I have often quoted a government report from the late 1990s saying that one out of five adults in Britain is 'functionally illiterate'. Now comes a report that provides further confirming evidence of this appalling state of affairs.
It is a government-funded report by Sheffield University:
The latest evidence on reading shows 17 per cent of 16- to 19-year-olds are functionally illiterate and Professor Brooks said this had also been the case for at least two decades.“People at this level can handle only simple tests and straightforward questions on them where no distracting information is adjacent or nearby,” his report says.
“Making inferences and understanding forms of indirect meaning, eg allusion and irony, are likely to be difficult or impossible. This is less than the functional literacy needed to partake fully in employment, family life and citizenship and to enjoy reading for its own sake.”
This coverage is from the Times Educational Supplement which, unsurprisingly given its bias, fails to see this evidence as an indictment of state schooling or of teaching methods that have been used. Instead it quotes an NUT official demanding one-to-one tuition.
There is less complacent coverage from the Daily Mail.
See also this BBC story from last year.
Posted by James Bartholomew • Indexed in Education
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I was listening to an LBC radio phone in just one minute ago on which someone dared to phone in to praise the grammar schools. She was immediately dismissed and taken off air by the presenter with the comment, "How can we possibly have a system whereby a child is tested at the age eleven when they might not become clever until they are twelve."
This is now the firmly entrenched, universally held muddled view. We all have the same intelligence, but it is a chimera which comes and goes, and can only be captured and nurtured by the state educational system.
By definition, anyone failing to excel academically has been let down by the system and the only remedy is to invest even more money into the education machine.
What is going on? Has the world gone completely mad? Is it so difficult to believe that some people are inherently clever and others aren't?
Posted by: john east at May 9, 2010 11:36 PM