[NLA] An Encounter With a Medium (longer)

[Thomas Sticht]

Recently I was interviewed by a representative of Radio France for an
article about adult functional illiteracy being prepared for a UNESCO
publication. In addition to a telephone conversation, I wrote answers to
several questions.  I thought  NLA members might find the questions of
some interest in indicating what a journalist thinks are pertinent
questions about adult functional illiteracy in industrialized nations. My
answers may also be of interest to some as they compare what I said to
what they would have said in answer to the questions.
Tom Sticht

Questions & Answers:

1. Have you found that authorities in the United States (and perhaps other
countries in the industrialized world that you have dealt with) are well
aware of the question of functional illiteracy?

Answer: In my judgment the governments of both Canada and the United
Kingdom are more aware of the issues surrounding adult functional literacy
than are those in the U. S. In the U.K following the release of the
International Adult Literacy Survey ( IALS) which indicated that millions
of UK adults were suffering from very low levels of literacy, the
government launched a large number of new initiatives in business,
universities, family literacy programs, community groups and other venues
to provide adult basic skills education. By contrast, in 1993 when  the
National Adult Literacy Survey results came out in the U.S., in which over
40 million or so adults were declared to be of very low literacy, the
federal government’s budget for adult literacy education actually went
down for the next three years. Most recently, President Bush asked for no
additional federal funding for adult literacy education in 2001 and again
in 2002. Fortunately, last year, in 2001, the U. S. senate added some $35
million to the federal budget for adult literacy but this year it looks
like funding will be at the same level as last year.

2. What factors do you bring to the fore in order to convince these
authorities that adult literacy education is important?  Economic factors?
 Social factors?

Answer: In trying (only partially successfully) to convince authorities to
invest more in adult literacy education I have drawn on my 24 years of
work on UNESCO’s International Literacy Prize Jury and my reading of
hundreds of candidatures for literacy prizes. Over and over again I have
found that when a nation invests in adult literacy education it can expect
to get what the Jury has referred to as "multiplier effects." For
instance, after adults are made literate, one often finds that they will
send their children to school more often and with greater enthusiasm.
Thus, an investment in the education of adults has improved the education
of children. Also, after becoming literate, adults frequently engage in
healthier lifestyles for themselves and their families thereby reducing
deaths and serious illnesses and saving costly medical expenses. In the U.
S. I have called this getting "double duty dollars," meaning when we spend
one dollar on adult literacy we may get multiple dollars of return in
improved health, children’s education, improved job productivity,
increased civic participation, and reduced recidivism in the criminal
justice system.

3. What kind of programs do you find the most effective in increasing
literacy?

Answer: Generally speaking, programs that integrate literacy education
with some other important content, such as parenting skills, job training,
health information, civic activity and so forth appear to hold adults
longer, have greater completion rates, and increase both basic skills and
important content knowledge to a greater extent than programs that are
aimed simply at increasing literacy in some non-specific manner.  I
emphasize, however,  that this is a generalization and I am not trying to
deny the importance of non-specific, general literacy programs. They can
be very effective for some adults. But on average, research that I have
conducted suggests that functional context education, that is, literacy
integrated with some other important content, seems to present the best
results overall.

4. Do you find the authorities willing to ‘spend’ what is necessary to
carry them out?  (Is there a sense of urgency?)

No. In all industrialized nations in which I have worked- Canada, New
Zealand, United Kingdom and the United States- adult literacy education is
a marginalized activity serving marginalized adults from lower working
class backgrounds, poor immigrants, unrecognized learning disabled, and in
general those socially excluded from the mainstream of society. Possibly
because those they serve are marginalized and politically impotent, the
educational services provided for them are poorly funded, sporatically
funded, and generally considered as "remedial," "second-chance" programs
that will go away once the primary and secondary schools are "fixed." Let
me speak about the U. S. for now. I have mentioned above the lack of
significant increases in funding for adult literacy education at the
federal level since President Bush took office. Worse yet, when one
compares spending for our primary and secondary schools, one finds about
$7500 per student enrollment. For Higher Education, that is, college and
university education, the expenditures come to about $16,000 per
enrollment. But for adult literacy education, combined  state and federal
funding is less than $500 per enrollment.

5.  What about IT illiteracy?  Is it measurable?  How much of a problem is
this becoming in highly industrialized countries?

Answer: IT literacy issues are of interest in industrialized nations
because it is thought that knowledge about IT is critical for work in the
global economy. Also, consistent with the idea of functional context
education I mentioned above, it turns out that an interest in learning
about computers is a good way to attract adults into basic skills programs
to improve their literacy and numeracy skills. IT can be assessed and used
as the basis for developing integrated basic skills and IT skills
programs. My sense is that while there is a modicum of concern for IT and
the disadvantaged, socially excluded populations, this is not considered
as a critical problem demanding major attention. There are community
learning centers funded in the U. S. where both children and adults can
learn computer skills. The UK, Canada, and New Zealand have similar and
additional activities going on in schools and workplaces, but I think that
the basic skills needed to read and compute and which are needed in using
IT are the more fundamental concern.



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