Dáil Éireann Debate, Tuesday - 8 February 2022
65. Deputy Michael Moynihan asked the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science the progress made under the Adult Literacy for Life ten-year adult literacy strategy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6381/22]
View answerThe Adult Literacy for Life (ALL) Strategy sets out a cross-government, cross-economy and cross-society approach to achieve the vision of an Ireland where every adult has the necessary literacy, numeracy and digital literacy to engage in society and realise their potential.
During development and going forward, the ALL strategy closely references complementary initiatives across relevant national strategies and policies. For example, we have created synergies between the ALL Strategy and the recently published National Digital Strategy in the area of meeting basic digital skills needs. This approach will enhance impact and help ensure that Government departments, communities, education practitioners and all involved in adult literacy work effectively together.
A number of important commitments under the Strategy have already been delivered, including the establishment of a one-stop-shop, adultliteracy.ie, which provides over 210 local contacts points and access to a national Freephone for anyone who wishes to avail of one of the 100,000 places currently available through further education and training providers across the country.
Over the last few months, I also welcomed the publication of a suite of resources addressing literacy, numeracy, and language assessment, as well as inclusion, in the Adult Literacy service which aim to ensure the continued improvement of this service for the learners. These include guidelines in relation to good practice in integrated and standalone numeracy provision at Levels 1-3; the inclusion of learners with an intellectual disability in the Adult Literacy service, initial and ongoing assessment for migrant learners in FET and assessing literacy and numeracy at Levels 4-6 in the ETBs.
In 2022, we plan to build on and accelerate the implementation of the Strategy. As set out in the Strategy, a cross government and stakeholder structure, the ALL Strategy Implementation Group, has been established to enable the collaboration and partnership needed to drive the implementation of the Strategy and progress literacy reforms. I chaired the first meeting of the group, which took place on Thursday 13th January 2022, and it is expected to meet on a quarterly basis.
This year €3 million will be allocated for the implementation of the ALL Strategy in Budget 2022 which will enable the establishment of partnership structures to initiate focused coordination supports which are critical to delivering on the targets set for adult literacy, numeracy and digital literacy. This will include the recruitment of regional literacy co-ordinators, a national programme office, the establishment of a new collaboration and innovation fund and the continued roll out of the Adult Literacy Awareness campaign.
The ALL Strategy will build on the abundance of very impressive work going on nationwide in relation to literacy supports, and aims to increase awareness about these supports, make these supports more accessible, and encourage people to access that support and assistance.
