Pause for a moment and imagine that you
are an illiterate child. A textbook sits on a desk
in front of you, and you cannot read it. You are
surrounded by a classroom of children. Many of
them do not have a book in front of them. In this
regard, you are lucky. But to you, the text is still
indecipherable. You are accustomed to listening to
your school teacher dictate lessons, most often in
a language that you do not speak or understand
and that your parents do not speak with you at
home. Without textbooks or training on the basics
of teaching reading, your teacher has little choice
but to dictate. Now you are presented with a text
in an unfamiliar language. Next year, you will
be expected to begin learning math and science
concepts by reading more books in this language
of which you cannot comprehend even one
sentence. You are just one of millions of children
in low-income countries around the world whose
prospects of academic—and with it, economic—
success are dimmed because you cannot read.