Vietnam and Malaysia: 18% and 42% of children cannot read a simple text at the end of primary school
They sat the same 2019 test, and Malaysia is 2.7 times richer per person. In the Philippines such children are 91%, in Cambodia 90%, in Myanmar 89%, in Laos 98%.
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In 2019 six South-East Asian countries gave fifth-graders the same reading test for the first time. The World Bank counts the share below the minimum level and adds children out of school. The order does not follow wealth: Vietnam is poorer than Malaysia and reads better.
Bars: share of children at the end-of-primary age who cannot understand a simple text (children out of school included), 2019.
- Vietnam: cannot read a simple text %
2019: 18.1
World Bank: learning poverty (SEA-PLM 2019 test), GDP per person
- Malaysia: cannot read a simple text %
2019: 42.0
World Bank: learning poverty (SEA-PLM 2019 test), GDP per person
- Philippines: cannot read a simple text %
2019: 90.9
World Bank: learning poverty (SEA-PLM 2019 test), GDP per person
- Cambodia: cannot read a simple text %
2019: 90.0
World Bank: learning poverty (SEA-PLM 2019 test), GDP per person
- Myanmar: cannot read a simple text %
2019: 89.5
World Bank: learning poverty (SEA-PLM 2019 test), GDP per person
- Laos: cannot read a simple text %
2019: 97.7
World Bank: learning poverty (SEA-PLM 2019 test), GDP per person
- Malaysia: GDP per person, PPP 2021 dollars
2019: 31,301
World Bank: learning poverty (SEA-PLM 2019 test), GDP per person
- Vietnam: GDP per person, PPP 2021 dollars
2019: 11,629
World Bank: learning poverty (SEA-PLM 2019 test), GDP per person
World Bank learning poverty (SE.LPV.PRIM): pupils below the minimum reading level in the SEA-PLM 2019 test (grade 5), adjusted for children out of school. GDP per person at purchasing power parity, 2019: Malaysia $31,301, Vietnam $11,629 (2021 dollars).
Out of school: 10.9% of primary-age children in Malaysia, 2.2% in Vietnam; even if all of that difference went into the measure, about twice as many Malaysian pupils are below the minimum. Wealth here is background, not an explanation: the data do not say why Vietnam is ahead. The test was before the pandemic, in the language of instruction.
A question for this picture
Where else does money not buy reading? Chile: almost all adults count as literate, yet over half only manage simple texts.