At a loss
Functional illiteracy is often connected with deprived and rural areas, working class background, unemployment, and bad schooling. Comparisons with other countries do not reveal why England has such a high rate.
As to the deprived and rural areas: Switzerland is neither very rural nor poor but it has a similar high rate of functional illiteracy. In the United States nearly 25 per cent of high school seniors whose parents are college-educated have woeful reading skills. Unemployment is higher in Germany, France, Italy or Spain but they do better regarding functional illiteracy.
That leaves the schooling. As all countries practise different education systems and methods, it is not possible to compare these and draw conclusions. But bad schooling cannot be pinpointed to the rates of foreigners for example since the very literate Sweden numbers over 20 per cent foreigners whereas Great Britain has only seven per cent.
You have to lose before you can win
England has one of the highest rates of functionally illiterate adults among industrialized nations and nobody can explain why.
1.1 million adults in England have the literacy level of a 5- to 7-year-old which means it is “likely they will struggle with many everyday tasks related to reading”, says Kirstie Atkin, press officer at the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (Dius). She further confirms that there are 5.2 million adults whose literacy level is below Level 1 which is the reading age of an 11-year-old, and another 26.7 million would not be able to pass an English GCSE.
There are more shocking figures: with an illiteracy rate of 22 per cent England ranks very high among western nations, only beaten by Poland and Ireland .
Neither the responsible Dius nor any of the approached other organisations involved in adult literacy issues are able or willing to explain why. Even experts are at a loss: “I have no explanation why as a nation we are one of the worst”, says Lesley Jordan who teaches functional illiterates. Dorset Councillor David Crowhurst admits: “It doesn’t make sense to me because there has been enormous investment in education generally.”
They all refer to the Moser Report about standards of adult literacy and numeracy in the UK which was commissioned by the government in 1998 and highlighted an urgent need to tackle functional illiteracy. The report states that “the situation has come about from home circumstances and, above all, from poor schooling”. Surveys have revealed common patterns to functional illiterates: they come from large families lacking even the most basic home literacy provision and struggling with economic and health problems; they were often absent from school or dropped out of school early.
The biggest challenge the government and providers have faced and still face is motivating people to seek help. Only a fraction of functional illiterates attend courses. “Getting people interested is our biggest task. It’s not something you can force on people. There is a difference between you must and you may,” says Cllr Crowhurst. The Moser Report emphasises that many have to be made aware of their problem first, and they have to be convinced they could only win if they tackle it.
"Cinderella service"
It seems as if the schools are on the losing side. For years millions of children have left school with poor basic skills the report states. It gives credit to the 'National Strategy for Literacy', introduced in schools in 1998, but learning the latest Ofsted news that one in five 11-year-olds cannot read properly, that strategy must be questioned.
All the more as the problem of functional illiteracy was acknowledged in the 1970's and the UK was one of the first to start campaigning but obviously without the hoped-for results. The Moser Report confirms that “all too little is done, the teaching of basic skills to adults is often marginalised, remaining something of a Cinderella service”.
Functional illiteracy remained a taboo topic – until England, together with the world, became aware that the IT civilisation of the 21st century would boost reading skills. And until the Dius discovered that it costs the country £10 billion a year. Therefore the ‘Skills for Life Strategy’ was launched in 2001 with the goal that by 2020 no less than 95 per cent of all adults should be having functional literacy skills.
