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A new perspective on education for all

Few industrialized countries saw any direct implication for their own full-enrolment education systems when the Education for All movement was launched in 1990. But this outlook may be changing.

A recent survey published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), in co-operation with UNESCO and other partners, revealed that over 20 per cent of adults in some of the world's richest countries have low literacy and numeracy skills. Many have difficulties understanding simple instructions for medical treatment, reading a bus timetable or carrying out day-to-day mathematical calculations. As a result of the survey's findings, a whole series of meetings and conferences is being organized in industrialized countries.
"The survey provided evidence of the scope of the problem and a sense of urgency for education ministers to consider lifelong learning as a way to address it," says Albert Tuijnman of OECD's Education and Training Division.


A teenager from Sarajevo studying. The idea of lifelong education
is gaining ground in many industrialized countries where between 10 and 20 per cent
of adults have difficulty with basic reading and writing skills. (UNICEF/Senad Gubelic)

The 1990 International Literacy Year helped draw attention to the issue in industrialized countries. The crux of the problem for the richer part of the world is that rapidly changing economies require higher levels of functional literacy for people to adapt and participate fully in society. In Central and Eastern Europe, change towards a market economy put new demands on people: "Adults in the former Eastern bloc have increasing difficulties solving daily problems as the demands for the use of literacy become more complex," according to Paul Bélanger, director of the UNESCO Institute for Education in Hamburg.

Holding up a Mirror

The survey, which set out to measure five degrees of literacy from the lowest to the highest, measured the extent to which people could make use of written materials demanding various levels of reading, analytical and mathematical skills. Entitled Literacy, Economy and Society: Results of the first International Adult Literacy Survey (1995), it was carried out in Canada, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States. It paints the most detailed picture ever available of the conditions of adult literacy in Europe and North America. Poland ranks at the bottom, with 42 per cent of adults having reading and numeracy difficulties. The corresponding figures are 20.7 per cent for the United States, 16.6 per cent for Canada, 14.4 per cent for Germany, 10.5 per cent for the Netherlands, and 7.5 per cent for Sweden.

"In Europe, there was a sense of disbelief. It was the first time a mirror had been held up like this. Eventually, the realization will come that it is true," said Tuijnman.

Canada and the United States, which have relatively high numbers of people at the lowest literacy level, had made such measurements before and are already more oriented towards intervention. Now, twelve other OECD countries have signed up for a second round of the same survey to complete the picture.

Defining the problem

The scale of the problem means that it is no longer possible to look on illiteracy as a disease afflicting an unfortunate few. Levels of literacy are linked to a number of factors, the foremost being basic schooling. However, a sizeable proportion of adults in industrialized countries have poor literacy skills that do not correspond to the number of years of schooling. The survey also showed that literacy skills can be lost if they are not called upon in the workplace and more generally in a literate cultural environment. Conversely, these skills continue to develop after formal education ends.

"We are all convinced of the crucial importance of learning throughout life for enriching people's lives, fostering economic growth and maintaining social cohesion...now we need to find more effective ways of offering every one of our citizens such an opportunity," declared Simon Crean, Australian minister for employment, education and training at an OECD ministerial meeting last January. The ministers present decided to focus more on quality "since a sizeable minority of young people still leave school without adequate qualifications, knowledge or skills."

The search for answers

Introducing higher standards of literacy in the first years of school is one way of raising the general literacy level of a population. The German school system seems to produce comparatively higher levels of literacy in fewer years of schooling. Europe's young adults now have better literacy skills than previous generations, probably due to wider-spread secondary and post-secondary education.

Early childhood education plays a crucial role in reducing educational disadvantage. Special projects like "Galaxy Classroom" in the United States, whose television programmes reach schools in poor neighbourhoods of twenty states, encourage a new enthusiasm for learning among disadvantaged pupils.

Many adults with low literacy levels develop coping mechanisms, which mean they are unaware that they even have a problem. Yet low levels of literacy are clearly linked to employment prospects. According to the report, those who have poor reading and writing skills are four to twelve times more exposed to unemployment than the others. Literacy is demand-driven and new strategies have to be developed to stimulate literacy skills in the workplace and give adult education to those who most need it.
"The workplace has a prime responsibility for maintaining and developing skills and literacy ties in directly with the social inclusion and social exclusion of people in jobs, in community life, in active citizenship," noted Tuijnman. The message about literacy and lifelong learning seems to have been heard. "The target of education for all may be ambitious, but we cannot afford not to work towards it," said Crean.