Dalziel Speech: National Literacy Hui
Hon Lianne Dalziel Speech Notes
Closing address to the
National Literacy Hui
Victoria University
3.30pm
E nga iwi o te motu (kua huihui mai nei) tena koutou, tena koutou, tena koutou katoa.
Thank you for inviting me to speak to you and to provide some thoughts in response to the issues that you have been considering over the last two days. It's a bit difficult to provide closing remarks when I haven't been at the hui but I have studied your programme and I want to assure you that the work that you are doing is very much in line with the direction that the Government is taking with respect to adult literacy.
I am particularly pleased to see that today's hui has involved a steering group made up of a significant number of organisations who have an important role to play with respect to the delivery of adult literacy programmes in a wide range of settings, community, home, institution and workplace.
I have attended a couple of the summits that were recently run by Workbase.
Their focus was "The Literacy Gap: Literacy for Economic Development and Enterprise” with the intention to encourage businesses to participate in workplace literacy initiatives. When I attended the first summit, in Manukau City, I have to confess that I turned up thinking I knew all I needed to know about workplace literacy programmes. Afterall I had the statistics.
I knew that the International Adult Literacy Survey had estimated that over a million New Zealanders were below the minimum level of literacy competence required to effectively meet the demands of everyday life and work.
I knew that 200,000 New Zealand adults function at the lowest level of literacy.
I knew that poor literacy was linked to unemployment.
I knew that certain occupations had much poorer levels of literacy than others, for example in manufacturing, construction and agriculture.
I knew that there was an issue for Maori, for Pacific peoples and for people born overseas from a non-English speaking background.
I knew that a report done in the UK found that adults with poor basic literacy skills were more likely to have children who also struggle with basic skills, less likely to own their own home, less likely to be in good health or participate actively in their community and be over-represented in prisons and among young offenders.
So I knew that we had to have an adult literacy strategy.
But what I didn’t know, was just how much benefit there is to business in offering workplace literacy programmes to their employees.
I could see the personal benefit and the family benefit, even the wider societal benefit, but it was hearing directly from the businesses themselves that led me to the realisation that workplace literacy programmes were good for business. They were an investment in people, an investment in workplace safety and health and an investment in productivity gains.
The IALS has told us that we need a comprehensive, long-term strategy to improve literacy levels. The fact that we were told that four years ago means that valuable time has been lost, but this should not deter us in our task.
We need to address the barriers; we need to establish and sustain a sense of direction and purpose, and we need to effectively resource and co-ordinate all the components of the system that are to deliver the results we need.
NEW FUNDING
In addressing these
barriers, we need to have focus on literacy in the home, in
the community and in the workplace. I am therefore pleased
to be able to announce today that the Government has made
some decisions that will see an additional $2 million go
into the adult literacy area this financial year.
I know that there will be those who may see this as insufficient to address the enormity of the statistics I have spoken about. However, there are serious issues with respect to capacity and to quality assurance that I believe must be addressed first and foremost.
This announcement, therefore, signals a direction, which can be developed further once the adult literacy strategy itself is in place.
Most of the $2 million ($1.5million) will be focussed on workplace literacy programmes, and the need to increase professional development training in the field and the development of quality assurance around the delivery of adult literacy programmes. $600,000 will be focussed on Maori and Pacific literacy programmes and $160,000 will be focussed on literacy initiatives for those whose first language is not English. In addition, $25,000 has been set aside to resource the hosting of this hui, and any initiatives that arise from it with respect to coordination within the sector.
I am advised that it wouldn't be appropriate to detail the specific recipients of the allocations, as they haven't been notified. However, I can say that there will be some funding for Skill New Zealand so that they can establish a fund which would be available to ITOs to fund industry training with a significant literacy component. I believe that this will produce a significant benefit and hopefully ITOs and employers will soon see that the benefits to individual enterprises and the industries are enormous and worth the investment.
The Government has identified
the outputs it wants through this new funding and they are
to:
deliver workplace literacy programmes,
particularly in smaller workplaces and in industries not
covered by Industry Training Organisations
deliver adult literacy programmes in partnership with Maori
and Pacific communities, to improve the literacy of Maori
and Pacific peoples and to improve their ability to take up
further education and training opportunities
explore new ways of delivering work-related literacy
initiatives with a particular emphasis on smaller
enterprises
deliver quality professional
development for vocational providers
co-ordinate
the development of quality standards for the workplace
literacy sector, and scope the feasibility of the extension
of these standards across the whole of adult literacy
provision
provide best practice advice,
information and support for providers
widely
promote the need for, and benefits of, better workforce
literacy and
facilitate the development of a
national adult literacy teaching qualification
As you can see, these goals put us on track for an effective adult literacy strategy. The barriers that we will need to continue addressing include:
Changing the
environment so that improving literacy is given priority
across all sectors of post-school education and
training
Making it easier to access learning –
that is we need to identify those windows of opportunity
where we can hook people into literacy programmes; in
workplaces; programmes for people who are unemployed and
actively seeking work; community-based provision; family
literacy programmes, where literacy learning for adults and
children reinforce each other; and programmes that link to
other learning at tertiary level
Developing
better qualifications for learners and teachers. We know
that we need professional training and development for adult
literacy teaching and a career path in adult literacy
teaching that will attract a stable and ongoing
workforce
Monitoring and evaluating the strategy
so that progress towards the goal of improving literacy can
be measured effectively, and
Address the stigma
that is attached to poor literacy.
We need to make
significant investment over the next generation
to
raise levels of literacy and current adult
population who are "below the bar" of literacy
adequacy
Invest in the current working age
population who have adequate literacy to ensure they do not
slip behind as the skill level requirements increase with
new technologies
And improve the literacy of
school leavers so those entering the workforce or adulthood
are not in need of remedial literacy
education
CLOSING
The challenge that I have as
Minister, is to address the reality that there is limited
capacity and scope of services available for adults needing
literacy education.
There is a lack of clear pathways; for example, there are no national literacy unit standards, qualifications or achievement standards, and not enough co-ordination between providers operating in different sectors. But I am not daunted by that, as we are well on the way to reporting on an Adult Literacy Strategy, which will link into an all-encompassing NZ Literacy Strategy. I am confident that we can deliver the over-arching framework, but I am looking to you to provide the partnerships on the ground that will ensure that the next IALS shows that we have turned the corner.
I noted that one of the possible options that you were to look at today was the establishment of a national coalition of literacy stakeholders. If that is the modern jargon for cooperation between providers at different levels, then I'm all for it.
It is absolutely vital if we are to achieve the goal that you have set that by 2025 everyone in Aotearoa NZ is literate, then that requires a genuine commitment to a collaborative approach across government sectors and between the Government and non-government sectors.
I congratulate you all for the
work that you are doing to explore the dimensions of adult
literacy practice, to share information, and improve
coordination within the sector. I hope that you have all
managed to gain a lot from your participation in this
national literacy hui, and I look forward to receiving
details of any recommendations that you have to make to
Government. It is the partnership between us that will
ensure that the goals can be
achieved.