Literacy news
Riot report looks at role poor literacy played
29 Mar 2012
An independent panel set up by the government to study the causes of last summer's riots calls for more people to be given "a stake in society" to help prevent a repeat of the disturbances.
The report, by the Riots Communities and Victims Panel, concludes that the riots were fuelled by a range of factors including a lack of opportunities for young people, poor parenting, a failure of the justice system to rehabilitate offenders, materialism and suspicion of the police.
Recommendations from the report include fines for schools that fail to teach children to read properly; earlier and better support for troubled families; a "youth job promise" to get more young people into work; and primary and secondary schools to undertake regular assessments of pupils' strength of character. It adds:
Every child should be able to read and write to an age-appropriate standard by the time they leave primary and then secondary school.
If they cannot, the school should face a financial penalty equivalent to the cost of funding remedial support to take the child to the appropriate standard.
Shauneen Lambe, executive director at Just for Kids Law, which has acted for numerous young people arrested after the riots, agreed that unemployment and illiteracy played a part.
One of the things that really concerns us is how young people are criminalised in a way that previous generations just weren't – which really blights their job prospects.
Read more at The Guardian.
