How many children lack access to education in their first language?
35% of the world's children begin their education in an unfamiliar language.
Learning is crucial to human flourishing. However, research shows that more than one third of the world’s children spend their school days in classrooms where the language of instruction (LOI) is not the language they use at home. Many of these students experience difficult setbacks as a result, which curtail their ability to learn and perform well academically. See the interactive map below to find out how this problem affects each country.
More than 2.5 billion children in the world fall within the 0-19 age range. While an estimated 1.65 million have access to education in their first language (L1), more than 890,000 do not have access to education in their L1. This graph highlights how the world’s poorest and most vulnerable populations are affected disproportionately, which further enforces cycles of poverty and social disparity.
Some countries are offering education in local languages.
Many countries have taken major steps forward in getting children into school only to discover that learning limitations still exist when they are taught in a language that they don’t understand or use at home.
Worldwide, there is an average of only 3.7 LOIs per country. However, some are well above that average. The chart on the left shows a ranking of the top 10 countries that offer education in the greatest number of languages. In areas where learning resources are made available in their local language, research has shown that students readily transfer literacy skills to official languages of education, acquiring essential tools for lifelong learning.
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