Policy and campaigning

NLT policy

A vision for Scotland

10 Dec 2009

In June 2008, the Scottish Labour Party commissioned a group of writers, academics, educationalists and business people to investigate child literacy standards in Scotland. The final report was published in December 2009 and it found that as many as 25 percent of Scottish pupils leave primary school without the basic literacy skills to function in a modern society. To successfully tackle the problem of low literacy levels, the commission urges the adoption of a policy of zero tolerance to illiteracy across the board. The commission’s zero tolerance of illiteracy is a far stronger commitment than the UK Government’s policy of 95 percent of adults having functional literacy by 2020.

The commission found that the most important cause of correctable poor literacy is socio-economic disadvantage. The report identified the need to begin addressing socio-economic disadvantage from an early age through the introduction of pilot schemes in local authorities that serve areas of socio-economic disadvantage. The pilots would provide continuous and systematic support for families with children aged under three.

In order to raise literacy standards from an early stage the commission recommends the work of Nurture Groups, a programme that takes young children from the most problematic backgrounds and places them in small groups with a specially trained teacher and support staff. The emphasis is on providing care for the children and support for the parents to help them understand how they might better support their children’s development. The National Literacy Trust and many others have worked for a number of years to promote the importance of the first few years of a child’s life, so this dual recognition of the importance of the early years and the need to provide support for parents is particularly pleasing.

In order to tackle low literacy levels in schools the commission recommends the use of synthetic phonics to teach children how to read. By this method students first learn the words containing only the simplest letter sounds and then they learn to read at every point by translating letters into sounds and blending the sounds all through the word. Synthetic phonics has already had a significant impact in some Scottish authorities including West Dunbartonshire and Clackmannanshire, both of which have run high profile and highly successful synthetic phonics schemes.[1] In these schemes the teaching of synthetic phonics was accompanied by a range of other complex interventions, including a focus on comprehension as well as extensive literacy training for all teachers.

The commission also highlighted the need to move beyond the emphasis on basic literacy skills because all literacy related skills are a part of a continuum which stretches from basic skills, involving, competence in reading and writing to higher literacy skills, such as the ability to organise information, think critically and distinguish fact from opinion. The commission recommends that a national strategy should set priorities for assisting children to move beyond basic literacy by improving standards of comprehension and higher order literacy skills.

As well as recommending a move beyond basic skills the commission recommends that “literacy should go beyond the remit of formal education and become embedded across society in order to ensure continuous development. Partnership working, involving the public, private and voluntary sectors, is key if poor literacy across society is to be challenged.” The National Literacy Trust supports this emphasis on forming partnerships across the private, public and voluntary sector in order to improve literacy. As literacy skills impact on all areas of an individual’s life, interventions and solutions need to come from a range of agencies and sectors.

In response to the commission’s report, Iain Gray, Labour's Leader in the Scottish Parliament, said, “we must have the ambition and vision to tackle this issue head on and I promise today that Labour will take on board this report and produce our Literacy Action Plan to take forward the main recommendations… The commission points out the scale of the problem but also clearly shows a number of practical measures that can be taken to start moving Scotland forward.”

Scotland’s Education Secretary, Michael Russell, also welcomed the contributions of the commission. He stated that “the Government is fully committed to improving literacy for everyone and it is encouraging that the Literacy Commission shares our ambitions... Our focus on literacy skills starts in the early years and continues right through to lifelong learning.”

The National Literacy Trust is delighted with the report and pleased to see a positive cross party response to its findings. However, the challenge will come in the next few years as this impressive statement is translated into action against a backdrop of economic uncertainty and spending cuts.

Deeqa Jama, Policy Assistant

National Literacy Trust, December 2009

Downloadable version of this paper: Scottish Literacy Commission

[1] http://www.literacytrust.org.uk/Policy/scotinitiatives.html

Tags: Policy, Scotland