Committee Reports > List of Committees > Joint > 1998 > Committee on Education and Science > Report No. 01 - Literacy Levels in Ireland

Foreword

The Joint Committee on Education and Science was established following Orders of the Dáil of 13 November 1997 and Seanad of 19 November 1997. One of the first issues it decided to address was Adult Literacy, particularly since the problems of adult literacy had been highlighted by a recent OECD survey and further researched and explained in a Report commissioned by the Minister for Education entitled “International Adult Literacy Survey: Results for Ireland”

The Joint Committee examined witnesses on this issue at four of its meetings and met the author of the report, the Minister of State responsible for this issue, the Secretary General of the Department of Education and Science and the acting Director of the National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) to discuss the issue. Deputy Richard Bruton, was instrumental in drafting the Committees report, the contents of which were agreed by the Committee at its meeting of 12 May 1998; the Committee is most grateful to him.

The Joint Committee requests that its recommendations in relation to this issue are taken on board and also requests that the matters raised in this report are debated in both Houses of the Oireachtas as soon as possible.

Michael P. Kitt TD

Chairman

12 May 1998

Executive Summary

The OECD measures literacy by assessing the ability of people to successfully undertake tasks of varying degrees of complexity which they encounter in every life. The survey of 11 countries reveals that about 25% of Irish adults are at the lowest level of literacy which significantly impairs their ability to participate in many aspects of social life. This incidence is 50% higher than the average of other advanced countries surveyed.

Poor literacy is closely associated with the level of completed education. Rising from 1% among university graduates to 57% among early school leavers. Literacy problems are more common among older people. However, Ireland stands out as a country with one of the greatest literacy problems among 16 - 25 year olds, even though they have had the benefit of the now well-developed opportunities for further education in Ireland which did not exist 30 years ago.

There is also worrying evidence of a higher incidence in Ireland of basic reading problems among the school going population. There are particular problems with transition from primary to secondary school in Ireland. Among 14 year olds clearly three times as many boys as girls have serious literacy problems.

Problems with literacy close many doors in modern society. The survey shows that those with literacy problems:

-are three times more likely to be out of work;

-are three times more likely to be among the lowest earners;

-are only half as likely to be active in community organisations, to write letters or read books;

-are only one-fifth as likely to participate in adult education

There is a low level of awareness of their literacy problem among those affected. Only 8% of those at the lowest level of literacy rates their skills as poor. This clearly creates a problem with the likely take-up of any opportunities for education offered.

Ireland has a very poorly developed system of adult education compared to other countries. Only half as many people participate at all. The budget at 1½% of the total education budget is very restricting.

Literacy schemes currently reach about 5,000 people. They are run on a shoestring and depend almost exclusively on volunteers. There is a very low participation among men, particularly older men.

At present, Irish workers use literacy skills considerably less frequently at work than in other countries. Many of their skills are under utilised. The pace of change in technology means Ireland must embrace lifelong learning. This is a challenge for employers, community and government alike. Literacy is a vital building block in lifelong learning.

Among the recommendations which the Committee puts forward are:

•The development of a major programme of adult education with targets for different domains of adult education and for participation by particular groups of people who are at a disadvantage.

•An offer of free participation in adult education by any person who has not gone beyond Junior Certificate

•Tax Relief at standard rate for certain adult education courses

•Resources for the substantial development of the adult literacy service - retaining the valuable voluntary contribution, but developing professional organisation training and certification and setting it within a wider context of lifelong learning

•The development of systematic literacy testing in first class at primary and at secondary level

•Greater priority for the development of library facilities

•Remedial budgets for all schools

•Development of a model programme for use by groupings of primary and secondary schools to overcome the problem of transition between the two levels

•Immediate assessment of the feasibility of developing referral facilities for children with acute literacy problems linked to behavioural problems

•Developing of pilot workplace training partnerships between employers and unions, which could be rolled out nationally in the next Programme for Social Partnership

•Client Service Units within public services providers to improve access for people likely to have difficulties in accessing these services

1. INTRODUCTION

In 1995, the OECD conducted a survey of adult literacy in Ireland. It involved 2,439 respondents representative of the entire adult population below the age of 65. Similar surveys elsewhere allow comparison with 11 other countries.

For the purpose of the study, literacy is measured by the consistency of a person’s performance in tasks of varying degrees of difficulty. Tasks are ranked on a scale of difficulty from 0 to 500. A person will be given the scale score of the highest level of task in which that person achieves at least an 80% success rate. In other words, if a person is said to have a scale score of 325, it means that s/he has an 80% chance of correctly answering an item with a scale score of 325, a higher chance of answering an item with a lower score and lower than 80% chance of an item with a scale score of over 325.

People were classified into 5 different levels of literacy according to the scores awarded:-

Tasks within Level 1 literacy are typically tasks that require identifying a single piece of information where the structure of the text is designed to assist you. Level 2 requires more information to be sought or uses a text where there are distractions from the information sought. Level 3 tasks typically require you to combine or integrate more than one piece of information. Levels 4 and 5 require inferences to be made from available information or introduce several distractions.

Instead of the old idea of measuring illiteracy, this concept recognises that literacy is relative depending on the complexity of literacy tasks which people can accomplish. The Committee was informed by NALA (National Adult Literacy Agency) that Level 3 is considered the minimum desirable level in most developed countries. A great number of people below this are unable to participate fully in the economic and civil life of an advanced nation.

Three different domains of literacy are assessed. Prose literacy measures the ability to understand and use information from accessible texts such as newspapers or advertisements. Document literacy measures the ability to locate and use information from official texts such as timetables or maps. Quantitative literacy measures the ability to apply mathematical operations in printed materials, such as graphs or bank statements.

2. FINDINGS FOR IRELAND

The survey revealed that roughly 25% of Irish adults are at the lowest level of literacy. There is negligible difference between the performance under prose, document and literacy. About 30% are at Level 2, 32% at Level 3 and 14% at Levels 4 / 5. Before this study there had been no empirical data on adult literacy in Ireland. The working assumption had put the number with serious literacy problems at about 100,000. This study suggests that the true figure is five times the previous estimate.

Of course there is scope for argument as to whether the scale score cut-off used here to define serious literacy problems is the appropriate one. The Secretary General and Minister of State, while not disputing the findings, did point out that some of those who agreed to participate failed a screening test and were assigned to the lowest level of literacy automatically. Such people can be regarded as having very poor literacy skills below the literacy level of primary school leavers, but they only constitute half of the Level 1 population. With regard to the rest of the Level 1 population, they made the point that the test of achieving 80% success in 226 scale score tasks for Level 2 is quite a high hurdle. It is also interesting to note that one third of those at the lowest level of literacy read books at least once a week. This underlines the point that literacy in the modern sense is a relative concept, measured against the skills needed to understand and use literary materials commonly found in work and civil activities.

The survey also sheds light on the factors associated with literacy problems. It is found that literacy problems are substantially greater among older people. While 16% of 16-25 year olds are at Level 1, the proportion rises to 39% among 56-65 year olds. There is no significant difference between men and women. However the strongest association of all is with the duration of participation in education. The proportion of people at Level 1 literacy is just 1% among those who graduated from university, 8% among those with a Leaving Cert, 24% among those with the Junior Cert but rises dramatically to 57% among early school leavers (i.e. those who never got a Junior Cert

3. INTERNATIONAL COMPARISONS

The survey also gives comparisons with other countries. They are particularly interesting because the give an indication of what scope there is for improvement. Overall, Ireland emerges as the country with one of the worst literacy problems of the countries surveyed, second only to Poland. The picture is much the same in each domain and slightly worse for quantitative literacy. Leaving Poland aside, the advanced countries fall into a number of bands.

Table 1.The proportion of the adult population at Level 1 literacy in different countries.

If you leave out Poland, you get some interesting comparative findings which are drawn together in Tables 2 & 4:-

Ireland has over 53% more people at Level 1 literacy levels than the other advanced countries in the survey. It ranges from 36% more in the Prose domain to 56% in the Document domain and 67% in the Quantitative domain

Ireland has the smallest proportion of people at the top levels of quantitative literacy. [On average the other countries have 37% more people at top levels of quantitative literacy].

Ireland has one of the greatest problems with literacy among the youngest age group (16-25), with only the USA faring worse, and UK and New Zealand in the same league.

At specific levels of completed education, Ireland does not emerge as having a greater literacy problem, and at higher levels performs better than average.

Table 2. Ireland’s Relative literacy compared to Advanced Countries.

Note: The Advanced Countries are those in Table 1 excluding Poland

Table 3. Proportions at Level 1. Prose Domain at different levels of educational achievement

Note: The Advanced countries in this Table do not include Australia, New Zealand, UK and Belgium for which comparable data was not readily available

Table 4. Literacy Levels in Certain Age Groups

Note: Same text as for Table 4. If the wider list of advanced countries in Table 1 were used the figures for the average of 16-25 year olds in advanced countries would be 10.6 Levels and 25.0 Levels 4/5, not substantially different from those shown.

Clearly Ireland is being compared here with countries, some of whom have a long history of participation in education beyond basic levels. It should also be said that France dropped out of the survey because of the disappointing results which were emerging for that country. Later development of participation in further education does explain some of Ireland’s difficulties. The committee heard that the proportion of pupils who stay on to complete second level has risen from 20% in 1965(before free education was introduced in 1968) to 64% in 1985 and 77% in 1995. Third level participation has also grown over that period from 11% to 50%. These figures do help explain the very prevalent literacy problems among those aged over 45, who did not have the benefit of second level education.

However, it is worrying that even among those who are only recently left education there are acute literacy problems. Indeed Ireland’s relative performance is no better in the young age group than in the late age group as Table 4 shows. It seems that Ireland has a particular problem with early drop out of school that is not found elsewhere. Once pupils stay on in school they perform as well as anywhere.

4. EFFECTS OF LITERACY PROBLEMS

One of the major problems with low levels of literacy are the difficulties of finding and holding a reasonably well paid job. The survey shows that people with the lowest level of literacy experience in Ireland three times more likely not to be working than those with top literacy skills. The proportion out of work at low literacy levels is much higher in Ireland. The gulf in employment experience between those at low and at high levels of literacy is also much greater in Ireland than elsewhere as Table 5 shows.

Table 5. Proportion who are Out of Work at different Literacy Levels

Note: This is not to be interpreted as an unemployment rate as usually understood, because this is the % unemployed among the total population not among those in the Labour Force.

Two different forces are at work here. Firstly Irish people at low literacy levels are much less likely to participate in the labour force at all. In Ireland 44.5% of those in the lowest two categories of literacy are not in the Labour force at all compared to 32% in other advanced countries. Secondly, their rate of unemployment of those in the Labour force at 23.4% is double that of persons at low literacy levels in other advanced countries.

Literacy levels also significantly affecting earnings. A person with high literacy in Ireland is five times more likely to be among the top earnings than a person at the lowest level. The wage penalty associated with low literacy is greatest in Ireland among the countries in the OECD study. However, the survey shows that the level of literacy does not affect earnings among the two lowest quintiles of earner. In other words it is only with the top 60% of earners that literacy is a significant factor influencing earnings. While this suggests that people with literacy problems seem to be coping reasonably in the labour market at present, there must be concerns for the future as the workplace demands more skills and continuous learning, and the traditional areas of unskilled work are in decline.

The study also shows that people with literacy problems participate less in other areas of community life. They are only half as likely to be active in community organisations, to write letters regularly or to read books as those with middle to high literacy skills. On the other hand, they are three times more likely to watch television for more than five hours per day. They are also less likely to attend films, plays, concerts or sporting events, but lower income may well be a factor influencing this as much as literacy.

5. CAUSES AND POLICY

Clearly the level of completed education is a major factor in literacy problems. As we have seen the lack of the opportunity to participate beyond primary was a key factor among older people. However there is also clear evidence of literacy problems within the school going population. The Committee heard that literacy problems among pupils were serious in the 1960s, improved significantly between 1970 and 1980 but have not significantly improve since then.

The Department of Education provided the Committee with data on reading scores for 14 year olds in different countries. Ireland is in 20th place among the 24 countries shown. Between 6½% and 8½% of Irish 14 - year olds have serious literacy problems and as many as 21% have reading difficulties. This is worse than in most countries.

Ireland also displays greater gender difference among pupils in literacy than elsewhere and differences which get worse between the age of 9 and 14 contrary to the experience in most countries. Thus, nearly three times as many boys as girls have serious literacy problems at age 14 in Ireland. The reason for this requires urgent analysis by the Department.

The Committee also heard that surveys show a decline in the international ranking of Irish children between the age of 9 and 14 in reading, maths and science.

It is of particular concern to the Committee that despite our obvious educational advance, almost one fifth of the cohort of children leave school with only the Junior Certificate or less. This is seldom enough to equip them to get and hold a reasonable job. The Committee recognises that the reasons for this are complex and will not be resolved by one dimensional interventions alone. None the less the Committee believes that a key response to the findings of this report must be greater resourcing of initiatives to head off early school leaving, and more scope for innovation in the approach to the problems of these children, many of whom by the age of 14 are so far behind in reading skills, that they are unable to take advantage of the more applied options at Junior and Leaving Certificate.

The Committee welcomes the review of the remedial teaching scheme due to be completed later this summer. It is unhappy that 741 schools have no remedial resource what soever. It suspects that often the time of the remedial teacher is spread so thinly that the value may be lost. It believes that remedial resource should be available in every school and integrated more fully into the other teaching activities. It believes that innovative approaches such as mentoring of weaker pupils by stronger and bringing in parents or grand parents to become involved in a paired literacy scheme should be introduced and resourced on a wider basis. The Committee believes that this report on remedial teaching should be published and become the start of a more systematic approach to the evaluation of policies to tackle educational disadvantage.

After people leave school, it is often very difficult to attract people with literacy problems back into education. The study shows that despite evidence that one quarter of the adult population have low levels of literacy, only 2% rate their own skills as poor. Even among those at the lowest level of literacy, only 8% rated their skills as poor, while two thirds believed that their reading skills were excellent or good. This clearly creates problems with take-up of Adult Education opportunities.

The Committee also heard evidence that the existing provision of adult education in Ireland is far lower than in other countries. In Ireland, 24% participated in adult education in the previous year compared to 41% in the other advanced countries surveyed. It was also pointed out that most of the course offered are more suited to people who already have good literacy skills. The evidence speaks for itself:-

Only just over 10% of people with literacy problems participate in adult education in Ireland, less than half the proportion in other advanced countries.

A person with high literacy skills in Ireland is five times more likely to participate than a person at the lowest level.

There is a particular problem with the adequacy of resourcing of adult literacy schemes. A survey by the National Adult Literacy Agency in 1995/96 found that about 5,000 adults were receiving tuition from about 2,000 tutors. Approximately 85% of the tuition hours were provided voluntarily. Even the 52 literacy organisers were operating on a shoe-string. Few had even a one year contract, ten of them were unpaid, and the rest were only paid for about 14 hours per week. These figures suggest that current participation in literacy schemes represents only 1% of those with the lowest literacy skills.

A survey of participants in Adult Literacy schemes in the city of Dublin conducted by the VEC found that

-76% of participants had never sat any examinations

-female participation was twice the level of male

-fewer men aged over 30 participated (half for men versus over 80% for women)

-34% of participants were home workers

The study emphasises the need for outreach policies particularly for older men, for flexibility in timing and frequency of tuition, for crèche facilities, and for novel contexts within which literacy could be delivered. It also emphasised the value of participants being involved in running the scheme themselves.

Expenditure on adult education by the state is very small. In 1991, total spending on adult education by the state came to just £0.5m and reached 19,000 people. This is an annual spend per student of just £26. It in stark contrast to the average spend at any other level of the education system, where even primary education gets over £2,000 and third level over £5,000 per student. While the budget has been rising in recent years and the 75% increase in the 1998 estimates is particularly welcome, the total spend at £4.1m in 1998 represents less than 1.5% of the Department’s total budget.

The Committee believes that more resources must be devoted to tackling adult literacy and adult education. The pace of change in technology and the demands of competition from lower cost countries means that Ireland must urgently embrace the concept of life long learning. This will require a change of attitude among people most of all, but it will also require a substantial investment of resources. The State cannot be expected to shoulder all the costs. However, it has a responsibility to assist and also to pump prime spending by employers and the wider community.

Literacy education must be seen as a vital building block in a policy for life long learning. Achieving adequate literacy and numeracy is the gateway to wider participation in education and training. In developing a policy to meet obvious problems we must ensure that literacy instruction opens up opportunities for progression. This requires new approaches to certification and links between different types of education with open pathways of admission. We still have a long way to go in this area to remove artificial barriers to movement from one domain of education to another. It also requires that providers consciously develop foundation and bridging modules in different skill areas.

The Committee believes that NALA’s request for a doubling of the adult education budget in each of the next two years is fully justified. The Green Paper is very welcome and must carve out a strong commitment to life long learning, particularly for those who did not enjoy access to educational opportunity first time round. The Committee recognises that the scale of expansion of adult literacy tuition required means that it cannot continue to be developed on an almost solely voluntary basis. It will require a systematic approach to key areas such as outreach and referral, standards, progression, counselling, learning materials and teaching methods.

Involvement in literacy activities at work are important in maintaining and developing literacy skills. The report shows that compared to the other advanced countries surveyed, Irish workers use literacy skills considerably less frequently than elsewhere. Workers in the other countries are 25-35% more likely to read invoices, manuals or memos frequently at work. Not surprisingly workers with low literacy skills are far less likely to be involved in reading or writing at work. However, over 80% of Irish workers who rate their literacy skills as good or excellent, say that these skills are little used at work. There are clearly messages here for employers. There is plenty of scope for developing the skills of their workers in an environment where skill and adaptability are becoming more important. However they must also recognise that to upgrade the skills of a significant proportion of their workers they will need foundation level investment in literacy skills.

6. CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS:-

Problems with literacy close many doors in modern society. As the years go by this will be reinforced, particularly as information technology makes the accessing and use of information a key source of wealth.

Ireland has a serious problem with adult literacy. Almost a quarter of the adult population are at a level of literacy which hampers their ability to participate fully at work or in the community. We are at the bottom of the league tables among advanced countries in this respect.

Raising our literacy profile is not a task that can be tackled by the government alone. However, the government must create the momentum for this deeper change.

Analysis of the findings of literacy across the different countries reaches some key conclusions

•literacy development begins at birth

•better educated parents are more likely to raise children with higher levels of literacy

•a person’s ultimate literacy is not fully determined in early childhood or even at the end of formal schooling

•countries that have high mean levels of literacy have small differences between social groups

These conclusions stress the need for a comprehensive strategy to raise literacy levels.

A policy response within the Education system must not be focused just on instruments of remedying narrowly defined reading and writing skills. The key is to engage all of our people in a process of lifelong learning by making our community one which actively engages and makes demand of literacy skills from all people and helps them to participate. We need to be conscious of what motivates people to learn and ensure that there are ladders that reach down for people with weaker skills to participate in all areas of community life:

-in the workplace

-in sport leisure, arts and cultural activities

The most effective literacy programme may be one which builds on a persons desire to do something else - to engage in a hobby, to understand a service which they need, to help their own children do things they could never do, to get on at work. Many different agents in many different areas of life must think about learning opportunities if were are to raise literacy. It requires the creation of a literacy rich and learning rich environment in the home, at work and in the community.

1.A major programme of adult education must be developed. While the Minister is correct to focus on literacy, a balanced expansion of conventional second chance education, of innovative options accessible to those with weaker literacy skills and of basic adult literacy should be developed in an integrated approach to life long learning focused particularly on those with difficulties. Appropriate outreach and suitable settings must be developed to attract wider participation. Targets for different domains of adult education should be set in the forthcoming Green paper and targets also for participation by people with a disadvantage.

2.Any person who has not gone beyond Junior Certificate at school should be offered free participation on one adult education course of their choosing. Tax relief at the standard rate should be provided for a range of adult education courses, chosen for their relevance in personal or career development.

3. All training bodies should develop foundation and progression modules that allow participation by as wide as possible range of people. This should be done in cooperation with the voluntary agencies as appropriate.

4.Employer and Trade union bodies should be asked to develop pilot workplace training partnerships which would be rolled out on a national basis as part of the next Programme for Social Partnership. It should particularly address the needs of workers with literacy problems. The State should set aside a budget to pump prime such initiatives.

5.A high quality adult literacy programme must be development in consultation with the voluntary agencies in the field. Organisers should be on a proper paid basis. Tutors should be of a recognised standard. Quality training should be provided which would include specialist options such as teaching those who have special needs or who have not got English as their native tongue. Special emphasis should be placed on an outreach programme to attract those who may be reluctant to participate. It must be clearly set in a context of life long learning and geared to moving forward into other training and education opportunities.

6.An innovative adult literacy campaign should be piloted in a small number of partnership areas. It should involve employers, unions, places of education and the community. It should develop guidance and counselling support, information technology tools, flexible teaching approaches, progression, and offer those on Social Welfare added income support to help them participate. The lessons learned should be rolled out in the general programme.

7.Systematic literacy testing should be developed in first class at primary and first class at secondary school. It should be used to give an early warning of pupils with difficulties. It should also be used to influence the allocation of the remedial budget at Departmental and at school level. A tracking system for pupils at risk should be put in place.

8.The development of library facilities for schools should be given greater priority by the Department of Education. An environment with easy access to books and music is proven to enhance the likelihood of literacy competence. The present budget allocation to schools is inadequate.

9.Curricular material should involve more functional tasks used in every day life, which could be integrated into the courses. Innovative syllabi are needed particularly for students at risk of dropping out to engage their interest. The use of music or art could contribute as a medium for developing skills.

10.Remedial budgets with appropriate guidelines for each school should be introduced to complement the remedial teacher posts currently available to some schools, so that all schools can participate on the basis of need. Remedial education should be set in the context of a wider range of interventions in the school to help those with difficulties and should be an integral part of the mission of all involved in the school. New approaches such as family literacy schemes and mentoring should be introduced. The reason why problems are disproportionately experienced by boys must be investigated.

11.A special programme should be developed by groupings of primary and secondary schools to assess and overcome the problems of transition between the two levels. This has been successfully piloted in Galway, in Dublin and elsewhere. There is clearly an identified need in Ireland for measures to support this transition.

12.The feasibility of developing referral facilities for children with acute literacy problems linked to behavioural problems should be immediately assessed. It could be developed on a local basis and allow pupils to spend part time in their school and part time in this specialist service.

13.A specialist evaluation unit should be set up with a supervisory Board drawn from all the education partners to systematically evaluate the various initiatives designed to combat educational disadvantage. It should aim to monitor progress in the same way as is done for the often much smaller sums expended under EU programmes.

14.All state-funded bodies offering a service should establish a specialist client service unit to assist those who have difficulty accessing information, completing applications and obtaining their rights, including those that may be due to literacy problems. In particular customers should be offered support in using IT based services which pose particular problems for older clients. This unit should ensure that forms used are as simple and accessible as possible and should seek changes from national or EU bodies to secure this. Other private bodies should also offer such client services (eg insurance and banking). A useful location for promoting such service would be the public library which could thereby achieve relevance for a wider group of people.