Offaly student campaigns for adults with literacy difficulties

An Offaly student is calling on all political parties to show greater action on adult basic education, and for the public to vote for candidates who will prioritise people with unmet literacy, numeracy and digital skills needs.

Thomas Campbell from Tullamore, a student with Laois and Offaly ETB, is a member of the National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA).

One in six Irish adults has difficulty reading and understanding information – that’s over 520,000 people. One in four (750,000 people) struggle with maths and even more find technology difficult to use and face increasing challenges as we move into a digital age.

According to NALA, this has a devastating impact on individuals, communities, the economy and our society.

Thomas himself never got the chance to go to primary school because he had epilepsy and was put into an institution.

“I was there until I was 16 years old and when I left it I wasn’t able to write or spell. I went to England when I was 32, and when I was over there I got a call from my aunt who told me about a book that helped people to improve their writing. It had 100 words in it and it said that if you could learn those you would be nearly halfway there.

“I did that and when I returned to Ireland I went back to education. It’s the best thing that ever happened me. It has given me more confidence and has changed my life,” says Thomas.

Dr Inez Bailey, CEO of NALA, says the Government needs to invest in “people who have not benefited from our education system during bust or boom”.

“Literacy is a human right. People with low literacy skills have low educational attainment, earn less income and are more likely to be unemployed. They are also more likely to report poor health and to believe that they have little impact on political processes,” said Dr Bailey.

“If political parties are serious about creating a more equal, fairer society then they must have a strategy in place to prioritise people with low basic skills levels.”

NALA is seeking the following commitments in political parties’ manifestos:

1) Develop and implement a 10-year Whole-of-Government Strategy for adult literacy, numeracy and digital skills, to provide opportunities for those with the least education;

2) Enact a Plain Language Bill to require that all information for the public from Government and State bodies is written and presented in plain language, so that those with low literacy levels can access public information.

For more details, see www.nala.ie/election.