Bringing literacy to the people who most need it

Adults who want to avail of literacy schemes are being discouraged by intimidating factors such as form-filling, queuing and lack of transport. They are inhibited by other negative factors, such bad school memories, low expectations of what education can do for them, lack of information and fear of the traditional classroom setting.

According to research carried out over the past two years by the National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA), adults who have been labelled negatively in school have "a deeply rooted fear of putting themselves once again in a potentially humiliating situation."

The report, which was published last month, states that literacy services in Ireland "need to be in a position to provide flexible learning programmes, creche facilities, travel and subsistence money to create the widest possible access to adults with reading and writing difficulties." NALA is the co-ordinating, training and campaigning body for all involved in literacy.

The NALA-Integra project, which was part funded by the EU, studied the involvement and responses of learners and tutors from 16 adult literacy schemes around the country. The findings of the two NALA researchers, Inez Bailey and Ursula Coleman, highlight the low participation rate of the longterm unemployed with literacy difficulties in the local literacy service.

Unemployment levels are now at their lowest for over a decade. Bailey, newly appointed director of NALA, explains that, among those currently unable to find work, are adults with serious literacy difficulties. "However," she says, "few students returned to local literacy services in order to enhance their employment prospects."

On foot of these findings, NALA wants to encourage those in employment and those seeking employment to avail of its service, she says. Literacy tuition is available in over 120 VEC areas, as well as in community training workshops, Travellers' workshops, Youthreach programmes, Rehab workshops, the prison education service, centres for the unemployed and Vocational Training Opportunities Schemes (VTOS). Bailey points out that a quarter of Irish adults have only rudimentary literacy skills, according to the International Adult Literacy Survey in a survey of over 20 industrialised countries.

NALA's published report states: "In spite of the widespread acceptance of the role of education in tackling social and economic exclusion, there is a general lack of education offered to the less qualified in general and to people with reading and writing difficulties in particular."

Altogether 159 students from 16 schemes took part in the project. It was found that four students had never attended school, while almost half the sample had left before the age of 15. Over a quarter left between the ages of 15 and 16, while the remainder attended beyond the age of 16.

The majority of people interviewed had bad memories of school. They remembered being "shouted at", being "beaten something brutal", having fear instilled into them, being told that they were "stupid", "thick" or "not bright." They described large classes, overcrowded classrooms, severe corporal punishment when homework was either not done or was incorrect, being allowed to sit at the back of the class knitting or sewing while other children were doing written work - or being sent out to clean the toilets. Almost half of the research participants knew by the age of 13 that they had difficulties with reading and writing that would affect them in their everyday lives.

NALA's findings "suggest that a considerable number of adult learners with basic education needs are deterred by the formal nature of some of the education provision available." They are wary of school buildings, of formal enrolment procedures which involve queuing and form-filling, of the traditional classroom setting, of the traditional teacher-student relationship, of being treated like children, of being asked to read aloud, of being labelled, of being made to feel silly or stupid in a group, or of being expected to learn too much too quickly.

It's hoped that the report will help those involved in a range of State and non-State literacy schemes in the course of their ongoing recruitment, such as those working in FAS, local partnerships and the Department of Social, Community and Family Affairs. The report also states that non-formal adult basic education is having a profoundly positive outcome on those who would have been regarded as traditional non-participants.

The report concludes that the success of the non-formal approach to literacy tuition in Ireland should be both recognised and properly resourced. The informal methodology used in literacy tuition was invaluable in helping many students who had a poor experience of formal education. There is a danger, Bailey cautions, that efforts to harmonise basic education services with mainstream education could result in abandoning the non-formal methodology and ethos.