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• 17Dec2010

  National Literacy Trust response to Radio 4's Today programme story on literacy results in schools

  Posted by George Dugdale

  The issues raised on Radio 4’s Today Programme this morning have, once again, raised the issue of the long tail of underachievement in UK schools. It is very worrying that in today’s world when literacy skills are more important than ever there are still 20% of children who leave primary school below their expected level in reading, and 10% significantly below that level. The biggest concern is the strong link between poverty and low achievement, something that continues to plague the UK education system.  

  This is a problem which teachers, headteachers and educationalists are aware of and working very hard to solve. Between the mid 1990s and around 2002 standards in education improved significantly, however this has plateaued in recent years. We have moved beyond an era in which the education system can be drastically improved with quick fix solutions. Potential improvements from major policy programmes such as the Early Years Foundation Stage are still working their way into the education system and further improvements are more likely to come from medium and long term solutions. This is not to say that there are not things that can be done, but that improvement will most likely be gradual.

  The new government has already announced a range of policies for schools and the National Literacy Trust is encouraged by this strong focus on literacy. However, to ensure that as many children as possible achieve the highest standards in literacy, solutions must also focus on children’s motivations to learn, their families and the communities they live in. From our research and on-the-ground experience we know that parents are the most important factor in their children’s educational development and involving them at every stage of their children’s education is absolutely vital.

  For the past fifteen years the National Literacy Trust has worked to improve literacy levels among groups at risk of failure. Over 100 professional footballers are taking part in our reading and writing programmes which inspire up to 170,000 children and adults a year, we have given 343,000 children from disadvantaged communities the opportunity to choose nearly 858,000 free books to keep and have worked in schools and local authorities across the country to improve attitudes towards and attainment in literacy. Today’s figures show that there is a lot more work to be done, and by working alongside literacy professionals, community groups and local and national government we will ensure that we do break this cycle between poverty and low literacy levels.”

Tags: Children, England, National Young Readers' Programme, Partners in Literacy, Policy, Reading Champions, Reading Connects, Reading The Game, Schools & teaching, Social inclusion, Talk for Writing, Words for Work

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