Story in numbers: A learning crisis for children in the early grades

Even those who are not education experts or researchers can tell you that after five years of schooling, only half the children in India can read at Standard II level. And that the results for basic arithmetic are even more worrying.

But what led to this learning crisis? There are many contributing factors. Poorly educated parents and lack of learning support at home are certainly a contributor. Inadequate school readiness, learning by rote, the paucity of appropriately trained teachers, and no system of identifying or helping children who are not making adequate progress in the early grades — all can