Bangladesh's foundational reading gap: what the national data show

What the reporting set out to establish

What does Bangladesh's literacy progress look like when children are tested on reading and comprehension rather than asked whether they can read and write?

How the story was reported

The report used the Bangladesh Multiple Indicator Cluster Survey 2025 to distinguish self-reported literacy from tested foundational reading. It tracked performance by grade, household wealth and rural-urban location, and compared the findings with other national learning assessments and expert interpretation.

Key evidence used

• Only 50.2 percent of children aged seven to 14 met the foundational reading benchmark in MICS 2025, compared with 48.8 percent in 2019.
• The survey assessed 31,859 children in all 64 districts and required both accurate reading and comprehension to meet the benchmark.
• The poorest fifth of households recorded substantially lower foundational reading performance than the richest fifth, while rural children also trailed urban children.

What this adds

The central distinction is between being counted as literate and being able to understand a simple text. That difference changes how progress, inequality and future literacy targets should be interpreted.