Question to the Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office:

To ask the Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs, what steps his Department is taking to help increase literacy rates in (a) Africa and (b) Asia.

The UK Government helps many of the most marginalised children in Africa and Asia gain critical foundational skills (literacy and numeracy) needed to progress in school. Even prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, 9 in 10 children in low income countries could not read a simple story by the age of ten. Now, with two-thirds of the academic year lost on average worldwide due to school closures, an additional 72 million children are expected to fall behind and fail to read by the time they leave primary school, with girls disproportionately impacted.

In response to school closures in Pakistan, UK technical support to the Government has provided teachers with scripted lessons and students with learning materials, benefitting more than 8.5 million students, including 4.3 million girls. In Ethiopia, the UK has helped the Government with school reopening and post COVID 19 recovery plans, working to improve the literacy and numeracy skills of over 1 million primary school aged children in the most marginalised parts of the country. Through our presidency of the G7 this year, the UK is asking G7 members and global education partners to raise their ambitions for girls education and endorse two new global targets - to get 40 million more girls into school and 20 million more girls reading by age 10 in low and lower middle income countries by 2026.