Functional literacy describes the skills needed for everyday life in our complex society. Improving it for adults may be Australia’s biggest challenge.

Australians spend more money per capita on education than most comparable nations. We should have high levels of literacy – but we don’t.

NAPLAN results indicate one in three primary and secondary students do not meet basic national standards in reading and writing. The picture is likely worse for adults.

The most recent data we have is the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s 2013 survey assessing adult competencies. It found 44% of Australian adults have literacy skills below the “necessary proficiency level for navigating modern work and life”. In other words, they were functionally illiterate.

If we assume 44% Australians adults are still functionally illiterate, this means around 9.4 million people lack the skills needed to meet “the demands of everyday life and work in a complex, advanced society”. This is a national disgrace for such a wealthy country.

  • arbilp3@aussie.zoneOPEnglish
    1·
    6 days ago

    People who are functionally illiterate can be taken advantage of more easily (as if it wasn’t already bad enough for everyone with the amount of scamming that takes place in our society). People who can’t read can still function in society but their choices are limited and their ability to earn a decent income is reduced in general. For some, it might mean not being able to get stable employment at all. I imagine that their independence is also affected because they have to depend on others to read official communications and so on which wouldn’t help their self-esteem. For us to allow young people to leave school without at least basic literacy and numeracy is terrible imo.