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Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 5 Nov 2002

Vol. 556 No. 3

Written Answers. - Literacy Levels.

Brian O'Shea

Ceist:

404 Mr. O'Shea asked the Minister for Education and Science the most recent figures in relation to illiteracy and to functional illiteracy; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [20418/02]

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.

A national assessment of English reading, with fifth class pupils, was carried out in May 1998. A sample of about 4,000 pupils in 150 schools was chosen so that findings could be used to make judgments about the reading achievements of fifth class pupils in Irish education. Comparisons were made with data obtained in a number of previous national assessments.

Based on the pupils' performance on a selection of items used in the reading tests, it was estimated from the 1993 survey that 6.5% to 9.5% of Irish 11 year old pupils had serious literacy difficulties. No change was found in the reading achievement levels of the lowest achieving pupils in the 1993 and the 1998 surveys. Thus, it can be inferred that in the region of 6.5% to 9.5% of 11 year old pupils in primary schools have serious literacy difficulties.

The results of the OECD PISA survey were published in December 2001. This was a survey of literacy, maths and science attainment levels of 15 year olds across 32 countries. While the maths and science results showed Ireland performing at about the OECD mean in science and maths, the results for reading literacy were particularly good, with Ireland ranked fifth out of all countries surveyed. Smaller proportions of Irish students achieved scores at the lowest levels of reading proficiency and larger proportions achieved scores at the highest levels, compared with the OECD country average proportions. Only 11% of students were found to be performing at or below the bottom literacy level level one or below, compared with an OECD country average of more than 17%.

The OECD international adult literacy survey was carried out in 1995 and published in 1997. This survey found that within the general population aged 16 to 64 years, some 500,000 adults or 25% scored at the bottom literacy level level one but that only 16 to 17% of those under 25 years old were performing at this level. Comparing these figures with the results of the more recent PISA survey, in which 11% of students were found to be at level one or below, it appears that the most recent measures of literacy achievement indicate a healthy upward trend in literacy levels, particularly among adolescents and young adults.

Improving literacy standards among all sectors of the population is and will continue to be a central policy focus of my Department. A national adult literacy strategy was identified as the top priority in adult education in the White Paper on Adult Education, Learning for Life, published in 2000. Investment in the area has increased 16 fold since the OECD international adult literacy survey report was published, from just more than €1 million in 1997 to €16.46 million in the current year.

Since the adult literacy budget was increased, participation in VEC literacy schemes has increased from 5,000 in 1997 to 22,733. In addition to this, two TV literacy tuition pro grammes shown over the last two years attracted average weekly audiences of 155,000 to 235,000 people per week in 2000 and 2001 respectively.
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