Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Wednesday, 28 Jun 2000

Vol. 522 No. 3

Written Answers. - Literacy Levels.

Austin Deasy

Ceist:

228 Mr. Deasy asked the Minister for Education and Science his views on whether the incidence of illiteracy has increased over the last ten to 20 years; if there are any studies to confirm or contradict this; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18579/00]

Minister for Education and Science (Dr. Woods):

Traditional definitions of illiteracy, as an absolute, are generally not found useful by researchers. Most recently, researchers have adopted various measures of functional literacy to determine the number of people with serious literacy problems. My Department does not have evidence to suggest that the number of those with serious literacy difficulties has increased over the last ten to 20 years.

In 1990-91 the International Association for the Evaluation of Educational Achievement conducted a reading literacy study in 32 educational systems throughout the world. Irish nine year olds and 14 year olds participated in the study. Both Irish populations scored just above their respective international averages. Further analysis of the data from this study by the Educational Research Centre – ERC – Drumcondra, indicated that between 6.5% to 8.5% of Irish 14 year olds had serious literacy difficulties.

National surveys of reading in primary schools were carried out in 1972, 1980, 1988, 1993 and 1998 by Department of Education and Science inspectors in co-operation with the ERC. Significant progress in pupils reading achievement was recorded between 1972 and 1980. The most recent survey of reading achievement of pupils in fifth class in 1998 indicated that there has been no significant change in reading standards over the past 20 years.

There is an estimate from the 1993 survey that between 6.5% to 9.5% of Irish 11 year old pupils have serious literacy difficulties.

In relation to adults, the 1997 Report of the OECD International Adult Literacy Survey showed that some 25% of Irish adults scored at the bottom literacy level, performing at best tasks which required the reader to locate a simple piece of information in a text, with no distracting information. The survey clearly showed lower levels of literacy among the older age groups, with, for instance, 17% of adults in the 16-25 age group scoring at the bottom literacy level on the document scale compared to 44.1% at this level among adults aged 56 to 65, suggesting that literacy levels have improved in line with general increases in educational attainment levels. While additional countries have participated in the OECD survey in more recent years, a follow up study has not been undertaken.