In 2022, 51.2% of Bangladeshi children of end-of-primary age were “learning-poor”: either out of school or unable to read and understand a short, age-appropriate passage. The share was 54.2% for boys and 49.1% for girls.
51.2%
Learning poverty, children at end-of-primary age, Bangladesh, 2022.
Learning poverty is the World Bank and UNESCO Institute for Statistics measure that adds children who are out of school to those in school who fall below the minimum reading proficiency set for SDG indicator 4.1.1b. The 2022 estimate is the only data point in the series, so it shows a level, not a trend.
Bangladesh’s figure is similar to India’s (56.1% in 2017), Indonesia’s (52.8% in 2015) and well below Pakistan’s (79.5% in 2019). It is about three times Viet Nam’s (18.1% in 2019) and Sri Lanka’s (14.8% in 2015). The comparisons use each country’s latest available year, which differ by up to seven years, so they indicate scale rather than a like-for-like ranking.
For policy, the figure points to a gap between getting children into classrooms and what they learn. Enrolment is high, yet roughly half of children at the end of primary are below the reading threshold. Regular, comparable reading assessments would show whether the gap is closing and where it is widest. The boy-girl difference is also worth tracking, as it runs against the pattern in enrolment.
Source: World Bank and UNESCO Institute for Statistics, via World Bank WDI (SE.LPV.PRIM, SE.LPV.PRIM.MA, SE.LPV.PRIM.FE).