Learning to read is the most important outcome of primary education. However, despite substantial improvements in primary school enrolment, most students in low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) fail to learn to read by age 10. We report reading assessment data from over half a million pupils from 48 LMICs tested primarily in a language of instruction and show that these pupils are failing to acquire the most basic skills that contribute to reading comprehension. Pupils in LMICs across the first three instructional years are not acquiring the ability to decode printed words fluently and, in most cases, are failing to master the names and sounds associated with letters. Moreover, performance gaps against benchmarks widen with each instructional year. Literacy goals in LMICs will be reached only by ensuring focus on decoding skills in early-grade readers. Effective literacy instruction will require rigorous systematic phonics programmes and assessments suitable for LMIC contexts.

学会阅读是初等教育最重要的成果。然而，尽管小学入学率有了显著提高，但低收入和中等收入国家 （LMIC） 的大多数学生在 10 岁之前都无法学会阅读。我们报告了来自 48 个低收入和中等收入国家 （LMIC） 的五十多万学生的阅读评估数据，主要以一种教学语言进行测试，结果表明这些学生未能获得有助于阅读理解的最基本技能。低收入和中等收入国家的学生在前三个教学年没有获得流利解码印刷文字的能力，并且在大多数情况下，无法掌握与字母相关的名称和发音。此外，与基准的性能差距随着每个教学年度的扩大而扩大。只有确保关注低年级读者的解码技能，才能实现中低收入和中等收入国家的识字目标。有效的识字教学需要适合中低收入和中等收入国家情况的严格、系统的语音课程和评估。