Adult Illiteracy

LynnieLeigh · 2 Mar 2006 at 16:05

Here is a table showing illiteracy figures, comparing 1970 to 2000. (see table 2 on website). You can see there has been a drop but there is still a large number of people

http://gsociology.icaap.org/report/socsum.html

Jumpingmedic · 2 Mar 2006 at 16:10

I'm quite surprised the numbers are so high. I guess it's easy to take reading and writing for granted. I don't remember ever learning to read or write so I can't really say how difficult it was for me. Of course I was only 4-5 so I did whatever my parents told me to without question.

If the parents and schools fail to teach them these skills during that stage in their life I can imagine it becomes quite difficult for the child or adult if it gets that far to learn, in the same way I had trouble learning French for GCSE, heh.

Mr Man · 2 Mar 2006 at 16:14

But like lynnieleigh said, it must be very hard for schools that have to teach children who's reading age doesnt match their chronological age.

If you consider a class of 30 children and maybe a small handful are behind it must be difficult to try and work with those as well as the rest of the class, I certainly do not envy teachers!!

Norbert666 · 2 Mar 2006 at 16:15

Oh that reminds me, the other definition of adult illiteracy is that they have a reading ability of lower than an "average" 11 year old.

LynnieLeigh · 2 Mar 2006 at 16:27

Mr Man said:
But like lynnieleigh said, it must be very hard for schools that have to teach children who's reading age doesnt match their chronological age.

If you consider a class of 30 children and maybe a small handful are behind it must be difficult to try and work with those as well as the rest of the class, I certainly do not envy teachers!!

Yep it can be difficult! We run booster classes for English in Year 7 &8 and year 9 are now in the process of having booster classes to try and help with their English and Maths for SATS exams. IMO it would be better if they got to secondary school and had already had the booster classes.

iv-tecman · 2 Mar 2006 at 16:28

Mr Man said:
But like lynnieleigh said, it must be very hard for schools that have to teach children who's reading age doesnt match their chronological age.

If you consider a class of 30 children and maybe a small handful are behind it must be difficult to try and work with those as well as the rest of the class, I certainly do not envy teachers!!

Agreed. That is what happened to me. But my dear old mum, bless her noticed the problem and helped as much as she could. Gave me lots to read, writing paper, pens and basically helped me to keep up, as I lagged at school. I really struggled, and found it a challenge. I'm not simple, but it just took a while to understand, whereas kids around me were learning faster. So, by using free time at home, I tried to keep up, instead of going out to play all the time. OK, sometimes I resented it, but most of the time I knew I needed to know how to read and write. I’d be lost without these skills today. I do take it for granted, but I also understand how hard it can be to grasp the simple basics of reading.

But some kids just do not want to know, their minds are different. they disrupt, are loud and do not sit down for more then 5 mins. Some call it ADD, and in some cases this is true, but many kids nowadays think it's more fun to snort cocaine.

Think I'm joking, watched the news lately. Shocking.

William · 2 Mar 2006 at 16:35

I don't believe that more than 25% of the UK population is next to illiterate.

Mr Man · 2 Mar 2006 at 16:40

Nor did I, but reading this http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/Database/stats/keystatsadult.html gave some interesting facts.

nO}{8 · 2 Mar 2006 at 16:54

did you know that south korea has one of the highest literacy rates in the developed world? (99%)

Tru · 2 Mar 2006 at 16:59

nO}{8 said:
did you know that south korea has one of the highest literacy rates in the developed world? (99%)

Squark · 2 Mar 2006 at 17:36

Could that be deemed racist? ^

I can hear the PC brigade amassing already

basmic · 2 Mar 2006 at 17:43

Squark said:
Could that be deemed racist? ^

I can hear the PC brigade amassing already

Only if it's a cartoon of a Muslim performing their daily duties.

Psyk · 2 Mar 2006 at 17:58

1.6 million British adults have never even heard of the internet.

How is that possible? They must have never listened to the radio or watched TV or read any newspapers at all.