By Richard Johnstone | 8 September 2014
The government must launch a national campaign to improve adult literacy and numeracy, which are at ‘alarmingly low’ levels and undermining the UK’s economic performance, MPs said today.
To coincide with International Literacy Day, the Business, Innovation and Skills select committee has published a report examining the impact of illiteracy and innumeracy in England.
Today’s Adult Literacy and Numeracy report highlighted Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development figures showing England and Northern Ireland ranked 22 out of 24 countries assessed for literacy, and 21 for numeracy.
A joined-up approach was needed across Whitehall to tackle the problem, with a particular focus on improving the literacy and numeracy of unemployed people, MPs said.
Although the government has pledged free training and tuition for any adult who wants to study English and maths up to and including GCSE level, those with the most limited skills were not aware of the support available.
Committee chair Adrian Bailey said this showed the need for coordinated action.
‘Problems with reading, writing and maths have a huge impact on people’s daily lives, including getting and keeping a job, understanding bills, forms and documents, and guiding children through education. It can affect adults in many walks of life, but it also undermines the economic performance of our country,’ he said.
‘There is no silver bullet to tackling the problem of low levels of adult literacy and numeracy but a national campaign will help to get the message out to those who are most in need of support.
Many departments have adult literacy and numeracy included in their remits but the committee said closer collaboration was needed.
In particular, MPs called for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills to work more closely with the Department for Work and Pensions and Jobcentre Plus network to ensure there is consistent and thorough assessment of skills at the earliest possible stage of unemployment benefit claims.
Bailey said these changes could ‘make a real difference to people’s lives and our economy’s productivity’.
