Education of Disadvantaged Children in OIC:
The Key to Escape from Poverty
34
Poor children are not only less likely to
access education but also even when
they have access they are left behind in
terms of learning outcomes. The results
of the PIRLS (Progress in International
Reading Literacy Study) 2011 reading test
for 4th grade primary school students for
the participating OIC countries show that
in every participating OIC country rich
children are more likely to pass the lowest
achievement threshold compared to their
poor counterparts (Se Panel A).
Poor children are the most disadvantaged
in Morocco with only 15.6 percent of the
children living in poorest households
passing the lowest benchmark as opposed
to 53.2 percent of the children living in
richest households. In contrast, the gap is
the smallest in Azerbaijan where 82.2 and
93.7 percent of poor and rich children
respectively being able to pass the lowest
benchmark in the test.
A similar picture emerges with respect
to mathematics achievement of
primary school students. Achievements
of 4th grade students in TIMSS 2011 test
for the participating OIC countries show
again that being poor leads to worse
outcomes in another important topic,
mathematics, as well (See Panel
B).
Gaps in learning outcomes between
poor and rich children increase as
children grow older (See .
Countries participating in TIMSS could take the test for 4th graders, for 8th graders or for both
allowing us to compare the gaps between rich and poor children at different education levels.
Comparing these gaps between rich and poor children’s achievement in the 4th and the 8th grades
shows troubling results. In 7 of the 8 OIC countries taking TIMSS 2011 at both levels the gap
between rich and poor children increases the older the children get. This is largely due to rich
children doing better and poor children making no progress in the following grades in Morocco
and United Arab Emirates; poor children deteriorating and rich children staying at a similar
Figure 8 Learning achievement in reading and
mathematics for 4 th grade students, by poorest
and richest wealth quintile
A. Learning achievement in reading (primary)
Percentage of children of primary school age taking
part in PIRLS 2011 and passing first level of difficulty
A. Learning achievement in math (primary)
Percentage of children of primary school age taking
part in TIMSS 2011 math test and passing first level of
difficulty
Note: Data is obtained from UNESCO’s WIDE Database.
Morocco, PIRLS 2011
Oman, PIRLS 2011
Qatar, PIRLS 2011
United Arab Emirates, PIRLS…
Saudi Arabia, PIRLS 2011
Kuwait, PIRLS 2011
Iran, I. R., PIRLS 2011
Indonesia, PIRLS 2011
Azerbaijan, PIRLS 2011
0 20 40 60 80 100
% of children
Poorest Richest
Yemen, TIMSS 2011
Tunisia, TIMSS 2011
Morocco, TIMSS 2011
Kuwait, TIMSS 2011
Oman, TIMSS 2011
Qatar, TIMSS 2011
Iran, I. R., TIMSS 2011
Saudi Arabia, TIMSS 2011
United Arab Emirates,…
Bahrain, TIMSS 2011
Azerbaijan, TIMSS 2011
Turkey, TIMSS 2011
Kazakhstan, TIMSS 2011
0 20 40 60 80 100
% of children
Poorest Richest