06 February 2009
By Mark Smulian
A £5bn literacy and numeracy programme has left unacceptable numbers of people who cannot read, write or count adequately, a parliamentary report has found.
Skills for life was published on January 29 by the Public Accounts Committee. It said the Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills was 'attempting to tackle the legacy of decades of schooling which did not equip enough young people with basic skills' and had left the country with levels of illiteracy and innumeracy three times higher than those in Scandinavia.
Progress had been particularly limited in numeracy, where there was a lack of available teachers.
The committee urged the department to work across government so that people with skill gaps who came into contact with any public body could be referred for training.
In 2006/07, some 51,000 pupils in England – around 8% of the total – left school without a GCSE pass in mathematics and 39,000 without the equivalent in English. Attainment was worst in the Northeast and best in the Southeast.
Achievement of the current target – functional literacy and numeracy for 95% of the population by 2020 – would still put England only in the top 25% of international performance.
PAC chair Edward Leigh said: 'This is a dismal picture, both for the many who face diminished prospects in what they can achieve in life and for the competitiveness of our country in the world economy.'
Further education minister Sion Simon said: 'No government has done more to tackle improving the nation's literacy and numeracy skills, despite the scale of the challenge. We have revolutionised the way in which basic skills are dealt with.'
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