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May 25, 2013

Close to half of Australian adults lack the basic reading, writing and maths skills needed for every day living

Close to half of Australian adults lack the basic reading, writing and maths skills needed for every day living such as interpreting instruction manuals or using the internet, a study has claimed.
Preliminary results from an Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development report released yesterday by the Australian Bureau of Statistics show that 44 per cent of adult Australians - or 7.3 million - achieved literacy results that were in the lowest two of five bands. About 8.9 million, or 55 per cent, were in the lowest two bands for numeracy.
The international assessment, held in 25 countries, also showed that 38 per cent of employed adults were in the lowest bands for literacy and 38 per cent for numeracy.
The test, which some completed using pen and paper and others did online, demanded solutions to real-life tasks such as getting information from a medicine label or navigating a website.
About 9000 Australians aged 15 to 74 took part in the sample testing. Australian Council for Educational Research senior fellow Dave Tout, a member of the group which designed the numeracy test, said the results were alarming.
"The results of this study mean Australia still has much work to do in the area of workplace and vocational education and training," he said.
Mr Tout questioned whether teachers and trainers in the vocational sector had the skills to indentify or assist people with poor literacy and numeracy skills.
The WA Government recently revealed that all Year 12 students would have to prove they had reached a minimum standard of proficiency in literacy and numeracy before graduation from high school.
Mr Tout said setting high expectations would help achieve higher standards. "The 21st century has become a lot more sophisticated, and what we expect people to now do in their lives is higher than it was probably 25 years ago," he said.
"Just navigating a web page is much more difficult than turning over a page in a book.
"I don't know that the system of education has been able to maintain the same level of improvement as the expectations of society."
'Australia still has much work to do in the area of workplace and vocational education and training.'"Australian Council for Educational Research senior fellow *Dave Tout *

13 comments:

  1. Replies
    1. Jesus wept - are you entirely ignorant of these surveys? I have followed the results of these surveys for almost two decades, and they are robust.

      <5% of the adult population shows high level (level 5) skills in ANY of the four tested areas in the Adult Literacy and Lifeskills (ALL) Survey: problem-solving, document literacy, prose literacy and numeracy.

      The most recent data on this is from OECD and Statistics Canada (2011) Literacy for Life: Further Results from the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey: Table 2.3 [p 61] gives the level 4/5 (grouped) breakdown by country.

      The decomposition of the grouped level 4/5 data will be the same (broadly) as in Table 1.3 on p21 of US Department of Education, National Centre for Educational Statistics Working Paper No. 97-33 "Adult Literacy: An International Perspective" (1997)

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  2. For Australian borns the illiteracy rate is no higher than 7%. We import 250,000 immigrants and refugees p/a. A large portion of which are from non English speaking backgrounds. This is an entirely imported problem if you actually believe this study. Which I think is just total hyped up lobbyist rouse for funding.

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    1. You don't know what you're talking about. The 93% 'literacy' rate reported by governments are of people who know that "c-a-t" spells "cat", and what a cat is.

      The ALL surveys identify the extent to which people can process information: so you might be able to read "Take 2 tablets twice daily", but not understand what it means operationally speaking.

      <5% of the adult population shows high level (level 5) skills in ANY of the four tested areas in the Adult Literacy and Lifeskills (ALL) Survey: problem-solving, document literacy, prose literacy and numeracy.

      The most recent data on this is from OECD and Statistics Canada (2011) Literacy for Life: Further Results from the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey: Table 2.3 [p 61] gives the level 4/5 (grouped) breakdown by country.

      The decomposition of the grouped level 4/5 data will be the same (broadly) as in Table 1.3 on p21 of US Department of Education, National Centre for Educational Statistics Working Paper No. 97-33 "Adult Literacy: An International Perspective" (1997)

      Delete
    2. You don't know what you're talking about. The 93% 'literacy' rate reported by governments are of people who know that "c-a-t" spells "cat", and what a cat is.

      The ALL surveys identify the extent to which people can process information: so you might be able to read "Take 2 tablets twice daily", but not understand what it means, operationally speaking.

      <5% of the adult population shows high level (level 5) skills in ANY of the four tested areas in the Adult Literacy and Lifeskills (ALL) Survey: problem-solving, document literacy, prose literacy and numeracy.

      The most recent data on this is from OECD and Statistics Canada (2011) Literacy for Life: Further Results from the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey: Table 2.3 [p 61] gives the level 4/5 (grouped) breakdown by country.

      The decomposition of the grouped level 4/5 data will be the same (broadly) as in Table 1.3 on p21 of US Department of Education, National Centre for Educational Statistics Working Paper No. 97-33 "Adult Literacy: An International Perspective" (1997).

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  3. Can we please see the questions?

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    Replies
    1. The most recent data on this is from OECD and Statistics Canada (2011) Literacy for Life: Further Results from the Adult Literacy and Life Skills Survey - examples of the questions are included in that paper.

      While you're reading it, take a look at
      Table 2.3 [p 61] which gives the level 4/5 (grouped) breakdown by country. LESS THAN 5% can process information at a level I consider equal to a 9th grader.

      The decomposition of the grouped level 4/5 data will be the same (broadly) as in Table 1.3 on p21 of US Department of Education, National Centre for Educational Statistics Working Paper No. 97-33 "Adult Literacy: An International Perspective" (1997)

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  4. You're making a lot of comments here GT.
    I'm thinking vested interest........

    How's about you come clean and explain it a bit more so I can make the call whether to take you seriously.

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  5. Well how many of them were immigrants? Many Chinese immigrants barely speak a word of English. The country has been flooded with people from countries such as China where English is not spoken. In some areas of Sydney Chinese is the first language. The people in the shops barely speak English and everything is written in Chinese languages. White faces are a rarity.

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  6. @GT - looks like u have a problem, man.

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  7. Interesting to read what are obviously knee jerk reactions from proud Aussie flag waver's who see these interesting statistics as some sort of personal insult,I strongly suggest they go watch a few hours of top educator "John Taylor Gatto" on the origins of the modern education system on youtube then come back and leave a more informed response. This report simply confirms the well documented agenda put in place well over 100 years ago, by the industrialist and bankers installing their Prussian system of education (programming) intent on creating a dumbed down society only capable of buying things & taking on information exclusively via Mel & Koshy on the morning tele, this has been a spectacular success,with Australian's proving to be one of the most apathetic,naive,passive groups of TV watching Sheeple on the Planet,their collective stupidity is a sight to behold , Australia Day in Bali being a particularly unpleasant spectacle to witness, At these times if asked I would declare NZ citizenship a drastic measure in anyone's book.

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  8. I'm sorry but I think literacy skills in Australia are extremely bad compared to other countries! I work with lots of adults and teenagers and have watched, particularly over the last decade, a rather horrific decline in literacy skills...

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  9. Being a father watching my own children's schooling in formative years was an eye opener. The whole word system is favored over the phonetic system now, total failure imo.Knock on effects are evident in so many other areas of learning.
    I was called to the school for a "special interview", asking why my 8 year old son had reading skills off the chart. I told them I'd taught him how do read properly, starting with the alphabet and sounds (phonetic system). I stated that if my child can't read his own language then all his subjects will suffer? They didn't like the fact I'd taken matters into my own hands, clearly the school's ego and failed curriculum was bruised. Two years later many parents were coming to school after hours to help teach their own children basic reading skills...still using the whole word system. A feed back loop is now created without sourcing the original problem. Enter private tuition companies who now charge huge fees for something we were taught for free 30 years ago. Schools are now brainwashing factories for private enterprise profit further down the line. If you can't read this, go back and learn the phonetic system. It works 100% and costs nothing but a little time. Get it right at the beginning, it will end up right at the end.

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