of economic growth, increased government revenue, and prioritization of education. There is also room for efficiency gains in LICs. Conditions that prevent learning are fostered by inadequate and inequitable financing policies. Primary schools are those most likely to use “double shift” policies, or to employ the least experienced teachers, or to spend the least on inputs. Multiple distortions of financing, procurement, and delivery systems keep high-quality texts and supplementary books from being developed and delivered to classrooms. Imbalances in urban and rural spending often mean that more resources go to children from families with higher socioeconomic backgrounds. These issues will garner attention in the context of overall systems improvement. Effective spending is not a matter of funding inputs. Inputs, outputs, and programs have to be clearly linked to outcomes. Results-based financing can be used effectively to sharpen the focus and support the achievement of literacy goals. Source: Lee and Pedreira 2019 Introduction 11 While the Learning Target focuses immediate country efforts on foundational literacy, the World Bank will continue to support countries’ longer-term task of building high quality education systems at all levels. The World Bank will sharpen operational engagements in basic education with the integrated set of policies and resources that constitute the Literacy Policy Package (LPP). The LPP is based on evidence from the science of how children learn and from lessons concerning what has worked to achieve foundational literacy at scale. Equitable improvements in literacy learning outcomes have relied on focused efforts alongside investments in systemic reforms. The LPP must be embedded within longer-term systems building efforts to achieve gains at scale. It is one piece of a set of actions to achieve the desired changes in the educational system (See Box S-1). The remainder of this paper presents the LPP in more detail, discussing both the evidence behind it and the proposed steps to its implementation. The paper is divided into four sections: Section 1 reviews what research tells us about the science of how children learn to read; Section 2 presents the policy interventions that make up the LPP and discusses how they can change the learning trajectory of students and help more of them to become proficient readers. It also shows how these interventions can complement the World Bank’s overall approach to improving education systems. Section 3 examines how new technologies in education can be harnessed effectively to accelerate progress; and Section 4 discusses the roles of partnerships and country engagement and provides immediate next steps for action. Introduction 12 Box S-2 The Literacy Policy Package is a cornerstone for systemic reform for education quality The Learning Target will be most successful if it motivates more countries—and a broader group of stakeholders within each country—to focus on making sure that all children learn. To achieve a learning revolution, countries need political commitment to achieve both near- and longer-term changes. Targeted learning interventions can directly improve foundational literacy. This paper contributes to the definition of targeted interventions in the field of early literacy by laying out key elements that have proven successful in rapidly improving reading proficiency levels at scale. Components of the Literacy Policy Package are meant to “move the needle” on learning poverty in the shortest possible time frames. These keys include: • Assuring political and technical commitment to making all children literate; • Ensuring adequate amounts of effective literacy instruction by supported teachers; • Providing quality, age-appropriate books and texts to children; • Teaching children first in the language they speak and understand best; and • Fostering children’s language abilities and love of books and reading can combine to raise literacy outcomes shortly after being implemented. Targeted interventions must be supported by broader improvements in education systems. While ensuring literacy for all and eliminating learning poverty are essential to the improvement of HCI scores in our progress towards the SDGs, foundational literacy is not enough. Societies have many other aspirations for their education systems, and even a target focused on improving literacy requires progress at all levels of the system, from early childhood education (ECE) to tertiary education. The LPP is therefore designed to be embedded in a broader commitment to promoting learning for all. The latter commitment requires increasing access to education and strengthening all levels of the education system. Focusing the Learning Target on universal reading proficiency at the primary level does not mean limiting the World Bank’s activities to that goal. Rather it means focused actions for literacy can and should spark broader and deeper reforms throughout the system. Source: Adapted from World Bank 2019 Introduction 13 Section 1 THE SCIENCE BEHIND LEARNING HOW TO READ Photo: © Khasar Sandag/World Bank Introduction 14 A robust body of research shows how children to achieve almost universal reading proficiency learn to read. Reading is by far the most for their children. Children in these systems use researched of all school subjects. It has been their reading skills to independently read a the focus of research for more than a century; growing array of increasingly difficult texts as billions of dollar-equivalents have been spent they progress through school and life. Yet, hope and hundreds of thousands of papers and for success at scale in early literacy is not reports have been produced and published. limited to high-income countries. Many LMICs Research is expanding to more countries and have piloted reading interventions that have contexts and evidence for what works been successful; a few have been taken to continues to accumulate. These efforts scale. No unbridgeable divides exist between constitute “the science of reading” and the higher-, middle-, and low-income countries in lessons on what policies work. Several meta- literacy: good policies lead to good learning analyses (see for example Castles, Rastle and outcomes, and these can be taken to scale. Nation 2018) capture the professional Table 1-1 provides a snapshot of countries that consensus on the pathways to becoming a have implemented targeted interventions in highly skilled reader, how some children early grade reading, and the impact of these diverge from that path, and what can be done interventions on reading outcomes, as to get them back on track. measured by the Early Grade Reading Assessment (EGRA)2. The challenge is to Most of today’s high-income economies have maximize the cases where promising results drawn on insights from the science of reading achieved by the pilots are replicated at scale. Table 1-1. Selected results from reading interventions in low- and middle-income countries Duration of Effect Size Scale-up Scale-up Country intervention Grade(s) Schools Students (S.D.)* (Schools) (Students) (months) Egypt 18 1-3 166 9,000 0.55 25,000 4,200,000 Guatemala 10 1-3 114 6,000 0.45 a 11,668 3,212,544 Jordan 10 1-3 43 12,000 0.46 2,651 400,000 Kenya 22 1-2 547 56,000 0.24 25,000 7,000,000 Liberia 18 1-3 120 16,500 0.80 1,200 70,000 Rwanda 10 1-2 90 31,792 0.55 2,035 1,338,079 Senegal 18 1-6 n/a 6,000 0.80 n/a n/a Source: Moore, Gove & Tietjen, 2017 Notes: (a) 0.25 SD is generally considered equivalent to 1 year’s worth of schooling. 2The EGRA measures listening comprehension, letter identification, non-word reading, and oral fluency, among other reading-related subtasks. The content and sequence of these subtasks is based on evidence of how children attain minimum reading proficiency. Section 1 | The science behind learning how to read 15 Reading with comprehension is a composite comprehension. As young readers build these skill.3 Like an orchestra making music, reading subskills, some “later” subskills build directly on comprehension is the culmination of several earlier ones: word recognition relies on oral successful subskills working in coordination and language and decoding, for instance.4 Fluency, harmony. The subskills for reading get learned by contrast, grows along with vocabulary as (mostly) in a rough sequence. The sequence children continue to learn new words that are has many overlaps and feedback loops. Oral likely to be in the texts they read. Different language develops first, then letter name and models describe the phases differently (see for sound knowledge, word recognition, then example Ehri 2014). The model below describes reading of connected text, and then three phases. increasingly fluent and automatic reading, with PHASE 1 Language familiarity phase. The first phase of learning to read begins when a child is pre-literate. She learns first to speak, listen, and understand language and to use it for her daily life. She will later learn to use the written symbols that represent the words she knows. With some guidance or instruction, young children can become aware that words are composed of sounds, but this does not happen automatically. It is natural for a child to scream “yes” when asked if she wants something to eat, but it is not natural to notice or think about the sounds of the words that describe that food item. Explicit instruction, which can sometimes begin prior to entry in formal schooling, helps children gain the ability to notice, understand, and manipulate distinct units of sounds in spoken language. Children may also learn a few letter names, how to spell their names, and some rhyming games or songs. They may look at picture books and start to pretend to read. While this is happening, children are hopefully expanding their oral-language vocabularies and knowledge of increasingly complex syntax. Doing all this, especially when it is achieved through being read to regularly by loving caregivers, prepares a child to benefit most as she moves through formal reading instruction. PHASE 2 Code-cracking phase. This phase usually coincides with the beginning of formal classroom instruction in reading. Students continue to hone skills in recognizing and making word sounds, but they also start to learn about the symbols that make up words. They learn both that these symbols stand for sounds and that they can be combined to make different words.5 This is the phase when children learn how letters map to sounds. This knowledge allows them to decode written words using a small set of rules 3 Early reading is best understood as the period from when an individual takes the first steps in reading (usually entering primary school, though this can happen prior to the beginning of formal schooling) of sounds and simple words. Students generally are considered independent readers when they can fluently decode texts, read, and understand them without real-time assistance from a teacher. 4 These three phases aggregate larger sets of subskills, which in the professional literature may be described and grouped in different ways (National Reading Panel 2000). The grouping here seeks to present the nontechnical expert with the essential stages of processes whose complexity grows at deeper levels of technical analysis. 5 Hereafter, discussion will confine itself to alphabetic languages. These constitute the most common form of writing system, covering just over 70 percent of the world’s population. Section 1 | The science behind learning how to read 16 about letters, at first through “sounding them out” and then, with practice, more automatically. To decode well, a child must learn the ways almost all the sounds in the language are spelled, and which spelling combinations map to which sounds. This is easier in some languages than others, but most children can learn to decode with good instruction no matter how difficult (“opaque”) or easy (”transparent”) the language is. Readers who learn to decode well become more automatic sooner in word-recognition, but they continue to use decoding knowledge even as advanced readers. By contrast, without mastery of these code-cracking skills, students cannot progress to “automaticity” or become independent readers. PHASE 3 Fluency and deeper meaning phase. As a typical reader reads, practices, and grows in reading experience, subskills mature. Word recognition, previously done through laborious “sounding out” of each syllable, becomes automatic. Young readers become more comfortable reading out loud with normal speed and intonation—achieving “oral reading fluency.” Vocabulary grows, inferential skills increase, and background knowledge accumulates. As this process continues, readers can read and understand a growing array of texts of increasing length and difficulty. They start by reading and understanding words, then sentences, then paragraphs, then whole book-length discourses. During this process, students consolidate the ability to use texts and their meaning to perform a greater variety of tasks necessary for school, work, and civic participation. Phases overlap, some skills cross phases, and skills and later as skills related to both oral and multiple feedback loops exist. One’s stock of written language. On the other hand, skills such vocabulary, for example, increases as knowledge of letter-sound correspondence continuously and throughout life so long as one and decoding are sequential, discrete, and continues to be exposed to new texts and seek relate only to reading. Once students master out the meaning of unfamiliar words. But these discrete code skills, they enlarge their vocabulary increases fastest among children. means to build the more continuously New words are learned with reference to developed skills described above. Figure 1-1 known words. The same holds for linguistic illustrates the path and the phases in becoming capacity and background knowledge. Complex a high-skilled reader, though it is important to syntax builds off simple phrasing. Background emphasize that learning to read does not knowledge grows and gets added to existing proceed by strict sequence or in clearly defined knowledge. These skills start as oral language phases for all children. Section 1 | The science behind learning how to read 17 Figure 4-1: The Path to becoming a highly skilled reader Highly-skilled readers read a wide range of texts with speed, efficiency, and comprehension. They extract meaning, interpret, and use texts to serve a wide variety of ends. Reading is not monolithic, and the development of essential reading skills occurs both continuously and in phases. “Phased” development Continuous development Skills that are learned in phases, building upon Skills that tend to grow continuously into adulthood skills gained prior. Fluency and Deeper Meaning Phase Children increase automaticity in word recognition. Children gain fluency in reading first sentences, then paragraphs, then longer texts with “normal” speed and intonation. Children increase their ability to read and understand longer and more complex texts, gained through practice, reflection, and Vocabulary instruction. Linguistic capability and Background Code-cracking Phase knowledge of knowledge Increase in number words Children learn letter names, map letter names to syntax known and the sounds, decode words by sounding them out, and sophistication/complexity read groups of words and recognize their meaning. of the definition of each word. Language Familiarity Phase Phonological and Phonemic Awareness increases. Children learn that letters make up words (in alphabetic languages) and may be familiar with basic letter names. Children develop the ability to notice, understand, and manipulate units of sounds n spoken words. Children bring basic linguistic capabilities when they start to learn to read. As with the acquisition of other types of skills, curriculum need to provide relevant reading motivation and practice are essential. A key texts on topics that interest them. Doing so goal of the Literacy Policy Package is to get leads to greater enjoyment of reading, which in children to be independent readers as quickly turn increases motivation and the likelihood of as reasonably possible so that they can increase reading more. These positive associations the amount (and variety) of texts they read. increase time spent reading, advancing positive According to USAID’s Reading MATTERS, the spirals of practice and deepening of skills. national reading curriculum should allocate at Languages and writing systems matter for least 90 minutes a day to reading instruction. understanding how children learn to read. All New insights from the science of learning tell us that learning more readily happens when there languages share some common features. Learning to read in any language—and is joy, rigor, and purpose. Learning with joy means children have a positive outlook on the especially in languages that have alphabetic process of learning to read while recognizing writing systems—occurs in largely the same that failure is part of it. Learning with rigor way. But characteristics of individual means children need to be encouraged and languages and their writing systems can exert a challenged to strive for mastery of different big influence on the process. Some languages reading steps and strive for continuous may have very transparent and regular spelling patterns but complex syntax and word improvement through more practice. Learning with purpose means that teachers and the morphology. Some languages are tonal, and Section 1 | The science behind learning how to read 18 students are required to learn the appropriate diacritical marks to indicate tones that change word meaning. Some alphabets are short, and some are long. Some have simple rules for how to write vowels, for instance, while others may have complex rules and lots of options. Despite these differences, research shows very high degrees of similarity in language processing across languages and cultures (Nakamura et al 2012). Consensus on the above points does not imply that all research questions are fully settled. For instance, despite research on similarities in language acquisition and processing, the research base does not equally describe all languages, writing systems, cultural and economic contexts, nor all the reasons for variation among children in reading proficiency. There are, among others, many more studies of alphabetic writing systems (writing systems that use letters, e.g. English) than of non- alphabetic writing systems (e.g. Chinese) (Nakamura et al 2012). Yet, countries like China with non-alphabetic languages have drawn on some of the above principles to drive fast progress in achieving reading proficiency of their children at scale. While steady progress accrues, an awareness of the limits of research is part of its careful use. Section 1 | The science behind learning how to read 19 Section 2 THE WORLD BANK’S STRATEGIC EDUCATION POLICY APPROACH AND LITERACY POLICY PACKAGE Photo: © Liang Qiang/World Bank Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 20 Students all over the world can learn to read, classroom. The reasons why these conditions but conditions are not always aligned to for learning are often not in place involve support them to do so. The prevalence of complex and systemic factors along with more learning poverty in LMICs may be easier to straightforward classroom issues. Teachers understand considering poor basic conditions require better professional development and for learning. Often, schools in LMICs fail to coaching, but systems for creating and provide these basic inputs and conditions for financing these inputs are sometimes not in success. In these countries, students do not place or are not working. Books for schools are arrive at school prepared to learn, and teachers provided months or even years late, because are poorly trained and receive little to no payment systems and incentives are support in their daily teaching. Students lack misaligned. Complex political decisions or basic texts and may have no supplementary interests of different stakeholders prevent reading materials. Moreover, many students good language of instruction policies from are taught in languages they do not speak or being formulated and implemented. understand. Those with diverse learning needs may not have access to accessible resources. The Literacy Policy Package, therefore, will be Any one of these factors by itself can seriously implemented in conjunction with the World Bank’s Strategic Education Policy Approach. damage the ability of students to learn. And This policy approach contains the policy actions behind them all may lie a weak political commitment to fund and implement policies that build robust education systems to put countries on the path to eliminate learning required improve the situation. Together, these factors shed light on why more than half poverty. While reaching the Learning Target is urgent, changing systems takes time and of young children in the LMICs are failing to learn to read with proficiency. sustained effort. The Literacy Policy Package and the Strategic Education Policy Approach Solutions require actions at the classroom and together constitute a way of improving learning systems levels. The Literacy Policy Package outcomes that includes near-term, classroom- focuses on interventions at the classroom level. focused actions alongside longer-term system- Books need to be in the classroom. Effective focused actions. Together they seek urgent instruction needs to be provided by teachers in action and long-term improvements in results. the classroom every single day. The language The approach is described next, as a prelude to of instruction must be the one that is best a detailed description of the LPP. spoken and understood by students in each THE WORLD BANK’S STRATEGIC EDUCATION POLICY APPROACH The World Bank’s vision for the future of actions that are needed to accelerate learning learning is one in which learning happens with and that characterize well-functioning joy, purpose, and rigor for everyone, education systems. These are presented within everywhere. This vision can only be realized if five interrelated pillars focused on system the entire education system prioritizes and management, teachers, resources, schools, supports student learning. The World Bank’s and learners. The Literacy Policy Package is fully Strategic Education Approach builds on policy integrated into each of the pillars (Figure 5-1). Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 21 Figure 5-1: How the Literacy Policy Package is fully integrated into the World Bank’s Strategic Education Policy Approach Assure Ensure Teach children Foster Provide quality, political and effective first in the children’s oral age- literacy language they language technical appropriate commitment instruction by speak and abilities and reading books to making all supporting understand love of books to children children teachers, best and reading literate allocating sufficient time, and regularly assessing reading skills An enhanced learning experience for everyone, political will towards ensuring that all children everywhere can only be realized if countries are learning. This needs also to be reflected in carry out investments and reforms in five pillars a willingness to monitor progress at multiple that ensure that: levels through aligned assessments that 1 facilitate remediation for students who fall behind, set age-appropriate milestones for development, train bureaucracies at all levels Education Systems are well managed – (including principals and supervisors) on early Management capacity means having people literacy (USAID 2019) and create the space for with the right skills and motivation working iteration and context adaptation, before within organizational structures that are defining a prescriptive central model (Crouch aligned toward supporting learning. Countries 2020). 2 need clear mandates and accountability, merit- based selection of personnel, and evidence- based decision-making. School principals and leaders also have a part to play, through setting Teachers are effective and valued - Improving clear roles and responsibilities for staff, teacher quality involves ensuring that the ensuring the meritocratic and transparent teaching career is socially valued and that selection into school positions, and providing teachers have the tools, support, and critical support to teachers, students, and expectations they need to be effective. parents. More broadly, systems must channel Successful systems establish the teaching Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 22 profession as a meritocratic, socially valued career and hold teachers to high professional standards. They also invest in preservice 4 Schools are safe and inclusive spaces – All children should be able to learn in healthy and training with a strong practical component to safe learning environments. This involves prepare the next cadre of teaching having a space to learn that meets minimum professionals. They provide teachers with infrastructure standards for safety and ongoing, tailored, focused, and practical in- inclusion, as well as a space with the conditions service professional development that makes a to prevent and address bullying, discrimination, difference in the classroom. Finally, they and violence in and around the school. As the provide teachers with tools and techniques for number of countries falling into crisis, fragility, effective teaching, including coherent curricula and violence increases, so too does the number (with sufficient time devoted to teaching of children who attend schools in these reading), clear pedagogical guidance, and tools contexts. The impact of conflict and protracted to use regular assessments of student’s reading displacement on a child’s ability to learn is skills to guide classroom instruction and teach further compounded by often ill-equipped, children at the right level. unsafe, and untrained classroom teachers. 3 Moreover, learning environments themselves must also be inclusive. In practice, this means that teaching and learning practices support all Learning resources, including curricula, are learners, including those with reading diverse and high-quality – Systems must not difficulties or disabilities. It also means that only provide teachers and learners with teaching and learning should take place first in adequate guidance on what to learn (curricula), the language children speak and understand – they are responsible also for providing the their mother tongue. 5 necessary inputs and pedagogical tools necessary to translate the curricula into effective learning for all students. Successful systems ensure that the curriculum is effective Learners are prepared and motivated to learn – (adjusted to the level of the students and the Robust evidence from countries of all income capacity of the system) and provide detailed levels confirms that a child’s earliest years are a guidance to teachers through structured lesson critical window to build strong foundations for plans that can be used by teachers who need the future. Countries that have achieved them. A robust body of literature exists on the progress have expanded access to nutrition, importance of basic physical inputs to enable early stimulation, and quality early childhood student learning in school. Assuring that each education, particularly for the most vulnerable child has at least one quality, age-appropriate children. Efforts to encourage reading—which book is critical, as research has shown that the are critical in creating skilled, motivated most important predictor of achievement readers—start at home and include engaging across languages is whether the child has a parents in children’s early learning, enrolling reading textbook and reading materials at children in high-quality services that promote home (Piper 2010). cognitive and socioemotional skills and help them build language and pre-literacy skills (such as print awareness), and improving learning environments outside of school. Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 23 THE LITERACY POLICY PACKAGE The Literacy Policy Package (LPP) is the child in each grade has the main instructional ensemble of five policies that combine to give textbooks, and surround students with a variety countries the best chance to make rapid of engaging, age-appropriate titles and texts progress in improving literacy and early grade suited to their interests and learning levels. reading. The Components of the LPP are interrelated (see Figure 5-1) and operate at the system, school, and classroom (teacher- student) levels. The five policies are to: 4Teach children first in the language they speak 1 and understand best. Ensure that children become literate first in their home language (also known as “L1”), and that any transitions to Assure political and technical commitment to additional languages later in their schooling are making all children literate. This includes well-planned and well-timed. developing age-appropriate milestones for literacy acquisition and monitoring progress at multiple levels through aligned assessments that facilitate national target setting and individual or group remediation for students 5Foster children’s language abilities and love of who fall behind. books and reading. This involves strengthening language development and awareness in early 2 childhood education (ECE) and emphasizing the importance of daily home reading and positive reading experiences with parents, siblings, and Ensure adequate amounts of effective literacy peers. instruction by supported teachers. This involves These components harmonize with the global providing clear curricula and pedagogical evidence on effective interventions to foster guidance for literacy instruction; ensuring that reading acquisition for all. Among others, they there is sufficient time to teach reading; align with USAID’s reading MATTERS delivering focused, practical, and continuous conceptual framework, which highlights professional development for teachers; and mentors, administrators, teachers, texts, extra enabling the frequent assessment of student practice, regular assessment, and standards as progress so teachers can adjust their pedagogy key components, driven by host-country and teach at the right level. capacity and commitment (USAID 2019). 3 Further, the LPP is aligned with the results of the Research on Improving Systems of Education (RISE) program, which analyzed Provide quality, age-appropriate books and effective experiences in Kenya, Puebla, Mexico, texts to children. Provide as many diverse, age- and context-relevant books and texts to children so that they can read in and outside of school. At a bare minimum, ensure that each Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 24 and Sobral, Brazil (Crouch 2020).6 Finally, the LPP is also aligned with results from the Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel (GEEAP) which, among others, identified structured lesson plans with linked materials and ongoing teacher monitoring and training; and targeting teaching instruction by learning level as good buys in education (Global Education Evidence Advisory Panel 2020). Each LPP component is described in detail in the section that follows. For each component, the section provides an overview of the evidence of its importance; discusses specific examples of successful implementation; and lays out what the World Bank will do differently to help accelerate progress at the country level. Although country examples are provided per component, systemic interventions that integrate all or several of the five components are more effective than isolated efforts in each front. 6 The research found that Kenya, Puebla, Mexico, and Sobral, Brazil quickly improved foundational learning by focusing on a few achievable indicators, using data to generate urgency and inform decision-making, supporting teachers via clear and evidence-based models, and using tight management to ensure the coherence of all necessary inputs (e.g., lesson plans, books) and the scalability of interventions. Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 25 Component 1 Photo: © Curt Carnemark/World Bank Assure political and technical commitment to making all children literate. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT AND WHAT WORKS? Success begins with political commitment. fund and implement a sound plan for reading National commitment to the priority of that ensures that: improving literacy and foundational learning is 1) the curriculum is grounded in the best indispensable. When government and available evidence on how children learn to education leaders pledge to having every child read; learn to read, it can unleash the chains of positive actions that make goals reachable. 2) goals and learning outcome standards are Credible signals of determination from high embodied in simple and effective textbooks levels of government often precede the accessible to all students; creation and implementation of technical 3) teacher guides provide explicit guidance plans. International partners may help raise and direction to teachers on the activities awareness and promote dialogue, but and techniques for effective instruction; commitment to change at the national level is key. The “whole-of-government” approach 4) progress is monitored at multiple levels advocated by the Human Capital Project— through aligned assessments that facilitate where contributions and commitment do not remediation for students who fall behind; solely come from the education ministry—is among the processes to marshal resources and 5) parents and caregivers are actively engaged create and solidify political commitment. and supported for home reading and student support; Political commitment spurs the implementation of sound national plans to 6) teachers are supported with specific improve literacy at scale. The best technical coaching and professional development plans have no value without adequate funding while being held accountable for and a country’s willingness to implement them performance; and with patience, with persistence, and by 7) technology is used innovatively and following an adaptive learning process. The most successful country efforts in education effectively in a variety of contexts that have in common the political willingness to advance teaching and learning goals. Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 26 It is helpful to establish streamlined and time- assessments. Good initial large-scale national bound literacy goals together with assessment or international assessments help governments tools to monitor progress suited to country know where to start and appreciate how well context. Most school systems where 90 (or poorly) the system is functioning. Such percent of children learn to read have explicit, assessments complement end of year concrete, and time-bound goals for early grade summative assessments, as well as on-going readers (European Commission 2012). These classroom and formative evaluations that allow countries tend to measure progress at national, teachers to identify students’ learning progress provincial, district, school, classroom, and and adapt their teaching (see Table 2-1). individual levels (Garbe, Mallows, and Valtin Assessments results should be continuously 2016). By contrast, many countries where most reviewed against national goals to identify students struggle to learn to read lack such areas where teaching and learning can be clear goals and assessment mechanisms. improved. Each country must combine its Assessments should capture age-appropriate ambitions to develop capable readers with milestones for literacy development at realism on where to start focusing efforts for different levels of the educational system. improvement. If, for instance, empirical data Some of these key skills include listening shows that students accomplish few correct comprehension, letter-name knowledge, words-per-minute in oral reading fluency, the letter-sound knowledge, vocabulary, oral best route for improvement may be to reading fluency for different grades and stages, strengthen basic decoding skills before moving and reading comprehension for different to advanced skills. When using cross-language grades and stages. Successful systems test for and cross-country standards as a reference these skills at the beginning of primary school value in early grade reading, it is important to and throughout the year, using a variety of exercise caution, as very early skills develop at national, international, and classroom-level different speeds in different languages. Table 2-1: Assessment Types and their key characteristics Source: Clarke 2012 Classroom National International Examinations Purpose To provide To provide feedback on To provide feedback To select or certify immediate the overall health of the on the comparative students as they move feedback to system at particular performance of the from one level of the inform grade/age level(s), and education system at education system to the classroom to monitor trends in particular grade/age next (or into the instruction learning level(s) workforce) Frequency Daily For individual subjects, For individual subjects Annually and more offered on a regular offered on a regular often where the system basis (such as every 3-5 basis (such as every 3-5 allows for repeats years) years) Who is All students Sample or census of A sample of students All eligible students tested? students at a particular at a particular grade or grade or age level(s) age level(s) Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 27 Box 2-1 How many words-per-minute is fast enough for fluency? While it is theorized that a minimum degree of fluency is needed for readers to comprehend connected text, fluency benchmarks will vary by grade level and by language. A language with shorter words on average, like English or Spanish, allows students to read more words per minute than a language like Kiswahili, where words consist of 10-15 letters or even 20 letters. In other words, the longer the words and the more meaning they relay, the fewer words per minute that need to be read to indicate reading proficiency. Source: RTI International 2015. Students learning “transparent” languages, like grade, most students should be able to begin to Spanish or Italian, may quickly learn to decode read independently with meaning. At this point and start reading connected text relatively cross-country comparisons become easier and early. Students learning a language like English more useful (See Error! Reference source not may need more time to master the irregular found.). ways words are spelled. By the end of third SUCCESSFUL EXAMPLES When the whole learning ecosystem aligns municipality, school, and classroom levels, toward a clear goal of having every child including the support received by teachers reading and writing paired with robust and through their continuous professional sustained assessment mechanisms, sustained development programs. Assessments results change can occur rapidly and at scale. This was also determined incentives for teachers, seen in the municipality of Sobral in the state of principals and schools who received bonuses if Ceara, one of the poorest in Brazil. The reform they met learning targets. Measures went started with political leadership committed to beyond formal assessments and also included the goal of having every child reading and putting in place strong monitoring systems to writing by the end of second grade. Aside from track student attendance and support those at political commitment, the most important risk and their families. By 2010, dropout rates components of the reform were the use of for both primary and lower secondary students assessments to measure progress and guide had decreased to zero. The results of the interventions, a focused curriculum, reform in Sobral are dramatic. In 2005, Sobral empowered school management, and was at the 1,366th position in the IDEB ranking motivated teachers. By 2001, students were (which measures education quality in primary assessed twice a year on literacy, starting from and lower secondary education in Brazil). the last year of early childhood education until Almost a decade later (in 2017), the the end of lower secondary. Results from these municipality ranked first, ahead of wealthier assessments shaped and refined specific states such as São Paulo (Loureiro and Cruz learning goals and strategies at the 2020). Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 28 Political and technical commitment provide an Improving results in reading assessments, enabling environment to improve literacy which rose by more than 20 points between outcomes. Chile’s more than 20-year 2006 and 2009 (as measured by PISA), and commitment to improve education is rooted in repeatedly ranking as the highest performer in its political class’s constant support of the Latin America region are examples of education reform without regard for shifts in Chile’s success. political power. Policy continuity and consensus Assessment results can mobilize country can be attributed to “large-scale consultation coalitions and streamline national education exercises and national education plans that reform. When Peru ranked last in the 2012 brought together all the major actors and round of PISA, its students’ poor performance academic authorities of the sector to produce in reading and math made the headlines across long-term proposals for reform” (Wales, Ali, the country. Reformers in the government used and Nicolai 2014). Additionally, continuous this momentum to mobilize public support for feedback from the education quality a variety of reforms, including investing more in measurement system (SIMCE, Sistema de education and improving teachers’ career and Medición de la Calidad de la Educación), professional development (Saavedra 2019). By created at the same time as political 2015, the PISA results showed important prioritization was given to education in Chile, improvements in the reading comprehension has also been key in maintaining political performance of Peruvian secondary students commitment. Together with results from and a reduction in the number of students not participating in international assessments, such reaching minimum proficiency (Guadalupe et al as the OECD's Programme for International 2017). Burundi’s superior performance in both Student Assessment (PISA) and the Trends in EGRA and the Programme d’analyse des International Mathematics and Science Study systèmes éducatifs de la confemen (PASEC) in (TIMSS), SIMCE’s measures of learning the 2009-2014 period is partially credited to outcomes are used to set new expectations as the country establishing explicit and concrete a country and to track advances of those goals. learning goals (Guadalupe et al 2017). Additionally, multiple policy reforms have been Disappointing results in the Cambodia’s 2010 implemented in Chile, including setting a EGRA scores drove the government to align the minimum standard for teachers’ and students’ national reading goals and policies with current materials, implementing curriculum and evidence on what works (Graham and Kelly pedagogical improvements, and including 2018). performance-based incentives for teachers, among others. Consensus in politics and policy, constant measurement, and investment in education have been decisive factors in the improvement of education quality in Chile. Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 29 WHAT WILL THE WORLD BANK DO DIFFERENTLY? To support political and technical commitment to making all children literate, the World Bank will… …highlight the issue of literacy and foundational skills at the fore of international educational debates and national policy dialogue. While 1 political commitments are consolidated at the national and subnational levels, the Bank’s overall adoption of the Learning Target and measurement of learning poverty will sharpen the focus on literacy and foundational skills where data show progress is lacking. Partnership with governments starts with dual commitment to explore current performance and discuss possible avenues for improvement, including with Bank financial and technical assistance. …support national efforts to set learning targets for numeracy. To be meaningful and relevant to promoting change, target-setting should be a central element of a strategy to accelerate learning: setting learning 2 targets should not be viewed as a simple numerical or statistical exercise. As laid out in the new “Setting Targets for Progress in Reducing Learning Poverty” paper (forthcoming), the World Bank has developed a strategy and a menu of tools to build an evidence-informed strategy and plans to accelerate learning, including initial dynamic simulation models and other data visualization strategies to understand and define clear, measurable, and feasible stretch targets for countries. …help countries build assessment capacity for literacy and for learning. The World Bank is also building capacity for collecting assessment data on literacy and learning in general through the Learning Assessment Platform (LeAP), which aims to improve the quality and availability of global 3 learning data. As part of this initiative, the World Bank has also established a partnership with the UNESCO Institute of Statistics (UIS) to create a global reporting scale that supports countries to report minimum proficiency data from a variety of national, regional, and international assessments. The Bank is also a partner in the development, dissemination, and implementation of the Global Proficiency Framework (GPF), which is a tool for determining minimum proficiency levels for foundational learning in ways that facilitate harmonized reporting of outcomes and comparability of data for reporting on SDG 4.1. Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 30 Component 2 Photo: © Bart Verweij/World Bank Ensure adequate amounts of effective literacy instruction by supported teachers. Quality classroom instruction promotes literacy. This second component focuses on teachers, more specifically on three aspects of their practice: • the provision of coherent curricula, with enough time devoted to teaching reading and clear and detailed guidance for pedagogy and content for literacy instruction; • focused, practical, and continuous pedagogical support through coaching and professional development to foster better classroom instructional practices; and • frequent monitoring of student progress, enabling teachers to adjust their pedagogy and content to students’ learning. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT AND WHAT WORKS? Teachers in many countries are not providing countries, explicit plans for scope, sequence, the type, sequence, and/or amount of progression of instructional activities, and instruction that students need to learn to read. practice underpin their textbooks and teachers’ Ample evidence shows that when students guides. These countries give enough class time have high-quality instruction (with respect to to teaching reading, language, and literacy (at content, sequence, and amount) most will least an hour and a half every school day). learn to read (Castles, Rastle, and Nation 2018). These curricula are carefully designed to However, many teachers in low-income provide systemic instruction that helps the countries lack the specific knowledge and skills largest number of students go from little or no they need to be effective. Evidence of the reading ability to being independent readers by problem is unfortunately abundant: in Sub- the end of third grade (Beteille 2020). They also Saharan Africa, for example, the World Bank’s are streamlined and focused. Simplification of Service Delivery Indicator (SDI) survey in six curricular goals helps teachers prioritize the countries shows that 84 percent of grade 4 most important topics and achieve a greater teachers have not reached the minimum level depth of understanding and mastery among of competence (Beteille and Evans 2019). students (Pritchett and Beatty 2012). China and Component 2 aims to improve this situation. Japan, for example, both have a history of coherent and narrowly focused curriculum that Countries with good literacy outcomes rely students can fully master, accompanied by heavily on a curriculum built around the science detailed guidelines for teachers and by of how children learn to read. In these textbooks with great depth and a clear Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 31 sequence of content. This “mastery approach” teachers to implement the pedagogical plan is credited with being an important factor in they are given (e.g., structured lesson plans). propelling students in these countries to the Crouch (2020) finds that it is important to have top of the PISA rankings. evidence-based effective coaching, as this leads to improved learning outcomes amongst Teachers’ guides can be highly effective in students which in turn results in critical teacher supporting teaching practice. In many cases, motivation. teachers’ guides contain detailed lesson plans for teachers that facilitate core instruction Feedback from assessment helps teachers while giving them space to adapt and use their identify children who require special attention professional skills. The GEEAP identified step- and “teach to the right level”. (Muralidharan, by-step lesson plans with linked materials and Singh, and Ganimian 2019) The technique of ongoing teacher monitoring and training as teaching at the right level ensures that each cost-effective investments in education student is given the task he or she needs to systems that can work even with weak master in his or her learning progression. It teachers. An analysis of structured teacher means, for example, that students who are guides across 13 countries in the global south struggling with letter sounds continue to work finds that “programs that use teachers’ guides on letter sounds and master them before show significant impacts on learning outcomes, moving to word reading. This way, “slower associated with approximately an additional learners can spend more time on the basics half year of learning, showing that structured without being rushed to move on…beyond teachers’ guides contribute to improved their understanding” (Muralidharan, Singh, and learning outcomes” (Piper et al 2018). Ganimian 2019). This type of intervention was Structured teachers’ guides simplify the job of identified by the GEAP as cost-effective for the teacher and provide guidance not only on contexts where there are a wide variety of what to teach, but also how to teach it. learning levels within a class and where students are below the expectations of the Investments in practical, focused, and curriculum for their grade. continuous coaching and professional development can be highly effective in raising For example, Mindspark centers in India use an student learning outcomes. Given that not all adaptive learning software that customizes teachers share the same strengths and content based on the level and rate of progress weaknesses, successful professional of each student. When students attended development targets the areas where they these centers after school for a period of four need the most support. They also do not try to and a half months, they experience an increase cover all topics, but rather focus on specific in Hindi scores of 0.23 SD and math test scores skills with simpler and more classroom-relevant of 0.37 SD (Muralidharan, Singh, and Ganimian content. Furthermore, good professional 2019). Another example is the nonformal self- development are practical and involve hands- learning program, Kumon. A placement test on application and practice. Coaching, determines a comfortable starting point that “is mentoring, and communities of practice usually set slightly below students’ concurrent models (where an on-going local expert maximum potential capacity” (Liang, Kidwai, provides guidance) where teachers can apply and Zhang 2016). Students receive carefully what they learn and iterate based on student designed worksheets for practice, and move to responses, have been successful in improving new and more difficult worksheets only after teacher practices. This practice-based demonstrating full mastery of the previous professional development can be used to ones. support “lesson fidelity,” that is, the ability of Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 32 Getting this integration right is even more systems not only tackle COVID-19 but build critical in the era of COVID-19. First, given the back with more resilience and effectiveness. lost months of schooling during COVID-19, it Behavioral change by teachers requires their will be critical for Ministries of Education to buy-in. Technically impeccable lesson plans or streamline curriculum so that the most teacher training will lead nowhere if lesson important topics can be prioritized in the plans are not used in the classroom or if shortened school calendar upon return. teachers do not change their behavior after Second, teachers will need to receive training. Thus, governments should make sure professional development that guides them on that reading reforms build ownership with how to provide accelerated learning and how teachers by providing clear information on to adapt their pedagogy to teach at the right what is expected of them, appropriate support level, because students will arrive to and accountability for meeting these classrooms after differential access to distance expectations, and interventions to support learning. Importantly, distance professional schools that are struggling. Teachers can development using mobile phones, become allies if these changes facilitate their videoconferencing, or other digital means work and if they can observe an impact on should be explored, taking account of the social improving children’s reading levels (Piper et al distancing imposed by the response to the 2018). pandemic. Adopting these practices will help COUNTRY EXAMPLES Shanghai combines explicit curriculum teachers’ daily work with stated objectives. standards, targeted classroom assessment, and Ninety percent of schools surveyed in a World clear guidance for teachers with school-based Bank study reported they require teachers to professional development. The city has design detailed lesson plans based on the curriculum standards that specify the stated curriculum standards.7 Shanghai uses knowledge and skills that students need to teaching-research groups (which have been acquire every year. In early-grade reading, promoted since 1957 and are replicated at the these objectives include both quantifiable school, city, district, and national levels) as a indicators (recognizing 2,000 common Chinese continuous professional development platform characters and writing 1,000 common for teachers of the same subject. At the school characters) as well as descriptions of level, groups meet for two to three hours every competencies (understand textbook content; week, on average, and conduct activities such express opinion after reading passages) (Liang, as coaching, new-teacher induction, research Kidwai, and Zhang 2016). These curriculum on content and pedagogical practices, and peer standards serve important purposes in aligning performance evaluations. A World Bank survey 7 The team of authors behind “How Shanghai Does it” collaborated with Shanghai Normal University to develop and administer a survey to 153 principals to understand education practices in relation to policy intent. These schools were junior secondary schools that participated in both the 2009 and 2012 PISA. As PISA adopts a random sampling strategy to select a representation sample of schools, the results from this 153-survey can also be said to be reflective of education policies in Shanghai. Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 33 showed that 99 percent of surveyed schools in Shanghai’s strategy to massify quality have teaching-research groups in different education. Over time, there was more freedom subjects (Liang, Kidwai, and Zhang, 2016). for teachers to adapt individual lessons. Even Finally, schools use formative assessments to today however, teachers, professional monitor student progress, inform classroom development, curricula, and textbooks teaching, and design teacher professional continue to align on a single set of standards development and policymaking. Teachers in and guidelines – a principle which remains core Shanghai are also instructed not to use paper- in driving success in basic learning outcomes. based tests for students in first and second India offers a good example of the importance grades and are given support on how to of teachers’ buy-in and support towards conduct formative assessments that focus on learning in its implementation of Teaching at bolstering student growth rather than student the Right Level (TaRL). Between 2012 and 2013, comparison (Liang, Kidwai, and Zhang 2016). the Haryana state in India embedded TaRL as Packages of structured lesson plans, as in part of teachers’ regular activities in primary Liberia, align teaching and learning materials, schools. Previous experiences had failed to and professional development can be used by gather teachers’ support in Bihar and high- and low-income countries. In Liberia, Uttarakhand, given that TaRL was not structured lessons for teachers were combined perceived as a government initiative. Learning with observation and feedback by literacy from this, to get teachers to implement this coaches as part of the EGRA Plus program. This approach, the Haryana government trained was part of a general approach that carefully teachers in the methodology using their own tracked student progress through both oral and officials (previously trained by Pratham) to train written assessments. At the end of this and monitor teachers and established a program, reading scores had increased by 0.82 practice period for teachers to become SD (Gove and Wetterberg 2011). On the other comfortable with it. After that they included a end of the spectrum, high-performing systems government mandated additional hour in the such as that in Finland also provide highly school day to teach remedial Hindi to students detailed lesson-plan models to students of pre- by grouping them based on achievement and service education so that teachers can build monitoring the program (Banerjee et al 2017). their own and incorporate them into their teaching practices during their careers. In the early years of economic development, highly structured lesson plans were also a key element Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 34 WHAT WILL THE WORLD BANK DO DIFFERENTLY? Teachers are at the center of the World Bank’s approach to eliminating learning poverty. In order to support teachers in the teaching of foundational skills, the World Bank will… … support client countries to promote, practical, focused, high-quality professional development, with a focus on foundational skills. This 1 includes a sharpened effort to re-orient teacher training for literacy around the foundational teaching skills and assisting clients to develop systems for coaching of teachers. The World Bank’s new initiative, called “Coach,” focuses on improving in-service teacher professional development, moving away from a traditional focus on inputs in the classroom to a focus on the quality of student-teacher interactions. In contexts like Afghanistan and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, principles and products from Coach are being applied to transform teacher professional development and coaching to effectively deliver foundational learning outcomes. …partner with countries to strengthen instruction through improved teaching materials, in conjunction with teacher professional 2 development. This includes efforts to improve lesson plans to better scaffold learning according to the science of reading and re-orienting other teaching materials to ensure lesson fidelity. For example, the World Bank is working with the government in Mozambique to revise early- grade-reading lesson plans so they more closely align with the reading trajectories of children while also embedding foundational teaching skill prompts for teachers. …explore innovative avenues to deliver and sustain high quality 3 teaching. The World Bank’s Education Technology team is expanding promising practices involving mixed-mode online teacher capacity development, particularly in the area of virtual coaching and remote teacher professional development, especially in the wake of COVID-19. In addition, using technology for just-in-time behavioral nudges through text messaging is also being explored. Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 35 Component 3 Photo: © Sarah Farhat/World Bank Provide quality, age-appropriate books and texts to children. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT AND WHAT WORKS? Access to books predicts success in learning to effective inputs to improve learning, especially read. It is self-evident that children need access if they are in a local language that children to books and printed materials to learn to read. understand (Crabbe, Nyingi, and Abadzi 2014). But differences in the amount and variety of Home reading prepares children to benefit print exposure correlate strongly with reading from reading instruction. While high-quality skills. “Print poverty” – namely the scarcity of formal reading instruction in primary school is exposure to written words – has huge imperative, home reading activities are also consequences on performance. Students essential. Children learn how print and books scoring in the 98th percentile of tests may read work, and time spent with caregivers listening 4.7 million words a year, equivalent to 67 to stories creates strong positive associations minutes a day, while those scoring in the 10th with books, reading, and language. A study percentile may only read 51,000 words per from Uganda found that the factor that better year, equivalent to 1 minute a day (Anderson, explained learning outcomes in early literacy Wilson, and Fielding 1988). To achieve fluency, was having reading materials at home (Piper students must be exposed to age- and content- 2011). A comprehensive study that covered the appropriate texts and lots of practice reading Philippines, Uganda, Mali, and Ethiopia also (Gove and Cvelich 2011). Partner organizations found that the home learning environment was such as UNESCO and USAID have all a predictor of literacy across all contexts, with emphasized the importance of timely access to the most critical component of home reading materials to improve learning environment being access to print material (Education Commission 2016). Good texts can (Friedlander 2013).8 also be highly effective in supporting in- classroom teaching, and research has shown In LMICs, high-quality, age-appropriate reading that quality textbooks are one of the most cost- and teaching materials may be scarce or even 8The study found that up to 15% of the variance in student outcomes in the Philippines, Uganda, Mali, and Ethiopia was attributable to home environment factors. Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 36 absent. The Global Book Alliance, as well as The book chain has been described as the result other organizations, have raised awareness on of complex systems and factors by which books both the extent and causes of the lack of book and teaching and learning materials arrive to availability in LMICs. They found, in Malawi for homes and classrooms. A high-quality, effective example, that while the Tumbuka and Yao book chain involves: languages each have approximately 2.2 million native speakers, fewer than 20 book titles are 1) book/title development – with available in either language (Results for attention to authorship, illustration, cultural relevance of book 4) improved supply and Development 2016). As a result, a full quarter distribution chains to ensure that texts, once of Malawi’s population lacks materials to developed, are efficiently delivered from support literacy. Even when texts are present, the content, and development of local they may be outdated, not contextually publishing capacities; relevant or appropriate to the level of the child, in a language children do not use and 2) access/availability of age- and context- understand, uninteresting, or unaligned with appropriate books, including licensing arrangements that permit wider use, the requirements of effective pedagogy. formats that allow for adaptation, and Many factors contribute to scarcity of reading platforms that share existing titles; material for children. The scope of the 3) coordination of procurement systems challenge includes a deficit in the pool of involved in the purchase of books and qualified authors and publishers, compounded textbooks to improve efficiency from the by insufficient or inappropriate use of production site to those who are the procurement and distribution systems, all of intended end users; and which increase the costs of production and provision. In Guinea, Niger, and Chad, more 4) the effective use of texts for reading instruction and practice both within and than 50 percent of books that are printed end outside of the classroom. up lost in the process of warehousing, transport, and distribution, due more generally to lack of oversight, accountability, and When books and teaching learning materials planning (Results for Development 2016). are scarce or absent, analysis of what parts of the book chain function and what parts do not Successful policies ensure that books are work is often the starting point for available, affordable, contextually relevant, and improvement. used by targeting all parts of the “book chain.”9 9Formore information on the Book Chain, refer to the work of the Global Book Alliance (GBA). The GBA has created various analytical tools to help countries strengthen their “book chains” to increase text access and use by young readers. Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 37 COUNTRY EXAMPLES In Vietnam, every student, regardless of operated a system of school-based selection of socioeconomic status, has a textbook. teaching and learning materials. In 2009, the Textbooks in Vietnam are developed by a Ministry of Education launched a call for bids collective of teachers and scientists who from publishers for all primary and secondary conduct an extensive research and grades using international procurement development process with two to five years of systems adopted by the Rwanda Public piloting before nationwide expansion. Procurement Agency. The Ministry then Expansion strategies take into central utilized an evaluation methodology – with price consideration the equitable distribution of accounting for 25 percent of the total textbooks. In addition, government policies evaluation mark – to create a list of approved support subsidies and fee exemptions for titles from which schools could select. The final children from ethnic minorities and poor approved list with prices was widely distributed families (Fredriksen and Tan 2008). A 2013 through newspapers, pamphlets sent to Young Lives report found that 97 percent of schools, and posted on the Ministry website. students in Vietnam own a Vietnamese Three to four titles competed per subject and textbook. Among the poorest subset of grade. Intensive publisher marketing to schools students10 in the poorest province of Vietnam, was generally beneficial as it provided less than 1 percent own their own dictionary or information, inspection copies, and even calculator or use a computer outside of school, workshops for teachers on how to apply the yet 100 percent reported owning a Vietnamese pedagogy of the textbook. Schools were textbook, and 95 percent reported owning a required to spend 80 percent of their annual math textbook (Rolleston, James, and Duc teaching and learning materials budgets on 2013). Vietnam has achieved high levels of textbooks, with the remaining 20 percent spent enrolment in basic education in recent years on supplementary books. These budgets were and has undertaken important reforms not provided to schools in cash, but through intended to improve school access, quality, and two order forms that specified the budget equity. Results from PISA 2015 showed that amount that schools were allocated. Because students in Vietnam in the bottom half of the the wholesale book trade market in Rwanda is income quintile had scores as high or higher still relatively weak, publishers were than the average OECD student (World Bank individually responsible for the delivery of their 2017). orders to schools. Publishers were not paid for their supplies until a signed and stamped In Rwanda, decentralized supply networks, delivery slip, which corresponded to the school with private sector participation, have order form, was submitted in support of their improved the efficiency of book purchase and invoices. In the academic years 2010 to 2013, delivery. Over the past decade, Rwanda has 10Povertywas determined through a Home Background Index, which uses indicators such as whether or not the child is of an ethnic minority, has a college-educated mother, a college-educated father, a computer at home, and/or internet at home. Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 38 the successful delivery rate11 was 99.9 percent delivery of books was reduced from 10 days for supplementary materials and even with the old system to 1 day with Track and exceeded 100 percent12 for textbooks (Results Trace, and that 92 percent of committees in for Development 2016). A high proportion of charge of spot-checking confirmed the supplementary materials were primary grade reception of books. Finally, and most reading books. importantly, a cost-effectiveness analysis showed that the total cost of implementing this Niger, Nepal, India, and Cambodia are using system nationwide is lower than the total cost “Track and Trace” to ensure books arrive to of lost books. schools. The World Bank’s Results in Education for All Children (REACH) Trust Fund has Several countries are addressing print through developed a digital tracking system to make interventions that target areas of weakness in sure books reach the hands of all children. This local book chains. Cambodia makes available system addresses the main challenges guidance for story development for potential regarding book distribution by providing easy authors and illustrators. As a result, the number to access information on the current status of of available titles for early readers in Khmer has books as they move along the supply chain. This increased by an order of magnitude since the information allows policymakers to identify guidelines became available. Building on this problems and delays and address them swiftly. trend in book development, a World Bank- The “Track and Trace” system offers three main financed Project in Niger currently sponsors features: forecasting, tracking, and verification. local storytellers, authors, illustrators, and Forecasting helps systems build an accurate linguists to create and make accessible digital projection on books requirements and replaces content for children. Room to Read, with paper-based processes. Tracking allows real- support from the World Bank’s Results in time monitoring of printing, storage, and book Education for All Children (REACH) Trust Fund, distribution status. Verification allows for spot- is facilitating a public-private partnership to checks to be deployed across classrooms to create national storybook guidelines and to make sure orders have been completed develop a pooled procurement mechanism to correctly. Track and Trace includes easy-to-use distribute books to schools across South Africa. tools: app, chat box, voice messaging system, These types of initiatives have created standard and a dashboard. Between 2018 and 2020, guidelines and specifications for books, REACH partnered with the Global Book Alliance ensuring also that procurement processes to test and adapt these innovations in Niger, achieve large and predictable print runs at low Nepal, India, and Cambodia (World Bank 2020). cost. Kenyan publishers publish reading books These iterations also mapped relevant actors as in a variety of different local languages, catering well the incentives necessary to make the to larger ethnic groups, while the Kenya program effective; among these, a common Institute for Curriculum Development supports incentive used was public recognition and the development of reading books in languages rewards. Results of the Cambodia project for which book development would not have indicate that 99 percent of the books were been commercially viable (Results for allocated correctly, that the timeframe for Development 2016). is calculated by the number of textbooks ordered as a percentage of the number of textbooks successfully delivered. 11This can be explained by the fact that some expensive textbooks were not available at the time they were required, and 12This cheaper substitutes were made available, therefore allowing schools to order more copies of the cheaper books. Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 39 WHAT WILL THE WORLD BANK DO DIFFERENTLY? The World Bank will redouble efforts on three fronts to get more quality, age-appropriate reading materials into the hands of young readers. This entails… …promoting the development of local educational publishing industries. Working with key partners, including the IFC, the World Bank will explore approaches to help support the strengthening of local educational publishing industries in target markets to broaden the availability of 1 locally relevant reading materials. The World Bank will also work to help shape the supply of literacy materials for use in low-income educational settings by collaborating more closely with private and nonprofit educational publishers and providers of literacy. Prize competitions modelled along the lines of similar efforts supported by the Global Learning XPRIZE, USAID's All Children Reading Grand Challenge, and NORAD's EduApp4Syria initiative will be an important tool to help with such efforts. …strengthening the procurement of books through greater accountability and the harnessing of new technologies and partnerships. The procurement of textbooks—both using national and World Bank 2 rules – has acquired a largely deserved reputation for being a complex and lengthy process. Thus, the World Bank will scale up innovative approaches and seek to disrupt the status quo where procurement and distribution processes are not working. For instance, the World Bank will continue to foster the use of Results-Based Financing and “Track and Trace” technologies to drive improvements along the book supply chain, especially by promoting payment upon successfully verified delivery. …supporting governments in developing clear criteria for approval and procurement of reading content so that that materials are affordable, appropriate, durable, contextually relevant and open-source. This includes an emphasis on the development of supplementary reading 3 materials as a complement to textbooks and blending printed material with digital content (including open-source resources -OER). Drawing on lessons from REACH, World Bank staff will encourage the broader development, adaptation, and creation of a range of physical and digital content of supplementary fiction and non-fiction reading materials for consumption outside of class time. This could include innovations such as textbooks with WQRs or any digital technology that enables access to online digital resources, such as the technology developed by the EkStep Foundation in partnership with several states in India. Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 40 … and finally, the World Bank will work with other partners through existing organizations to develop high-quality, open-source, global public goods such as leveled readers in multiple languages and for different 4 cultural contexts. Digital learning can also help facilitate localization and adaptation to multiple languages and replication at zero marginal cost compared to traditional publishing. Systemic responses from countries around the work regarding the COVID-19 pandemic can be leveraged to make the best use of the existing and newer online platforms, mobile applications, distribution of printed kits programs, to disseminate reading material more effectively and embedded within strategies where teachers, families, and students are incentivized and supported to use them. Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 41 Photo: © Simone D. McCourtie/World Bank Component 4 Teach children first in the language they speak and understand best. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT AND WHAT WORKS? Children learn best in the language they speak Not only do students have greater success in and understand best. Evidence accumulated school, but the effects of their success persist over the past several decades from all regions over a lifetime, with higher average earnings of the world paints a clear and consistent accruing to students who began their schooling picture: students learn more when taught in in their home language (Patrinos and Velez the languages they speak, use, and understand 2009). Mother-tongue instruction has the very best. Ensuring that instruction is strong equity advantage of leveling the playing comprehensible and connected to children’s field and allowing all children to learn in the existing knowledge promotes success. An language they know and understand best. analysis across 49 countries shows a strong When the language that students speak and relationship between literacy skills and the use understand best is used as the first language of of “mother tongue” or “L1” instruction. instruction, dropout rates are significantly Students in early grades achieve higher reading lower (Smits, Huisman, and Kruijff 2008), comprehension when their teachers receive particularly for girls (Benson 2005), and for training and materials to teach in the language minorities whose languages are not that students speak and understand best represented in formal structures (Pinnock (Piper, Zuilkowski, and Ong’ele 2016). Research 2009). At the same time, poor policies on in Sub-Saharan Africa has also indicated that language of instruction disproportionately learning how to read in one’s mother tongue affect children from households in the bottom can help one acquire greater skill in a second 40 percent of the socioeconomic distribution. language in later years (Shin et al. 2015; Taylor These children are more likely to be linguistic and von Fintel 2016). When children learn to minorities, to fail to receive adequate read in their mother tongue and get practice instruction in the language they speak and decoding in a language they speak, they understand best, and/or to lack the resources internalize the logic of decoding to learn their to mitigate the effects of bad language of second language. instruction policies in in the schools they attend. When in classes or schools with Students who receive home-language language-majority peers (students who speak instruction are more likely to attend school, the dominant, or “majority” language), these stay in school, and acquire higher levels of children must spend more effort to avoid falling learning (see for example Trudell 2016; Smits, behind. Many of them drop out of basic Huisman, and Kruijff 2008; Duc and Tam 2013). education and in the aggregate, their cognitive, Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 42 Box 2-2 The gender gap in reading Across regions girls outperform boys in reading outcomes and have lower rates of learning poverty (see Learning Target Technical Note). Overall, middle-income countries present larger gender gaps in comparison to high- and low-income countries. For examples, eight out of the ten countries that lead the gender disparities in the TIMSS evaluation are from Middle East and North Africa region, and they all favor girls. However, it’s important to note that while, on average, girls do better than boys in reading, fewer girls than boys are enrolled in school (especially in Sub-Saharan African countries). Additionally, girls have a higher risk of dropping out and are, later in life, underrepresented in the labor market. Whether the gender gap in reading requires specific policies to help boys improve their reading proficiency is a disputed topic in academia. While some scholars consider that this gap seems to disappear by adulthood,a others argue that the gap emanates from parents investing more time reading books with their daughters than their sonsb; or from teachers being biased to perceive boys as “troublesome” and girls as “compliant”c. Many of the World Bank’s education projects incorporate gender as cross-cutting. For example the “Education Reform Support Program-for-Results” program in Jordan is mainstreaming gender through activities such as teacher training on gender-specific modules, and tailoring student assessments to counter for potential differences in attainment and performance of girls and boys. Sources: (a) Loveless 2001; (b) Baker and Milligan 2013; (c) Jones and Myhill 2004. academic, and language skills are lower than between learning poverty and share of minority those of their peers and lower than they would language speakers in the country is strong. have been with adequate, formal mother- Twelve of the top 20 countries by highest share tongue instruction. of learning poverty are from the regions with the highest overall share of minority language Teaching children in the language they speak speakers. and understand first benefits reading and other academic subjects. Using the mother tongue to Investments in L1 education pay dividends for instruct students for approximately the first six students and education systems. The technical years of schooling is an important factor to work required to put in place good mother- achieve not only reading competency, but also tongue instruction in languages with more than to provide the foundation to study more 10 million speakers of speakers is not trivial; but complex topics. Data from TIMSS has shown it is modest compared to the improved that, with few exceptions, students from educational outcomes for children who speak homes where the language of instruction is not these languages. There are 273 languages that the language spoken at home have lower each have an average of more than 10 million average mathematics achievement than speakers. Instruction in these additional 273 students whose mother tongue was also the languages could eliminate 75 percent of the language of instruction. Internationally, fourth global problem (World Bank, forthcoming). To graders who were not taught in their home reach at least 80 percent of speakers in every language had average scores 28 points lower LMIC, however, means teaching in 862 mother- than fourth graders who were taught in their tongue languages (World Bank, forthcoming). home language in TIMSS 2011 (477 versus 501). None of these additional languages has more than 1.5 million speakers in total; and many do Learning poverty correlates with language not have orthographies. The remaining diversity at the national level. The 20 countries percentage of speakers use roughly 8,100 with the highest levels of learning poverty also languages, with some of these languages have high language diversity. The relationship Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 43 having only a few thousand speakers. When it learning materials available to teachers to comes to languages for which there are very ensure successful implementation. Teachers few speakers, consideration of language should be trained to teach in the local language coverage and costs may factor into choices. and be able to use the materials in a targeted Focusing in on the 273 languages that have on way. Ecuador and Mali, for example, have average more than 10 million speakers, introduced targeted training programs on however, constitutes a clear and effective step bilingual education (Maurer 2010). National in the direction of providing equitable and local educational planning and budgeting education to all children. are needed to effectively incorporate home languages into the overall functioning of the Successful mother-tongue language policies education system (USAID 2015). require effective recruitment, training, and deployment of teachers. Language mapping Language of instruction policies should reach exercises can be helpful to determine areas and all students and all needs. Current evidence schools where teachers and students suffer a shows that many of the out-of-school children mismatch in terms of language. Identifying at the primary level have some form of schools or areas suffering from this issue can disability (UNESCO 2006) (see Box 2-4). In help to guide recruitment and deployment of developing countries, a disaggregation of the teachers by targeting in-demand or least- disabled out of school rate reveals that more served languages. In the short term, a variety of than 85% of disabled primary-age children have measures can be put in place to mitigate issues never attended school (UNICEF 2014). related to language mismatch, for instance, Estimates based on 19 LMICs also show that identifying teacher assistants from the local compared with their peers, children with community and/or supporting classroom disabilities are 13 percentage points more likely learning with technology. to never be enrolled in school, 15-18 percentage points less likely to finish primary Teachers need support to implement good school, and about 16 percentage points less language-of-instruction policies in the likely to be literate (Wodon et al. 2017). These classroom. Both pre- and in-service training statistics show us that an inclusiveness lens must be strengthened to incorporate specific must be at the core of new educational policies. pedagogies for local language teaching. In developing these programs, it is important to ensure alignment between the pre-service and in-service trainings and the teaching and COUNTRY EXAMPLES Ethiopia created an enabling ecosystem that education in ‘nationality languages’ allows mother tongue language policy to thrive. compulsory, followed by transition to English as Ethiopia is ethnically and linguistically diverse, a medium of instruction in secondary and with over 80 officially recognized languages and higher education. As of 2015, 30 language over 200 dialects (Gebre 2010). In 1994, the were being used as a medium of instruction for Ethiopian Educational and Training Policy was part or all of the primary grades, and about 51 passed. It explicitly acknowledged that mother- languages were being offered as subjects tongue education has pedagogical advantages nationwide (Derash 2013). In all regions of the for children’s learning. The policy made primary country, English is introduced as a subject in Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 44 grade 1, while Amharic is introduced as a third within the Ministry of Education in 1988. The language, taught as a language of countrywide current bilingual and intercultural education communication, often starting in grade 3 or 5. policy specifies that the shift from mother The country has made significant strides in tongue to Spanish should depend on the child’s training teachers to provide effective proficiency in Spanish. For example, children instruction in these languages. Pre-service who enter school as monolingual in an teacher training programs for lower-primary indigenous language use their mother tongue teachers in many of these languages are as the language of instruction and study gradually being introduced in colleges of Spanish as a second language during Grades 1 teacher education; in-service teacher training and 2. In Grade 3, Spanish is introduced as programs have been expanded to upgrade the language of instruction for 20 percent of class qualification of unqualified teachers; and time, and this share increases by 10 percentage teachers are recruited locally by woredas points each year, reaching 50 percent by Grade (districts) to ensure linguistic familiarity and 6 (Hynsjö & Damon 2015). From 1996 to 2000, contextual understanding of mother-tongue 94 bilingual teaching manuals were produced issues (Bashir et al. 2019). Despite challenges, and distributed alongside other various the policy is yielding promising results. teaching and learning resources (Hynsjö & Evidence suggests that mother-tongue Damon 2015). Beginning in 2004, the Rural instruction is having positive impacts on years Education and Teacher Development Project, of schooling (Ramachandran 2012) as well as funded by the World Bank, developed student learning outcomes in the country (Gove et al. workbooks in 10 native languages and five 2017). However, remaining challenges include varieties of Quechua for all primary grades, significant variations across languages in the corresponding teacher’s guides, play kits in level of development and suitability to meet both Spanish and native languages, as well as the demands of the primary curriculum. an outreach package for teachers to use to Additionally, regions that boast smaller introduce parents and community members to language groups experience high costs in the advantages of bilingual instruction (World providing textbooks and other teaching and Bank 2002). During the COVID-19 pandemic, learning materials. For many of these Aprendo en Casa offered online resources for languages, reading materials (outside of children in 9 languages13 and a network of 35 textbooks) remain scarce (World Bank, radio stations broadcast educational forthcoming). programming in local languages (Andina 2019). Yet, a number of factors hinder the Peru integrated indigenous languages in implementation of mother-tongue education in bilingual intercultural education policies with the country, including the lack of qualified Spanish as a second language. Some historical teachers to teach in some indigenous language factors facilitated this policy, such as the communities, as well as the perceived social recognition of Quechua (the most common status and economic benefits of learning in indigenous language in Peru) as the official Spanish instead of in a local language national language in 1975 and the creation of a (Bühmann and Trudell 2008). national Directorate of Bilingual Education 13 See more at https://aprendoencasa.pe/ Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 45 Box 2-3 The Gambia: Results for Education Achievement and Development Project (READ) The Early Literacy in National Language (ELINL) program started in the Gambia in 2011. The program pilot taught children in Grades 1 to 3 in 108 schools in the Gambia to read in their mother tongue (either Jola, Sarahule, Pulaar, Mandinka, or Wolof) and provided the foundations for learning to read in English. The focus was on developing phonemic awareness among children, with the goal for children to be able to read with comprehension in their home language by grade. In 2014, an evaluation of the ELINL program found that children under the program read with a higher fluency in English in Grades 1-3 compared to the children in other programs that did not include local language instruction. The difference was especially notable by the time they reached Grade 3 (see Figure 2-2 below). A similar pattern was observed in reading comprehension, where children in the ELINL programs achieved higher reading comprehension scores in all grades. There were also fewer children who had a zero score on comprehension in the ELINL group. Figure 2-2. Reading scores, oral and comprehension, ELINL program participants vs. control group, grades 1, 2, and 3. Source: Hsieh, 2014 Based on these positive results, the Government of the Gambia decided to scale up the ELINL program to the entire country (including two additional local languages: Manjaku and Seereer), through the launch of the Gambia Read Program. Supported by the World Bank since 2014, the scaled-up program has implemented one hour of national/local Language and one hour of English reading every day for every student in public schools up to Grade 3. Key features of the Gambia Read program: • Children learn to read in two languages – their local language and English; The idea is to gain reading skills in their local language first before moving to a less familiar language, English. • Teachers are trained with model/scripted lessons. • Teachers are supported by trainers throughout the school year and trainers periodically act as observers in the classroom and provide feedback to the teachers and one-on-one coaching. • Levelled readers have been developed in 7 local languages and English and have been distributed to all schools. • Teachers undertake regular assessment of pupil progress in reading. Teachers are trained on how to properly use EGRA-like instruments to assess pupil performance on letter knowledge, reading, and comprehension at three points during the year. Teachers are supposed to track a pupil’s performance from one assessment to another, producing individual pupil report cards. Additionally, teachers work with their principals to develop school report cards that can be discussed with their school’s Parent-Teacher Association (PTA). Source: World Bank 2019 Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 46 WHAT WILL THE WORLD BANK DO DIFFERENTLY? To support the teaching of children in their mother tongue, the World Bank will step up its support to clients by … 1 … disseminating evidence regarding the advantages of instruction in language of instruction. Fighting learning poverty requires spending the limited fiscal resources oriented towards education effectively. Increasing effectiveness of spending partly comes through teaching in a way—and in a language—that yields learning. … helping countries to map resources to the national language landscape and proactively engage clients to take a long-term approach 2 to both planning and achieving language goals. This begins with gathering information on the national language landscape and analyzing these data alongside proficiency levels of students and teachers and availability of teaching and learning materials. The World Bank will help clients actively incorporate this baseline into target setting and medium- and long-term sector planning. … planning for increased technology use. Rapidly evolving educational 3 technologies can simplify the daunting work of bringing millions of students to adequate levels of language proficiency. The World Bank is exploring the use of effective data mining tools for monitoring and assessment of language proficiency to inform policy formulation and implementation and continues to actively explore how technology can be a growing part of language-of-instruction solutions. Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 47 Box 2-4 The Literacy Policy Package will aim to reach all learners - including those with disabilities Building on the objective of SDG 4 (“ensure inclusive and equitable quality education and promote lifelong learning opportunities for all”), the World Bank has committed to make all its financed projects in education disability inclusive by 2025, and it is already mainstreaming inclusive education into operations. A first set of actions to reach learners with disabilities include the following. Quantify: Make disabilities visible by producing and/or gathering disaggregated data on the number of children with disabilities in school and their progress in learning. Children with disabilities in LMICs remain invisible due to the lack of representative national and regional data. Supporting countries to obtain representative data on students with disabilities should be prioritized, for example by helping national governments develop protocols for education personnel to recognize students’ special needs or disabilities in classroom/at schools. Broader indicators on inclusive education system development, such as the number of trained teachers and school leaders, and accessible school buildings, should also be tracked. Identify: Carry out research to find the most cost-effective interventions that can be scalable to support students with disabilities in LMICs. Interventions targeted toward children with disabilities have mostly been carried out within a small population and in high-income countries. More and better research is needed on how to promote actionable inclusive learning in countries with low resources and limited teacher training. Include: Build inclusive education systems to ensure, when feasible, that children with disabilities access education, can participate and learn among other children. When children with disabilities have been mainstreamed in regular classrooms (with peers without learning disabilities) they have presented better academic and social outcomes than children that are grouped only with students with disabilities. Building an inclusive education system is a process, and national governments need support in conceptualizing and operationalizing inclusive education in their unique country contexts. Pre- and in-service teacher training, leadership development, curriculum, assessment and learning support, among others, will need to be part of these efforts. Meanwhile, countries can start through small actionable adaptations which can facilitate learning for children with specific learning disabilities such as dyslexia. For example, highlighting texts when reading, or using a ruler with a student with dyslexia, can be supported. Blind students need books in accessible format using Braille, and students with low vision can be supported with bigger fonts. Learning to read with the support of signs will support deaf learners. Sources: UNESCO 2017; Alasuutari et al. 2020; Alquraini and Gut 2012. Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 48 Component 5 Photo: © Dana Smillie/World Bank Foster children’s language abilities and promote the love of books and reading. WHY IS THIS IMPORTANT AND WHAT WORKS? Oral language is the foundation of learning to awareness can mean being able to pick out read and write. At the beginning of a child’s rhyming words, noticing the number of education, reading builds on oral language syllables in a word, or observing when two skills. Language comprehension is a words have the same beginning or ending fundamental component of reading sounds. comprehension, and oral language ability Children’s oral language abilities are first strong predicts reading ability. In addition, exposure to and facility with oral language can developed at home. Literature has sensitize children to sounds and help children demonstrated that the amount of speech recognize, discriminate, and manipulate directed from the mother or caregiver to the distinct sounds—also known as phonological child is a strong predictor of the child’s later awareness. For young children, phonological linguistic competencies (see for example Box 2-5 Read @ Home – getting books to children from hard to reach homes during the COVID-19 pandemic The current COVID-19 pandemic has caused the largest school closures in recent history. Some form of remote learning strategy has been rolled out by around 80% of countries, yet there are families that are unlikely to be reached (e.g. with illiterate parents, living in areas with low connectivity, no access to smartphones or computers). Read@Home is a key intervention designed to get books and learning materials to kids, thereby introducing new vocabulary, facilitating dialogue between children and adults, and helping to promote enthusiasm for reading. It is not solely a crisis response; it can continue after the pandemic, and help systems be more resilient to future shocks. Even before this crisis, in Sub-Saharan Africa only 3% of households had more than two children’s books at home, and around the world just half of all parents report regularly engaging in cognitively stimulating activities with young children. This initiative is distributing reading, learning and play material on a massive scale in the mother tongue, where possible and appropriate. The content is aligned to the curricula of the countries where it is implemented, and it is designed to engage teachers as well as parents. Finally, the program is adaptable to fit country-specific needs and opportunities. Learn more in: https://www.worldbank.org/en/topic/education/brief/read-at-home Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 49 Barnes et al 1983; Hart and Risley 1995; Hoff 2019). When any children’s book is available at and Naigles 2002) and greatly impacts their home, it is likely to promote caregiver-child learning outcomes later in life (Zauche et al interactions that may be stimulating and 2016). Evidence suggests that child-directed promote the development of emergent literacy speech is more effective in promoting linguistic and numeracy skills (Sanders et al. 2000; Manu development than overheard speech et al. 2019). Importantly, having a book at (Shneidman et al. 2013; Weisleder and Fernald home and establishing an interest in reading 2013), especially when spoken in one-on-one from the early years can yield positive conversations (Ramírez-Esparaza 2017), by associations with the act of reading that pave adult caretakers or household members the way for reading for pleasure later as the (Shneidman 2013). Young children and infants child learns to read independently. also have shown auditory preferences and are Differences in early language environments can more likely to listen to speech that is simpler, promote inequities in learning and abilities. As spoken in a higher-pitch register, and with evidence points to the early onset and long accentuated vowels sounds (Fernald 1985). trajectory of literacy development, it also Experimental evidence has also shown that it is points to great inequity that can arise between possible for infants as young as 18 months to children who have exposure to a rich print and learn new vocabulary through what they oral environment in early childhood and overhear from familiar voices in the sound children who do not. A landmark study environment, provided it is not overly complex conducted in the United States found that (Floor and Akhtar 2010). This is particularly children in the lowest socioeconomic group relevant in communities where children are heard approximately one-third the amount of rarely directly addressed by caregivers and words heard by children in the highest receive most of their early auditory input from socioeconomic group heard over the same overheard speech. Studies from preindustrial duration (Hart and Risley 1995). The same societies, such as the one conducted among study showed that both language skills and the Yucatec Mayans in Mexico, suggest that vocabulary use at age 3 were highly predictive while child-directed speech remains a positive of language skills, vocabulary use, and reading determinant of subsequent linguistic comprehension at ages 9-10. Other studies development, children living in cultures where have also shown that kindergarten language observational learning is more prevalent may scores (which largely reflect the level of be more likely to learn from overheard speech language exposure of children prior to (Schneidman and Goldin-Meadow, 2012). schooling), are the single best predictor of Daily reading by caregivers has positive direct school achievement in all subjects at grades 3 impact on children’s later language and literacy and 5 (Golinkoff 2019; Durham 2007; Pace et al. skills (see for example Hargrave & Sénéchal, 2019). Conversely, longitudinal evidence has 2000; Raikes, et al, 2006; Knauer and others shown that children who fall behind in oral 2019; Manu and others, 2019). Knowledge language and literacy development in the years about print is built from children's experiences before formal schooling are less likely to be with books and other written materials. For successful beginning readers; and their children living in LMICs, having at least one achievement lag is likely to persist throughout children’s book at home has been found to the primary grades and beyond (Hart and Risley almost double the likelihood of the child being 1995; Farkas and Beron 2004; Cunha and on track for literacy and numeracy, controlling others 2006). Consequently, catching up is for other factors such as maternal education, hard, and for children who are exposed to less wealth index quintile, and age (Manu et al. vocabulary and to poorer-quality vocabulary, Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 50 this “word gap” tends to persist far beyond encouraged to become active participants in early childhood. the reading experience—when they are prompted to explain a picture in a storybook or Dialogic reading helps children learn about the encouraged to become the storyteller world. When caregivers read and ask questions alongside the adult. Dialogic reading is the (using “dialogic” reading techniques) they can practice of reading with a child where the child foster early literacy development by building is encouraged to become the teller of the story background knowledge about the world and over time. The role of the caretaker or adult in concepts about books and print. The past dialogic reading is not to tell the story to the several decades have shown the links between child, but rather to prompt the child with the frequency of caregiver-child shared book questions and to extend the child’s language by reading and language and literacy skills encouraging the child to say a little more than (Dickinson and Smith, 1994; Stevenson and he or she would normally do (Whitehurst and Fredman, 1990). Moreover, evidence suggests other 1988; see Box 2-7 for more examples of that the way in which young children are read dialogic reading techniques). Since the aim of to is related to the language gains they acquire dialogic reading is to stimulate a dialogue and from the shared reading experience (Arnold, not necessarily read the text in its entirety, Lonigan, Whitehurst, and Epstein, 1994; these programs have been shown to be Whitehurst and others 1988). Specifically, effective even in low-literacy populations.14 children gain the most when they are Box 2-6 Dialogic reading techniques Examples of dialogic reading techniques for 2- to 3-year olds: • Ask “what” questions: Ask children to name objects in the book; asking simple questions about the story (e.g. “What did the girl do next?”) • Repeat what the child says: Repetition helps reinforce the child’s verbalization and lets them know that they were correct (e.g., “Yes, she read a book.”) • Follow answers with more questions: Ask related, follow-up questions to the child’s answer (e.g., “Yes, she read a book. What color is the book?”) • Help the child as needed: A child’s inability to answer a question is a good teaching opportunity. If a child is unable to answer a question, answer the question for the child and have the child repeat what was said (e.g., “That color is blue. Can you say ‘blue’?”) • Attention-following: If a child is showing interest in a particular page or set of pictures, be flexible about following their interest and engage them in it further before moving on. Examples of dialogic reading techniques for 4- to 5-year olds: • Ask open-ended questions: Examples of open-ended prompts include, “What do you see on the page?” and “What do you think he felt when this happened?” • Expand what the child says: When a child answers, the adult repeats what the child says and adds a few more words to the verbalization. Then, ask the child to repeat what was said. For example, “Yes, that’s a dog. It’s a big dog. Can you say, ‘big dog’?”. Source: adapted from Whitehurst, 1988 14 See Knauer and others 2019 study on parent-child book-sharing among illiterate caregiver populations in Kenya. Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 51 The impact of dialogic reading is well- it the intended language referent, helping documented for many languages. Children in a support early communication and facilitate 7-week dialogic reading program in Mexico early language development (Bakeman and were on average 73 language months ahead of Adamson 1984; Tomasello and Farrar 1986). children who did not receive the intervention Within episodes of joint attention, an (Valdez-Menchaca and Whitehurst 1992), and “attention-following” strategy, where the obtained higher scores on measures of caregiver builds on the child’s current interest linguistic complexity than children in the and attention (also discussed in dialogic control group. A similar, 8-week dialogic reading), supports language development reading intervention in the United States much more effectively than an “attention- showed gains in expressive vocabulary and oral shifting” strategy, where the caregiver switches narrative skills for children (Lever and Sénéchal the child’s attention to their own focus of 2011). In Bangladesh, average vocabulary interest (Whitebread and Sitabkhan, in World scores of children doubled after a 4-week Bank, forthcoming). A longitudinal study of dialogic reading intervention, while children in 3,000 students across the United Kingdom the control group experienced no increases found that one of the key factors leading to (Opel, Ameer and Aboud, 2009). effective ECE provision was the occurrence of Enhancements in vocabulary, morphological episodes of what was termed “sustained awareness, and reading interest were also seen shared thinking” between adults and children in a 12-week dialogic reading intervention in (Sylva et al. 2004). China (Chow et al. 2008). An 8-week dialogic Early Childhood Education (ECE) should provide reading intervention for mothers of infants the foundations of pre-literacy skills while ages 14 to 16 months in South Africa yielded avoiding formal reading instruction. The considerable benefits to child language and growing influence of, and attention to, early attentional ability (Vally et al. 2015). Dialogic reading interventions have yielded similarly childhood curricula could lead to a standards- positive results in countries such as Egypt based architecture that compromises (Elmonayer, 2013) and Turkey (Simsek and children’s creativity, autonomy, and discovery (Zigler, Singer, and Bishop-Josef 2004). A Erdogan 2015). Shared and dialogic book reading is a specific example of a broader “pushed down” literacy curriculum that practice known as “episodes of joint attention” neglects the relational and conversational or “sustained shared thinking,” whereby elements of early literacy and favors, for caregivers and the child direct their example, the formal teaching of decoding, coordinated attention to an object or event. threatens developmentally appropriate These occurrences help the child to determine teaching in ECE. the adult’s attentional focus and associate with Box 2-7 How to foster children’s motivation to read To develop reading skills, children need to learn to decode words easily and develop reading comprehension, as detailed in previous sections. Yet, there’s a third element that needs to be secured in order to develop lifelong readers: motivation. Evidence shows that there are some principles that parents and teachers can follow to foster the love of reading. 15 Developing reading skills needs to start at home and as early as possible. Most parents don’t notice their child’s lack of motivation until puberty or even after. But it’s never too late to start; older 15 D.T. Willingham, Raising Kids Who Read: What Parents and Teachers Can Do (San Francisco: Jossey Bass, 2015). Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 52 children can learn to enjoy reading as well. Leisure readers grow up to get better jobs and earn higher incomes. Make reading fun, change attitudes towards reading. Books offer the possibility of “living” different lives and adventures, as well as developing socio-emotional skills. As Diane Ackerman reflects, books are “borrowed minds” and they explore and celebrate what it truly means to be human.16 Reading academic texts is important, but for children to value reading it is also important to read for pleasure, whether the means reading about football, race cars, vampires, dinosaurs, or wizards. Reading should not feel like a chore. Through books children can learn to appreciate different experiences and grow up as more empathic individuals. Additionally, kids who enjoy reading tend to perform better in literacy tests. Develop a sense of oneself as a reader. Having a positive attitude toward reading is not enough; students need to feel that being a reader is an important part of themselves as individuals. In the words of Italo Calvino, “who is each one of us, if not a combination of experiences, information, books we have read … each life is an encyclopedia, a library.”17 Motivation can be developed through different strategies at home. These may include linking reading with other pleasurable activities, such as family traditions (for example, gifting a book on every birthday, reading newspapers or magazines together and discussing, making trips to the library together) and making comforting spaces such as reading corners. Additionally, signaling that reading is valued and enjoyable for your family will contribute to the child’s identity as a reader. Finally, limiting screen time (smartphones, tablets, and laptops) can also contribute to make reading the most attractive choice for the child. Motivation can be developed at the classrooms. Teachers are key to developing readers. By sharing their enthusiasm for reading, mentioning anecdotes, relating books to the local context, or describing how a book affected their lives, they can become a model for children to continue developing their reading skills. Teacher training and coaching programs also need to include strategies to build connection between teachers and students and behavioral strategies to keep students engaged. Additionally, reading should be given a prominent space in classrooms, by including playful materials and books that children can reach to at any point of the school day. Older children can also develop motivation to become lifelong readers. Highlighting the difference between academic reading and pleasure reading and allowing students to reach for the books they are most attracted to can be a good start. Students may have associated reading with history, biology, or languages in such a way that it has a negative association as a “boring” activity. Group reading programs at schools can be successful as well, as long as children can independently choose the books they want to read (this requires a classroom or school library), and teachers can actively create an environment of community through book Figure 2-3: The Reading Virtuous Cycle (adapted discussions that allow students to share from Willingham, 2015) their views with peers. 16 Diane Ackerman, “Letter to a young reader,” included in Popova 2018. 17 I. Calvino, Six Memos for the Next Millennium (Cambridge, Mass: Harvard University Press, 1988). Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 53 COUNTRY EXAMPLES A World Bank project in Uzbekistan improved words per minute) from 18 percent to 29 pre-literacy in pre-primary education. It percent. In Tuvalu, year 1 students after included early literacy promotion activities benefiting from two years of reading targeting families with children ages 3 to 6 and interventions scored 67-70 percent on reading an outreach campaign to parents to raise tests, in comparison to students who didn’t awareness about the importance of early benefit from the program, who scored 12 stimulation, play, and positive interactions. The percent. Finally, in Kiribati, grade 1 students project financed the nationwide distribution of after one year of PEARL could identify 42 letter storybooks to children not enrolled in ECE and sounds per minute in comparison with their living in rural areas. Pre-primary teachers were average of 22 letter sounds before the also engaged to lead weekly, regular story-time program. hours for these children. The project aimed to distribute a set of storybooks per child per In Kenya, the Enhancing Young Children’s family. At closing, the project established Language Acquisition through Parent-Child almost 2,000 small libraries in project ECE Book-Sharing program developed culturally centers and benefitted over half a million and linguistically appropriate books adapted for students ages 3-6 with at-home early reading a low-literacy rural population. The program activities. selected locally sourced English and Swahili storybooks from the existing marketplace as The Pacific Early Age Readiness & Learning well as adapted stories from the African (PEARL) World Bank Project supported Pacific Storybook Project and translated these Island countries in bridging the gap between materials into the local Luo language. After school readiness and early literacy. In 2014, distributing books to families, the program low-cost interventions to improve early literacy solicited feedback for these books and worked were implemented in the Pacific Islands. These to elaborate the text of the most favored included (1) playgroups for children ages 0 to 5 storybooks to add sections where parents can and their parents run in Tonga and Tuvalu; (2) connect the story to children’s daily early grade reading interventions to provide experiences. The second component involved teachers of grades 1 and 2 with coaching and the design and training of a three-hour group technical training on how unlock their students’ dialogic reading session for caregivers. Results reading skills in Tonga, Kiribati, and Tuvalu; and from the randomized control trial showed that (3) capacity building initiatives to design, caregivers who participated in the dialogic implement, and evaluate interventions. From reading training improved reading frequency 2014 until 2019, the program has shown and increased the quality of caregiver-child positive results. The community-led playgroups reading interactions. Children were also in Tonga have increased pre-literacy and pre- measured to have improved their book-specific numeracy skills by 24 percent of what a child expressive vocabulary. Children of illiterate normally gains in one year of age, with girls caregivers benefited at least as much as increasing their skills by 26 percent. The early children of literate caregivers and exhibited grade reading interventions increased the larger impacts in the likelihood of being read percentage of grade 2 students able to read to.18 with comprehension (achieving a fluency of 50 18 Knauer and others 2019 Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 54 WHAT WILL THE WORLD BANK DO DIFFERENTLY? The World Bank will step up its support to countries in the development of quality early childhood interventions that support pre-literacy and oral language development by … … supporting countries to prioritize oral language and communication within their ECE curricula, and more generally to ensure that 1 developmentally appropriate pedagogy and curricula are applied in ECE classrooms. This will entail redoubling efforts to advise governments against the push-down of primary grade curricula before it is developmentally appropriate; and to remove those incentives, such as over-emphasis on assessment, that may cause this to occur. … developing resources and strategies to parents and caregivers to 2 provide language-rich and stimulating home literacy environments for children, which can foster extra practice and support outside of school. The World Bank – through its current Read@Home initiative – is working to rapidly distribute developmentally appropriate and culturally relevant books to homes. These books also include some suggestions of how caregivers can engage the child in the book through dialogic reading practices. … support Ministries of Education to utilize existing health or social 3 protection systems to provide wraparound support to young children’s language and literacy development. This implies exploring ways to utilize channels and partnerships with other sectors, such as collaborating with health or social protection services to provide books and materials to children when they attend routine medical checkups and/or at cash- transfer collection sites. Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 55 Box 2-8 More components equals likelihood of greater success: Tusome Early Grade Reading Program use 4 of the 5 LPP components. The Tusome Early Grade Reading Activity in Kenya, implemented by RTI, is set to dramatically improve primary literacy outcomes for approximately 7.6 million Kenyan children in grades 1–3. Two characteristics make this program unique. First, the program will be rolled out at the national level with the support of the Kenyan government, which established ambitious goals to improve reading proficiency for all children. Second, the program is based on a pilot, the Primary Mathematics and Reading (PRIMR) initiative (2011-14), in which the government tested and costed three different strategies for improving reading outcomes to identify the best option. The PRIMR model required training and classroom support be done by existing government officials, which highlights that the pilot was designed thinking about the real obstacles and limitations that reading programs face when they are implemented nationwide. PRIMR tested the following strategies: • Strategy 1: Teacher professional development and instructional support (coaching) at a cost of $5.63 per pupil; • Strategy 2: Same elements of Strategy 1 plus revised student books in literacy and numeracy at a 1:1 ratio at an additional cost of $2.38 per student; and • Strategy 3: Same elements as Strategy 2 plus structured teacher lessons at an additional cost of $0.16 per pupil. Figure 2-4. The Comprehensive Approach of the Tusome Early Grade Reading Program: A comparison of learning outcomes for Math, Kiswahili, and English Source: Piper et al. 2018 As can be seen in Figure 2-4, training and instructional support alone did not improve learning outcomes. A combination of training, coaching, and student books had small to medium effects. Strategy 3—including teachers’ guides (with structured teaching lessons)—was by far the most cost- effective intervention. The third strategy was chosen by the government and Tusome was scaled up by the Ministry of Education (implementation partner RTI) to 23,000 public primary schools and 1,500 low-cost private schools. In 2017, an independent external evaluation found that the program was widely implemented and that the percent of students nationally meeting the government’s literacy benchmarks nearly doubled. Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 56 Lessons for implementation and management capacity According to Piper et al (2018), system-level change requires getting decentralized schools and teachers to adopt new behaviors, and requires a Ministry of Education with institutional capacity for three key functions: 1) Setting and communicating expectations for education outcomes; 2) Monitoring and holding schools accountable for meeting expectations; and 3) Intervening to support students and schools when needed. A recent case study of the program finds that the successful transition of Tusome’s management and implementation to the government can be attributed to: 1) a phased or gradual transitioning of the NGO-led program to the government; the NGO funded and carried out all activities at the beginning, then the government funded, printed and distributed books, and soon the government will take over professional development, coaching and instructional materials; 2) strategically planning for regional inequities and vulnerable populations by, for instance, adapting learning materials to meet the need of students and teachers with hearing impairments and incorporating gender-sensitive pedagogy; 3) institutionalizing the core program elements within existing systems, such as including pedagogy in pre-service teachers’ training; 4) engaging key stakeholders at a national, county, and community element so that each actor knew what students should learn and what their role in the process was; and 5) capacity strengthening across the system. For instance, the program supported the use of ICT to make evidence-based decision-making using real-time data on student performance and teacher monitoring. Source: Piper et al., 2018 and University of Nairobi and Makerere University, 2019. Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 57 Section 3 HOW CAN NEW EDUCATION TECHNOLOGY LEAPFROG PROGRESS TOWARDS UNIVERSAL LITERACY? Photo: © Sarah Farhat/World Bank Section 2 | The World Bank’s strategic education policy approach and literacy policy package 58 Literacy has always been closely linked with the students, and principals, and providing more use of new technologies. From the new methods to assess the progress of development of the book and of movable type individual learners to help target resources and centuries ago, to the use of portable devices materials to promote literacy development (mobile phones, laptops, tablets, etc.) to (see Figure 3-1). provide opportunities to develop and refine Technology is central to the conversation on reading skills anytime, anywhere, technology accelerating progress in literacy. To reach the continues to offer new opportunities to expand Global Learning Target, countries will need to access to cheaper and more varied reading disrupt existing models of reading content materials. Technology today is impacting some development and delivery through the of the ways children learn to read and their effective use of technology. reading habits, changing the roles of teachers, EXAMPLES OF DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY AND SOFTWARE FOR LITERACY PROGRESS Following are just some of the many ways are often available in indigenous and local today’s technology could be used to fast-track languages. progress in reading. Education software for reading teachers. When Digital texts, readers and didactic materials. supported by artificial intelligence (AI) and Digital learning materials can be accessed using machine learning tools, education software can a variety of devices. The unique qualities of apply algorithms to data to facilitate delivery of digital content allow zero-marginal-cost appropriate content to teachers. This can aid replication and the bundling of data to measure teacher in teaching to the right level, through and assess both use and reading progress. For the provision of personalized/adaptive content. example: For example: -The Worldreader NGO in Ghana, Kenya, -Mindspark centers in India use an adaptive and India has demonstrated that it is learning software that customizes content possible, and cost-effective, to make based on the level and rate of progress of available digital reading content on phones each student. When students attended and other mobile devices in ways that are these centers after school for a period of 4.5 both accessible to young readers and cost- months, they experienced an increase in effective at scale. math test scores of 0.37 SD and in Hindi scores of 0.23 SD (Muralidharan, Singh, and Furthermore, electronic materials can be Ganimian 2019). created to include support for students with learning disabilities, including larger texts, Gaming software for independent learning. audio, and word-tracking features. Through use of game mechanics, software can increase children’s engagement and interest in Apps and other software applications to teach reading, and it can support the collection of students to read. Literacy apps and literacy data to further refine the delivery of games for early readers have proliferated and appropriate content. Digital content also Section 3 | How can new education technology leapfrog progress towards universal literacy? 59 provides opportunities for students to learn an easily digestible dashboard format. For outside of a formal school setting and example: transform learning in situations where there -The EkStep Foundation in India has are no trained teachers or schools. While no introduced an open-source digital substitute for human interaction, competitions infrastructure called Sunbird, which allows like the Xprize for Global Learning and Norad's for data sharing across a myriad of EduApp4Syria have demonstrated that it is applications and the potential to more possible to develop effective literacy programs effectively develop micro-solutions to using technology in some of the most specific literacy challenges. challenging educational contexts in Africa and the Middle East. For example: Track and Trace technology. Technology can be used to facilitate efficient purchase, -The Xprize challenge yielded strong results distribution, and use of materials. For instance, in rural Tanzania. The Xprize challenged through a Track and Trace technology, schools teams to develop open-source, scalable can report the number of books that they need software to empower children to teach using cellphones, purchases can be made themselves basic reading, writing, and online faster and cheaper, and delivery to the arithmetic using a tablet. The software was classroom can be traced and guaranteed. tested in rural Tanzania: after 15 months of exposure, children increased their correct Virtual coaching and information nudges. In- syllable sounds per minute by 0.59 SD, class teacher professional development can be correct familiar words per minute by 0.55 expanded through the use of virtual coaching SD, and correct invented words per minute to provide just-in-time guidance and support by 0.51 SD. Furthermore, the percentage of for reading instruction strategies. For example: students that were able to read at least one complete sentence increased by 20 percent. -Locally designed coaching technology in South Africa: A study of a comprehensive Computer and mobile-based assessment. intervention in South African public schools Digital technologies offer unique opportunities (where teachers received structured lesson to collect data linked to particular learning plans, educational materials that integrated content, which can be used to more effectively into the lesson plans, a centralized training, assess and monitor student competencies, and coaching) found that that locally including those particular to reading. designed low-cost integrated technology may offer a cost-effective alternative to on- Open digital education platforms and site coaching. In particular, tablet-based information systems. The use of open-source lesson plans (preloaded with demonstration digital infrastructure allows the design of videos) and e-coaching were as effective as multiple applications. These may range from paper-based lesson plans and a reading individual learning content, whose use can be coach (Kotze, Fleisch, and Taylor 2019). monitored, to combinations of content with algorithms that can assess competency in a -Kenya’s successful Tusome project provides specific content area. The use of these systems a laptop to all teacher trainers, who use to aggregate data can help enable and monitor them in their coaching interactions with the implementation of literacy initiatives and teachers. A variety of other electronic and their impact at a system level. This data may be web-based communication systems gather reflected for instance in a national literacy data data on student progress, teacher practices, portal to collect, store, share, and analyze coach amounts and effectiveness, and literacy-relevant learning data and present it in administration of the project. Section 3 | How can new education technology leapfrog progress towards universal literacy? 60 As seen during the COVID-19 pandemic, simple technologies such as text messages can be used to send information to teachers, students, and parents as a means of simple just-in-time pedagogical strategies or reminders to read to children. Additionally, online learning platforms (LMS) created or strengthened during the pandemic can be leveraged to also develop teachers’ digital and pedagogical skills and embed virtual coaching beyond the pandemic. Digitally connected literacy change agents. Social networks and other technology to connect disparate groups can help connect and coordinate teachers and other individuals and groups of people who support the acquisition of literacy skills (such as parents, caregivers, tutors, and peers) in accessing and sharing best practices regarding early literacy. These can include WhatsApp groups for literacy teachers and online reference documentation for literacy tutors. Physical locations such as community centers, youth centers, schools, and libraries can also be more effectively networked to support literacy interventions. Technology’s potential influence expands through innovation. The approaches listed above do not exhaust what technology can offer for literacy. For instance, digital tools that support the development of writing skills can also help promote greater literacy. Digital tools that support the enabling environment for literacy around a learner (by enabling school feeding programs, for example, or health- related outreach to families) can help strengthen some important preconditions for learning. Media campaigns can use digital tools (broadcast TV or radio, websites, social media) to promote the literacy agenda. Section 3 | How can new education technology leapfrog progress towards universal literacy? 61 Figure 6-1: Technology uses in each of the Literacy Policy Package components Assure political and technical • National literacy data portal to monitor progress commitment to making all towards literacy goals children literate • • Tablets to deliver lesson plans and monitor progress • Apps and other software applications to facilitate delivery of appropriate content to teachers and help to teach at the right level • Platforms to share early reading techniques and advice • Virtual coaching and information nudges (e.g., simple text messages periodically with pedagogical strategies Ensure adequate amounts of or reminders to read to children) effective literacy instruction • Digital content with the potential to transform learning by supported teachers in contexts where there are no trained teachers • Adaptive machine-learning software to provide personalized instruction • Computer-based assessment to collect data linked to a particular competency • Open digital platforms for information sharing across many applications, aggregating data to monitor literacy at a system level • • Open-licensed reading material adjusted to different Provide quality, age- levels of readers appropriate books and texts • Track and Trace technology to request, procure, and to children monitor distribution and use of materials • Teach children first in the • Software that can simplify book production in local language they speak and language, both for printed text as well as digital text understand best Foster children’s language • SMS or other virtual nudges to remind parents to read abilities and love of books and with their children or convey key pedagogical strategies reading to read at home. TECHNOLOGY IS NOT A PANACEA countries. World Bank procurement and advisory work on procurement activities will As documented in the World Development shape public sector purchasing, helping to Report 2018 (WDR 2018), although “educate suppliers” of literacy-related products interventions that incorporate information and and services. These can cater to specific needs communication technology can have some of and operating contexts of user groups working the biggest impacts on learning, they can be on literacy-related initiatives, especially in low- ineffective when ill-adapted to the setting. income, low-resource communities in The World Bank will help shape the supply of developing economies. This will occur as part of technological solutions that build on effective the World Bank’s larger '3D' initiative to teaching and bolster literacy in developing support the discovery, diffusion, and Section 3 | How can new education technology leapfrog progress towards universal literacy? 62 deployment of disruptive technology solutions and enable the management capacity to deploy in education: these solutions at scale. The EdTech Hub seeks to galvanize a global community toward • Discover: Scope and systematize the impact, focusing on providing evidence to fund frontier of technological solutions and the and pursue what works. conditions to utilize them in education, by maintaining a live knowledge base of ICT Education at its heart is about human solutions proven to be cost-effective and connections between teachers, students, scalable or promising (at a “proof-of- parents, caregivers, principals, and the broader concept” stage), generating and community. The COVID crisis, has provided an documenting impact evidence and key opportunity for many education systems to requirements (e.g., technological infrastructure, digital skills, connectivity) redesign the education process, bringing for their effective implementation. learning to the student. To realize this vision, ministries of education need to focus on • Diffuse: Ensure that policy makers know designing sustainable policies and programs what’s out there and the conditions for with a clear purpose, strategy, and vision of the effective adoption, by supporting practical intended education change. This process is knowledge sharing and communities of guided by having students and teachers at the practice to help policymakers plan and center of any strategy using EdTech, as adopt potentially disruptive technologies technology is only the medium to accelerate that can skip ‘traditional’ paths of learning and reimagine human connections educational development. This also (Hawkins et al 2020). These policies should includes identifying the necessary pre- embrace the five principles guiding the World conditions and enabling environments for Bank’s work on EdTech such that they focus on: their adoption, given the resource and political economy constraints of schools 1) Ask why? --EdTech policies and projects and education systems today. need to be developed with a clear purpose, strategy and vision of the desired • Deploy: Support policy makers in the educational change; implementation of tech solutions, including by tackling market and procurement 2) Design and act at scale for all - The design barriers for adoption of the required of EdTech initiatives should be flexible and technology supports (hardware, user-centered, with an emphasis on equity connectivity, software, energy sources), and inclusion, in order to realize scale and ensuring integration with the curriculum sustainability for all; and classroom instruction (e.g., teachers’ and students’ digital skills), and using 2) Empower teachers- Technology should innovative tools to support quick learning enhance teacher engagement with students and iteration in technology-driven projects. through improved access to content, data and networks, helping teachers better In partnership with DFID and the Gates support student learning; Foundation, the World Bank has developed an ambitious global “EdTech hub.” Through this 3) Engage the Ecosystem- Education partnership, the World Bank will support systems should take a whole-of- countries in the adoption of technology government and multi-stakeholder packages that support teachers in approach to engage a broad set of actors to implementing “Teach at the Right Level” support student learning; and practices, facilitate the deployment of self- 4) Be Data-Driven- Evidence-based decision paced learning tools for those environments making within cultures of learning and where there is a scarcity of effective teachers, Section 3 | How can new education technology leapfrog progress towards universal literacy? 63 experimentation, enabled by EdTech, leads to more impactful, responsible and equitable uses of data. Rigorously and routinely using data to learn what strategies, policies and programs are effective for maximizing student learning (Hawkins et al 2020). Section 3 | How can new education technology leapfrog progress towards universal literacy? 64 Section 4 LOOKING FORWARD Photo: © Liang Qiang/World Bank Section 3 | How can new education technology leapfrog progress towards universal literacy? 65 Learning poverty is unacceptable. The fact that understand by age 10. The Literacy Policy about half of children cannot read and Package builds on this call to action, understand a simple story by the end of consolidating knowledge about the steps that primary schooling is both an unacceptable have been followed by countries that have failure and a tragedy. Reading with been successful in teaching children to read at comprehension is the foundation on which scale. complex knowledge is acquired, and a child that Countries chart individual paths toward a global cannot read is a child that cannot easily learn. goal. It would be desirable that each country— The policies of the Literacy Policy Package are a taking into account its own data, situation, and core means of reducing learning poverty and ambitions—defined its own national learning promoting progress for all children as readers. target and its national path to achieve it. The Progress on learning poverty will be pursued elimination of learning poverty depends on along with overall reform of education systems. countries owning their national goals and While the World Bank continues to support leading the efforts to achieve them. The countries in their complex and long-term goals specific actions required to move forward will of building quality education systems at all depend on context. For instance, countries levels, in the short term it also aims to ignite without data will have to start by measuring country dialogue around the foundations on where they are. Other countries will know their which all other educational and skills-related status but might have challenges procuring and aspirations lie – namely, on the building of distributing books. Still others might have foundational literacy for all their children. The limitations in teacher knowledge or teacher learning target is a call to action that sets a availability. Given the variability in the situation global goal for 2030 of reducing, by at least half, of each country, national plans will differ the share of children who cannot read and substantially (see Box 4-1). Box 4-1 How Far Behind? – reading poverty varies greatly by region and country It varies by region and country. Although all countries face some degree of reading poverty, there is great variability in learning outcomes between regions and countries. For instance, learning poverty ranges from more than 75% in Sub-Saharan Africa to less than 15% in East and Central Asia. Basic reading skills also range widely, from less than 5% of children reading by age 10 in Niger and Chad to close to 100% doing so in Netherlands and Vietnam. It also varies within countries. High variability within regions and countries makes learning poverty a concern for those with low national aggregate rates. For instance, in Europe and Central Asia—the region with the lowest aggregate learning poverty—results vary from 40% in North Macedonia to less than 2% in the Netherlands. This situation results in the fact that “across much of the EU, education is not acting as an engine of social mobility—children from poor background often fail to acquire basic cognitive skills.”a The World Bank will work with countries where they are. The Bank will work to support governments in increasing the learning outcomes of those that are falling behind wherever they are, be it the poorest of nations or thriving middle- or high-income countries. The components of the policy package are not a recipe. They are a sequence of actions that can be applied to different countries depending on their initial state. For instance, countries that have high levels of learning poverty should start by focusing on reducing the proportion of nonreaders and increasing the number of beginning and intermediate readers, instead of trying to get children into the advanced reader category. Once they reach this more realistic target, they can shift the emphasis into higher levels of attainment for all students. Additionally, detailed scripted lessons might be necessary for countries with high levels of learning poverty, while countries with more capacity might benefit from lesson plans with greater teacher autonomy to select curricular content and pedagogical approaches. Sources: J.M. Stern and B. Piper, Resetting Targets: Examining Large Effect Sizes and Disappointing Benchmark Progress (RTI Press, 8870, 2019); C. Ridao-Cano and C. Bodewig, Growing United: Upgrading Europe's Convergence Machine. World Bank, 2018. (a) Quotation from Ridao-Cano and Bodewig, Growing United, p. 27. Section 4 | Looking forward 66 Foundational skills are central to the education national standards; assisting in the dialogue. In overall country dialogue and when implementation of effective professional defining Country Partnership Strategies, the development for teachers and principals; World Bank will endeavor to provide helping countries promote the development of information on how to impart foundational local education publishing industries; shaping skills to children. The results of these country the supply of literacy materials and education dialogues should be (1) enhanced use of data technology for use of low income educational and statistics for problem diagnosis; (2) settings; stimulating authorship and publishing increased analytical work to fill in gaps; (3) capacity across language groups; and increased national attention to deficiencies in collaborating to generate global public goods the system; and (4) greater institutional around lesson plans, reading materials, teacher emphasis on helping countries increase literacy guides, student assessment. through lending and analytical work. Successful interventions are growing. The Data-informed dialogues are needed. In World Bank is already supporting early reading dialogue related to lending and operations, the interventions in many countries, including World Bank will consider the best-available those that need it most (see Figure 4-1). Among data on how to increase literacy at scale and IDA countries there are a total of 37 active accelerate each country’s national path to projects that involve at least one of the eliminate learning poverty. As mentioned in components of the Literacy Policy Package. previous chapters, the World Bank will support Furthermore, 16 of these projects are located countries in the implementation of effective among the 30 lowest-performing countries in strategies to improve early literacy. These the Human Capital Index. These projects are include supporting the establishment of being implemented in all World Bank regions, national and international systems to measure although there are a higher number of progress; assisting governments integrate operations in Africa, followed by South Asia and evidence of how children best learn to read into Latin America and the Caribbean. Figure 7-1: Sample of World Bank operations that are following one or more components of the Literacy Package • In Madagascar, 35,000 teachers will be trained in the use of structured scripted lessons in early grade reading. • The Lesotho project will address the fact that only 69% of teachers have Ensure effective critical reading skills with a teacher training program accompanied by teaching for subject competency texts and ongoing classroom support. literacy • The Burundi project includes real-time remediation activities for children and teachers based on in-classroom observation and on tracking of progress in reading accuracy and comprehension. • In Cape Verde, a Student Assessment System will be put in place to accompany and monitor the education reform. Ensure access to • In Ethiopia, to ensure effective distribution of textbooks an online more and better textbook distribution and inventory management system will be age-appropriate established. texts and readers • Guinea-Bissau will use school inspectors to monitor textbook use and availability in the classroom for instruction. Teach children in • The Gambia project is championing a bi-literacy approach (national mother tongue languages and English) to improve early reading skills. Foster children’s • The PEARL project is supporting Pacific Islands countries to bridge the language abilities gap between school readiness and early literacy by implementing and love of books interventions such as community-led playgroups. and reading Section 4 | Looking forward 67 BIBLIOGRAPHY Alasuutari, Hanna Katriina, Christopher Thomas, Shawn Powers, Laura McDonald, and Jeffrey Waite. 2020. Inclusive Education Resource Guide : Ensuring Inclusion and Equity in Education (English). World Bank. 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