(The Nationalist, c. November 2001)
One in five Irish adults is functionally illiterate. One in four, given money to buy a simple list of shopping, could not work out how much change they should receive.
What does it mean to be “functionally illiterate”? It is not the same as absolute illiteracy, where a person just simply cannot read or write. A functionally illiterate person may be able to read and write, but with such difficulty that, for practical day-to-day purposes, they find it so hard that they just don’t do it. It may mean being unable, for example, to read and understand matters such as the label on a medicine bottle, a bus, train or airline timetable, or being unable to find a number in the phone book or an entry in the Yellow Pages. Not being able to do those things is, at the least, a disadvantage, and, in the case of the medicine label, potentially serious.
The situation in Northern Ireland is similar to the Republic. A recent study by Professor Loreto Todd of the University of Ulster, found that up to 15% of young people between 15 and 21 years of age are functionally illiterate. By contrast, school inspectors in 1912 gave a figure of 2%. Just think of it: standards of literacy were higher ninety years ago than they are now, despite the priority we give to universal free education, and the wide availability of reading material of all kinds. In Northern Ireland, there are 250,000 people between the ages of 16 and 64 who have serious problems with basic literacy and numeracy. How are they able to cope? Do they cope? Are they quietly side-lining themselves out of embarrassment at not having these basic skills?
The problem is there. Moaning and hand-wringing about it won’t make things better.
What can be done? One part of the answer is to start with the children. An aspect of their education that needs developing is the involvement of parents in teaching them. Most parents leave it to the school. But the evidence suggests that that isn’t enough. Parents need to get involved actively at a hands-on level in teaching their children.
If this is done it will have a direct and beneficial effect on the child’s progress at school. There will also be indirect benefits. Parents will themselves learn things that are new – you learn by teaching. They will also learn about their children, about themselves and about how to relate to each other. It’s a win-win situation.