Weak foundations in Arabic literacy: Drivers of learning poverty in Jordan

Abstract

In 2019, the World Bank introduced the concept of “learning poverty” to draw attention to the proportion of children aged 10 that could not read with comprehension. This paper addresses the drivers of learning poverty in Jordan, estimated to be over 60%, examining the literacy pathway a child takes through both the home and school learning environments. We conducted a qualitative comparative policy analysis drawing primarily on in-depth interviews with twelve Jordanian primary school teachers and quantitative data from Jordan’s 2018 National Teacher Survey (re-analysed for this study). We find that these drivers include: parental engagement with their children’s literacy learning (often affected by parents’ own low literacy levels and a weak culture of reading); the profile of early grade teachers; the automatic grade progression policy that allows struggling readers to progress to higher grade levels; and, schooling infrastructure (principally overcrowded classrooms and inadequately resourced libraries).