CCL Home > Reports & Data > Lessons in Learning
Full article
Find more...
CCL news in your inbox: The Learning Link
The number of Canadian adults with low-level literacy skills remains too high.
According to the recent Adult Literacy and Life Skills (ALL) survey completed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development and Statistics Canada, forty-two percent of adult Canadians have literacy skills below the level necessary to succeed in today's society and economy.
Equally troubling, however, is the lack of substantial progress in adult literacy since the last such survey over a decade ago, despite the significant resources that all levels of government have committed to improving literacy. Ongoing rhetoric about the importance of continuous learning, lifelong learning, life-wide learning, up scaling, workplace training and essential skills from both business and government created an expectation that adult literacy would have risen significantly in the past decade. Yet it hasn't. The percent of Canadians at each prose skill level in 2003 is virtually no different than it was in 1994.
Source: Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey, 2003
Two questions arise from this study: Low scores – so what? And second, given that outcomes have not improved over the past decade, what NEW steps can we take to improve adult literacy over the next 10 years?
Is there a need to be overly concerned about low literacy rates? A number of people argue no.
Visual and auditory communication skills often seem to be overtaking simple prose in our age of information technology. Furthermore, Canada's GDP per capita continues to be competitive with that in other developed countries – doesn't that mean that we already have the skilled human resources we need? Finally, won't this "deficit" eventually self-correct through the progressive enhancement of literacy among aboriginal Canadians and among immigrants and their children, together with increased participation in post-secondary education?
A closer look at the impact of low prose literacy provides us with little reason to underestimate its importance.
Low literacy drives an inexorable logic: The ALL survey shows that the stronger the education foundation, the higher both the initial and the enduring level of literacy. For example, early school leavers already exhibit scores, as they enter the workforce, that put them below level 3 on the ALL, the level considered as minimal for addressing the demands of the information economy. For more information, see a full description of the levels.
Source: Adult Literacy and Life-Skills Survey, 2003
The logic continues. People with low levels of literacy have more difficulty finding a job. Those who do find employment are much more likely to earn a lower income and are thus less likely to receive employer-funded training that would enhance their skill setsi. (OECD, 2005)
Economics and beyond: Literacy and numeracy are associated with individual and societal success in many areasii. Statistics Canada estimates that a 1 percent increase in average literacy and numeracy skills would permanently raise GDP per capita by 1.5 percentiii. High literacy is also related to a more inclusive society, greater workplace mobility and flexibility, safer communities, higher life expectancy, and enhanced civic participation and citizen engagementiv.
So what? The data is clear: low adult literacy has significant repercussions for individuals, for the economy, and for society.
Governments have made substantial investments over the past decade, but these initiatives have not led to improved outcomes between 1994 and 2004.
In light of the aging populations in all developed countries, the ability to retain higher literacy skills will confer an enormous competitive advantage. In Norway, even adults without post-secondary education retain literacy skills until they are approximately 50 years old. In Canada the age is 40.
Many countries have higher levels of employer-sponsored education and training than Canada. According to Education at a Glance 2005, the latest OECD annual education report, 40 percent of Swedes, 39 percent of Danes, 37 percent of Americans and 36 percent of Finns undertook non-formal, job-related continuous education and training, compared with 25 percent of Canadians.v The recent ALL study reported that 55 percent of Norwegians who participated in adult education and training received financial support from their employers, compared with 40 percent in Canada.vi Indeed the low level of employer-sponsored education and training is reflected in our general low participation in adult education and training.vii
As discussed earlier, the ALL study demonstrates that low levels of literacy lead to a vicious circle: the workers most in need of upgraded literacy skills are the least likely to be offered training at workviii. The less employees use reading, writing and numeracy skills at work, the less likely they are to be involved in employer-supported education and training. Thus, their literacy and numeracy skills continue to decline, making it ever more difficult to move forward.
Canadian levels of adult literacy are low relative to comparable countries, are not improving over time, have negative consequences for individuals and society, and are unlikely to be remedied by current approaches. What lessons or conclusions may we draw that might have implications for policy and practice in Canada?
A number of positive initiatives are already under way to address the challenge of adult literacy in Canada.
These efforts, among many others, will need to progress quickly from acknowledgement of our shortcomings and their consequences to determining how to move forward. This can be achieved both through learning from the experience of successful models and practices at home and abroad and by better coordination of Canadian initiatives in adult learning.
Lessons in Learning will continue to examine the challenge of adult literacy in future issues, including work-related training, and how to enhance the capacity of communities to improve adult literacy.