Abstract Global education goals have many aims, among them universal basic schooling, universal literacy and numeracy, and gender equality. We use unique, nationally representative data on adult learning outcomes to examine the link between schooling and literacy in ten low- and middle-income countries. We simulate scenarios of increasing school grade attainment, increasing learning per year, and achieving gender equality, and examine learning outcomes in each. In six of the ten countries only about half or less of younger adults (aged 18−37) with primary completion as their highest schooling can read a few sentences without help. Simulations show that achieving universal primary completion would still leave many adults functionally illiterate: in India nearly a third of adults would still be unable to read. Our simulations further show that, while achieving equality of schooling attainment would produce improvements in women’s literacy, in many countries this would still leave a third of women unable to read. Gender equality of learning per year produces very little gain as, once in school, girls’ learning nearly matches that of boys. In nearly all countries steepening the learning profiles for all students to the best-performing of the ten countries would lead to greater gains in literacy for women than achieving gender equality in both schooling and learning. Achieving learning for all will require both eliminating gender gaps but also improving how much is learned while in school.

中文翻译：

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目标更高：10 个低收入和中等收入国家的学习概况和性别平等

摘要 全球教育目标有很多目标，其中包括普及基础教育、普及识字和计算能力以及性别平等。我们使用独特的、具有全国代表性的成人学习成果数据来检验十个低收入和中等收入国家的学校教育与识字率之间的联系。我们模拟提高学业成绩、每年增加学习和实现性别平等的场景，并检查每个场景的学习成果。在 10 个国家中的 6 个国家中，只有大约一半或更少的年轻人（18-37 岁）完成了小学教育，他们可以在没有帮助的情况下阅读几句话。模拟表明，实现普及小学教育仍然会使许多成年人在功能上成为文盲：在印度，近三分之一的成年人仍然无法阅读。我们的模拟进一步表明，虽然实现教育程度的平等会提高妇女的识字率，但在许多国家，这仍会使三分之一的妇女无法阅读。每年学习的性别平等产生的收益很小，因为一旦进入学校，女孩的学习几乎与男孩的学习相当。在几乎所有国家，将所有学生的学习概况提高到十个国家中表现最好的国家，将比在学校教育和学习中实现性别平等更能提高妇女的识字率。实现全民学习既需要消除性别差距，也需要提高在校期间的学习量。每年学习的性别平等产生的收益很小，因为一旦进入学校，女孩的学习几乎与男孩的学习相当。在几乎所有国家，将所有学生的学习概况提高到十个国家中表现最好的国家，将比在学校教育和学习中实现性别平等更能提高妇女的识字率。实现全民学习既需要消除性别差距，也需要提高在校期间的学习量。每年学习的性别平等产生的收益很小，因为一旦进入学校，女孩的学习几乎与男孩的学习相当。在几乎所有国家，将所有学生的学习概况提高到十个国家中表现最好的国家，将比在学校教育和学习中实现性别平等更能提高妇女识字率。实现全民学习既需要消除性别差距，也需要提高在校期间的学习量。