For children living in poverty, basic literacy skills are a crucial part of what can change their futures and give them access to schools, jobs and entrepreneurial opportunities as adults.
However, for hundreds of millions of children across the globe, this can seem like a far dream, with many of them being unable to read or comprehend text at the most basic levels - a specific kind of setback called “learning poverty”. Read to learn more about its definition, how it affects impoverished children, and how with Zakat Foundation of America, you can be the reason a child can dream again.
What Is Learning Poverty?
The term “learning poverty” was coined in 2021 by the World Bank Group in coordination with the UNESCO Institute for Statistics. The World Bank Group consists of five multilateral institutions focused on reducing global poverty, established in 1944 with 189 current member countries such as the United States, Japan and France.
To spotlight the education crisis in young, impoverished students, “learning poverty” was defined as a child’s inability to read or understand simple text by age 10. The indicator for learning poverty was also set to include the share of children who haven’t achieved this basic level of minimum reading proficiency, and is consistently adjusted by the proportion of children unenrolled in school.
In 2021, the World Bank Group and UNESCO’s Institute for Statistics found that 53 percent of children in low- and middle-income countries (across 92 countries total) could not read and understand a simple story by the end of primary school and this number was as high as 80 percent in poorer countries.
With the number of devastating crises affecting these same countries since 2021, these numbers have since become much higher, with one poignant example being the 94.7 percent of children aged 10 or younger in Yemen unable to read or understand simple text as of 2025. As this trend continues, the Group estimates that by 2030, 43 percent of children will still suffer learning poverty even with current rates of progress.
How Do We Combat Learning Poverty?
Currently, an estimated 273 million children globally are out of school, with several lacking basic school supplies or even a stable place of learning to attend.
With your generosity, our Education program helps alleviate the burdens of learning poverty across multiple pain points:
Covering tuition costs
Distributing school supplies locally
Providing home-based support for orphans & vulnerable children
Through these initiatives, we help ensure students can attend school regularly, have the supplies they need to succeed and even have education brought right to their doorstep for families and children who wouldn’t otherwise be able to access schooling.
Without a solid learning foundation, young students have no tools to succeed in higher education or the workforce. Let’s work together to be the reason their stories change.
