THE EDUCATION PROFILE INEZ BAILEY, DIRECTOR OF THE NATIONAL ADULT LITERACY AGENCY:When she started work in adult literacy, Inez Bailey thought she would be dealing with a shrinking population – that's not how it has turned out, writes GRAINNE FALLER
IRISH EDUCATION was given a massive wake-up call late last year when the OECD/Pisa survey revealed that Ireland is failing to meet the most basic of educational standards. On reading levels, the survey found that Ireland had slipped from fifth place in 2000 to 17th place, the sharpest decline among 39 countries surveyed.
Shockingly, almost a quarter of 15 year-old boys failed to achieve the level of literacy required to simply function in society.
“Those 15 year-olds were surveyed in 2009, so most are probably not in education anymore,” says Inez Bailey, director of the National Adult Literacy Agency (Nala). “We’re all talking about how to improve standards for children coming up through the system but nobody has really asked what can be done for the people who have already been failed.”
At the helm of Nala since 1997, Bailey has overseen enormous change in the approach to adult literacy issues in Ireland. “I started working there as a researcher in 1995,” she says. “It was a very bleak time in terms of resources and even awareness of the problems.”
During her first year as director, the first (and to date, only) survey of adult literacy in OECD countries was published. It looked at how adults were able to function in society – reading timetables, medicine bottles and so-on – and the results were not good. A quarter of Irish adults were found to have trouble with even the simplest tasks. Suddenly, adult literacy, an issue that had been on the periphery of concern was launched onto the education agenda.
“At the time, I believed we were going on a particular trajectory,” says Bailey. “I thought that we would be dealing with people who had grown up without an opportunity to go to second level for example. I thought that we would be dealing with a shrinking population. Instead, the problem seemed to plateau.”
In such a print-centric society, being unable to read is an enormous disability. “Society is so much more demanding in that respect now,” says Bailey. “If you have a health condition, you’re handed a leaflet. If you’re applying for a loan or planning your retirement, you have to read the small print. By not ensuring that people have basic literacy and numeracy skills, you’re alienating them entirely.”
Nala is a charity that aims to enable people with literacy and numeracy difficulties to participate in society and access education opportunities. Many of its members are adult learners who have overcome their own literacy issues. Bailey herself became interested in the area while studying adult education in NUI Maynooth. “When I left college and started working, I became a voluntary literacy tutor and I did that for a couple of years before joining Nala,” she says.
As the OECD reports have shown, when Ireland had a homogenous population we held our own in international literacy surveys. Now that we, like other countries, are facing challenges of diversity within our school population, standards have plummeted. Even before the drop, Irish literacy standards had not improved for 30 years. Finally, people in the education world are realising that maintaining the status quo is not good enough.
Minister for Education Ruairí Quinn has made encouraging noises. “He gave a very passionate address at our annual general meeting about his commitment to literacy,” says Bailey. “If nothing else it was a huge boost to morale.”
The Draft National Plan to Improve Literacy and Numeracy in Schools, published late last year, made a number of suggestions. “The main weakness of the plan was that, apart from family literacy, adults were not mentioned. They need to be included if this issue is to be resolved,” Bailey says.
She stresses that society has a role to play. “We’re overly dependent on what schools do,” Bailey says. “Literacy starts from the time a child is born. It’s important to think about what happens at home and in the community environment.” It has been shown that improving the literacy standards of parents and other family members has a knock-on effect on children, often breaking a cycle of under-achievement.
The emphasis also has to move beyond educational attainment according to Bailey. “I have Leaving Cert Irish,” she says. “But if you asked me to read a document or fill out a form in Irish right now I couldn’t do it. Literacy is like a muscle, if you don’t exercise it you can lose the skill. It’s not just about achieving a standard. We need to give people an opportunity to maintain it.”
With this in mind, Nala has called for literacy skills to become integrated into publicly-funded training courses. “Often people have gaps in their knowledge,” says Bailey. “There needs to be a shift in the perspective of people delivering the courses. Just because someone has a Junior or Leaving Cert, it doesn’t mean that they definitely have a certain set of skills. They may not have used some of those skills for years.”
Some good news is that those with difficulties are becoming increasingly more engaged with opportunities in later life.
According to Nala’s own research, about 45,000 people are now attending literacy services. It’s a vast improvement on 1997 when the figure was a meagre 5,000, but it still means that less than 10 per cent of adults with literacy problems are engaging in education. Nonetheless, demand outstrips supply.
The methods employed in reaching people have been many and varied. Television programmes following adult learners have been broadcast annually on RTÉ for the past 10 years. The latest one, A Story with Me in it started on RTÉ1 last night.
Another initiative, writeon.ie provides an opportunity for adult learners to gain Fetac qualifications by means of online and telephone support. “It’s accessible, cost effective and people seem to really like it,” says Bailey.
With the Government’s plan for improving literacy and numeracy due to be published later this year, as well as a new international survey of adult literacy standards getting underway, the issue looks set to remain firmly on the agenda.
“There has been a lot of thinking about what constitutes a strong Ireland for the future,” Bailey says. “Our only real resource is our people. Everybody has to strengthen their skills. It can’t just be about graduates and the people at the top. We must include those with literacy difficulties. The State’s role must be to enable them to improve along with everyone else. Progress at that end of the spectrum is what lays the foundation for a truly smart economy.”
For more information on writeon.ie , tel: 1800 202065 or free text Learn to 50050
Susan Coyle's literacy journey
Susan Coyle is 24 years-old. She lives in Rathmines, Dublin, with her daughter, Nicole
“I NOTICED THE difference between me and the other kids in first class. I wasn’t keeping up with the rest of the class. Rather than talking about it I started to misbehave. I wanted to distract from the fact that I couldn’t do the work.
“I was diagnosed with dyslexia early on and I was sent to a special school from second class. Even at that stage I think it was too late. I just fell further and further behind. My grades weren’t high enough to get me into my local secondary school and the school that did accept me was just full of people who weren’t interested. I was slagged about my reading and spelling and I just ended up leaving in the middle of first year.
“It coloured everything. I was very shy and I was just really self-conscious about my writing and spelling. I did some hairdressing but once we started having to use the colour charts, which meant needing to read, I pulled back. I was afraid of the slagging. When my daughter Nicole was born I knew I’d have to do something, but it was when she started coming home from senior infants with proper homework that I fully realised I couldn’t go on. I mean I could never read with her. Id have to wait for someone to come home and do it.
“My sister works in adult education and back to education so she gave me some advice on what to do. I went and did the adult Junior Cert and right now I’m working with a literacy tutor once a week over the phone. I learn a lot better in an adult environment. People have time to talk to you and explain things.
“I used to be so down on myself. I’d always be saying, ‘I can’t, I can’t, I can’t’. I used to shout at Nicole when we’d be doing her homework, not because I was angry with her but because I was frustrated with myself. I dont do that anymore. I’m not as hard on myself. When I’m finished the course I’m doing now, I’d like to go to Liberties College. I’d do more literacy courses to start and then Id like to do a course, perhaps in business. I was surprised to find that so many of the really successful business people have literacy problems. If it didn’t stop them, there’s no reason why I can’t do well.”
Susan Coyle features in the RTÉ1 series A Story with Me In It. Mondays, 7.30pm
