Reconsidering UK adult literacy in an international context

1
Reconsidering UK adult literacy in an
international context

• Peter Lavender
• National Institute of Adult Continuing Education
  (NIACE)

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Overview

• In the UK
• What do we know about participation in learning?
• Which specific groups need attention?
• What could be done?
• What do we know about adult literacy?
• Whats being done?
• In the South
• Whats the challenge?
• What is being done?
• What might we do together?

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What do we know about participation in the UK?
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Participation in adult learning 1996, 1999,
2002, 2005 and 2006 compared
1996 1999 2002 2005 2006
Current learning 23 22 23 19 20
Recent learning (in the last three years) 17 18 19 22 22
All current/recent learning 40 40 42 42 42
Past learning (more than three years ago) 23 23 21 24 23
None since leaving full-time education/Dont know 36 37 36 35 34
Weighted Base 4,755 5,205 5,885 5,053 4,924
Base all respondents
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Current /recent participation in adult learning,
by socio-economic class (2006)
Base all respondents
6
Current /recent participation in adult learning,
by employment status (2006)
Base all respondents
7
Current /recent participation in adult learning,
by age (2006)
Base all respondents
8
Current /recent participation in adult learning,
by terminal age of education (2006)
Base all respondents
9
Future intentions to learn, by learning status
(2006)
Base all respondents who have finished full-time
education
10
The skills strategy and social inclusion
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Policy issues around adult learning that need
researching

• Globalisation and technological change
• Poverty
• Well-being and happiness
• Sustainability
• Nation states and citizenship
• Demography
• Private, public and voluntary
• Policy tension

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Productivity Competitiveness
Social Inclusion
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What do we know about adult literacy in the UK?
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Characteristics of people with Entry Level 3
literacy or lower

• 52 own their own home
• 18 English as a second language
• 25 from a minority ethnic group
• 51 no qualifications
• 38 good health
• 56 were working
• 30 earned less than 10,000 pa
• 24 received JSA, income support or IB

The Skills for Life Survey, 2003
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Our priority groups (DfES)

• Low-skilled people in employment
• Unemployed people, benefit claimants, Jobseekers
• Public sector employees
• Young adults
• People who live in disadvantaged communities
• Prisoners and those supervised in the community
• Parents
• Other groups at risk of exclusion

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And?

• Adults with disabilities or mental health
  difficulties
• Refugees and asylum seekers
• Part-time and temporary workers
• Those employed in businesses which are cool to
  training
• Workers aged over 45 - often neglected when it
  comes to training and development
• Migrants
• Women especially from ethnic minority
  communities
• The existing workforce needing to strengthen
  skills

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Whats the problem generally?

• Diverse but not yet equal society
• Barriers cultural, social, psychological
• Not for the likes of us
• Peer group views
• Perceived risks

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Whats the problem about literacy and numeracy?
England Per cent of 16-65 yr olds Number of 16-65 year olds
All entry level or below literacy 16 5.2m
Level 1 literacy 40 12.6m
Level 2 or above 44 14.1m
All entry level or below numeracy 47 15.0m
Level 1 num 28 8.8m
Level 2 or above 25 8.1m
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What learners say

• Family reasons to help children and to
  understand better what their children are
  learning at school
• Work to get a better job and improve their
  performance at work
• Personal to improve knowledge and skills,
  pursue interest, overcome stigma
• Move on to get a qualification, or move on to
  more demanding things
• Contribute to communities, eg immigrants,
  asylum seekers and migrant workers

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Triggers that lead to learning

• Compulsion or requirement
• Life change or crisis
• The desire to help children
• Involvement in community action or in voluntary
  or community groups
• Locating learning nearby or in well-used places
• Example and encouragement of other people
• A successful experience

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Whats being done in the UK?

• Boosting demand for learning
• Ensuring capacity
• Raising standards
• Improving learner achievement

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PSA Delivery Agreement 2 Improve the skills of
the population

• Governments long-term vision by 2020
• 95 per cent of adults to achieve the basic skills
  of functional literacy and numeracy
• Exceeding 90 per cent of adults qualified to
  level 2
• 68 per cent qualified to level 3
• Increasing apprenticeship to 500,000 a year
• Over 40 per cent of of adults qualified to level 4

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In the South Education for All?
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International literacy

• Education for All - 6 goals adopted 2000 by 164
  countries in Senegal
• Some successes but in universal primary education
  (UPE)
• 100m children not enrolled in primary, 55 are
  girls
• Fees payable for primary in 89 countries (of 103)
• 2005 gender parity target missed 94/149
  countries
• Quality is too low
• Tension between UPE and adult literacy

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Adult and youth literacy

• Essential to achieving all other goals
• A right denied to 20 of the worlds population
• A societal and an individual issue
• Crucial for economic, social and political
  participation and development
• Key to enhancing human capabilities, with
  critical benefits

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The literacy challenge

• Particular effects
• Poor
• Women (88100) Men
• Marginalized groups
• Greater than we think
• Direct testing of literacy suggests that the
  global challenge is much greater than the
  conventional numbers, based on indirect
  assessments, would indicate, and that it affects
  both developed and developing countries.
• Literacy for Life EFA Global Monitoring Report
  2006

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GMR asks for

• Political leaders to commit to action
• Active government policy responsibility
• Clear national frameworks to manage
• Increased budgetary and aid allocations
• Better assessment and teaching basing teaching
  on learners demands motivation
• Curricula built on these demands, with clear
  learning objectives and learning materials
• Adequate pay, status, and provision
• Appropriate language policies.

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Whats the problem?

• Bilateral aid most goes to post-secondary level
• Few bilateral donors specifically mention
  literacy in their aid policies
• Poorest countries need predictable, long-term aid
• Dominance of Fast-Track Initiative (World Bank)
  a FTI for UPE but not a FTI for EFA!
• Multi-lateral aid has tough strings attached.

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Whats the problem?

• Bilateral aid most goes to post-secondary level
• Few bilateral donors specifically mention
  literacy in their aid policies
• Poorest countries need predictable, long-term aid
• Dominance of Fast-Track Initiative (World Bank)
  a FTI for UPE but not a FTI for EFA!
• Multi-lateral aid has tough strings attached.

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What is being done?

• Understanding literacy and literacies
• Getting better evidence
• Making societies more literate
• Better schooling
• Well organised campaigns
• Better policies
• National language policies
• Literate environments

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How might we do this together?

1. Include Family Literacy programmes for parents as
   part of basic education support
2. Support literacy and numeracy where we support
   enterprise development
3. Train health workers to incorporate literacy and
   numeracy into their programmes
4. Support and work with the British Council to
   develop exchanges for adult literacy workers
5. DFID to actively support inclusion of adult
   literacy in education sector plans submitted to
   FTI, and argue for the FTI to genuinely be a EFA
   FTI
6. Support governments to do new national surveys.

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Thanks!

• peter.lavender_at_niace.org.uk