September complete mag

International
Literacy Day
If you are reading this, you are one of the lucky ones, because
it means you have a good level of literacy which unlocks
many aspects of life that you probably take for granted, such
as being able to decipher a menu, read a road sign or get the
news headlines from a paper or magazine.
Literacy is the ability to read, write,
speak and listen in a way that lets us
communicate effectively and make sense
of the world. Unfortunately, 16.4% of
adults in England can be described as
having ‘very poor literacy skills’, which
equates to about 7.1 million people who
may find themselves locked out of the job
market, struggling to claim benefits they
are entitled to, and if they are a parent,
they will be unable to effectively support
their children’s learning. Lacking these vital
literacy skills holds people back at every
stage of life.
But having poor literacy can also affect life
expectancy. A report from 2018 found that:
“A boy born in Stockton Town Centre
(which has some of the most serious
literacy challenges in the country) has a life
expectancy 26.1 years shorter than a boy
born in North Oxford (which has some of
the fewest literacy challenges)”.
Figures related to girls showed a 20-year
difference. Even people within 2 miles of
each other showed a significant reduction
in life expectancy related to differing
literacy levels - 11.6 years for boys and 9.4
years for girls.
Reports from KPMG suggest that low
levels of literacy can also undermine the
UK’s economic competitiveness, costing
the taxpayer approximately £2.5 billion
each year. With a third of businesses
complaining about the literacy skills of
young people entering the work place,
and another third organising remedial
training for new recruits to increase their
literacy and communication, successive
governments inevitably ask what can be
done to improve the situation?
It’s not just the UK though – literacy levels
vary across the world although progress is
being made generally. From 1985 to 2018,
the number of illiterate youths (ages 15
to 24) decreased from 177 million to 100
million. But that’s still a significant amount
of people. There are regional differences
and literacy rates are higher among males
than females with women accounting for
59% of the illiterate youth population.
Interestingly though, in developed
countries such as the UK, boys perform
less well than girls by an average of nine
months of schooling.
So literacy matters, which is why the
United Nations Educational, Scientific
and Cultural Organization, UNESCO, have
been promoting the 8th of September
each year as International Literacy Day
(ILD) since 1966. The day is now part of
the UN’s sustainable development goals
programme, adopted in 2015, which aims
to raise global awareness of child and
adult literacy issues, and highlight the
changes and improvements being made
in literacy worldwide.
In the UK, literacy skills are embedded
into the curriculums followed by England,
Scotland, Northern Ireland and Wales,
although their means of delivering and
testing these skills vary since education
is one of the devolved powers - meaning
each country is responsible for its
own educational policies, laws and
assessments.
• In England for example, the Early
Years Foundation Stage (EYFS)
framework identifies the standards
that all providers must meet
across 7 key areas of learning
and development, which include
standards for reading and writing
(literacy). In 2018, 77% of five-yearolds
met the minimum standard for
reading, 74% for writing, 86% for
speaking and 86% for listening.
• In the same year, 64% of students
achieved a good grade in their English
language GCSE or equivalent (grades
A*-C or 9-4)
And whilst these figures are broadly in
line with other developed nations, there is
clearly still room from improvement. Due
to lockdown, almost all our young people
have already missed out on months of
their education, from early years to key
stage 5, so it is more important than ever
that we start to help our children catch up.
This year, the focus on ILD will be on
“literacy teaching and learning in the
Covid-19 crisis and beyond” with a further
emphasis on the role of educators and
changing pedagogies to highlight the need
for greater support for lifelong literacy
learning. If 64% of GCSE students passed
their English language paper in 2018, that
leaves 36% who did not ‘make the grade’
for whatever reason, leaving them at a
serious disadvantage at the tender age of
just 16!
At the same time, it must not be forgotten
that we live in a digital age, and our
recent home-schooling experiences have
perhaps made each one of us appreciate
our nursery and teaching professionals a
little more. Lockdown saw a burgeoning
of online learning platforms and a myriad
of virtual lessons, but if you can’t read a
sentence, what hope is there of reading or
accessing material online?
The problem is a complex one and more
research needs to be done to weigh up the
benefits of technology as a learning tool
versus concerns about language gaps,
mental health and safeguarding associated
with digital platforms.
But what can you do in your settings to
encourage literacy, digitally or not? The
answers are remarkably simple for early
years. You will have your own ways of
introducing literacy into your curriculum, but
perhaps the best thing you can do at this
time is to encourage parents to take up the
baton and really set their child on the road
to success at home.
Small-talk.org.uk is a pilot project from the
National Literacy Trust and the DfE to help
parents encourage literacy at home. It has
advice, games, songs and stories online to
help parents and nursery professionals too.
Both these websites are full of resources
which are all free to download. They don’t
need lots of specialist equipment or fancy
programs since their advice is very simple:
chat, play and read with children as much
as possible.
And sometimes the best advice is the
simplest. We have all gone through a
very difficult time in the last 6 months, and
who knows what the future will bring? So
perhaps, for the time being, the advice
should be as simple and easy to manage
as possible – chat, play and read – seems
like something that we, as professionals,
can all do every day, to improve the
prospects for our children.
References
• https://literacytrust.org.uk/researchservices/research-reports/literacy-andlife-expectancy/
• https://data.unicef.org/topic/
education/literacy/
• https://literacytrust.org.uk/information/
what-is-literacy/how-does-englandsliteracy-compare-other-countries/
28 September 2020 | parenta.com
parenta.com | September 2020 29