New TV campaign encourages adults to take the first step back to education
Hundreds of people have contacted the National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) since New Year’s Day.The majority want help with reading, writing, maths or basic computers for both work and personal reasons. Since An Post developed and sponsored a national TV and radio advertising campaign encouraging adults to improve their literacy, NALA has recorded over 11,000 calls to its freephone support line.
Research conducted by NALA found that many people with literacy difficulties were motivated to return to education by their children. A number of men interviewed wanted to improve their literacy, while also increasing their understanding of mathematics and computers, in order to meet the demands of their children’s education, including support with homework.
“My youngest fellow is delighted, he’s 6 and I do the home work. I just help him but I learn a lot from it now to be honest. My spellings are still not at all great but I can read everything so it (going back to education) has benefits all over.” (Quote from men’s focus group)
The research showed that having a literacy difficulty impacted on men’s level of participation in community and social activities. The majority of men interviewed believed that their literacy difficulties held them back and prevented them from becoming involved in these activities as much as they might like.
“If you got involved with a group or say a soccer team, or something where you might have to read the names or write in names for somebody or something like that, you are going to back away from that. So you can’t get involved - you have to be on the alert the whole time with it.” (Quote from men’s focus group)
The research also found that changes in the workplace, including a greater emphasis on certification, accreditation, regulation and new technologies has meant an increased need for literacy skills in all categories of jobs. Men participating in the research study understood that the need for literacy skills would be even greater in the future.
“Sure most jobs now you have to do reading and writing. It’s not like before when it was all labour. You could get away with it before.” (Quote from men’s focus group)
The most common coping strategy adopted by men with literacy difficulties was reliance on their spouse or partner, particularly in relation to tasks such as form filling.
“I used to leave all the writing and everything to my wife. Doesn’t matter what it was, it was always left to her…I just stood back, she filled up everything, she looked after everything like. I'd never think of filling in, never go into the bank or nothing.” (Focus Group Clonmel)
Watch the TV campaign by clicking here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/nationaladultliterac?feature=mhum#p/a/u/2/UO...
http://www.youtube.com/user/nationaladultliterac?feature=mhum#p/a/u/1/ni...
http://www.youtube.com/user/nationaladultliterac?feature=mhum#p/a/u/0/8o...
Background information:
The National Adult Literacy Agency:
The National Adult Literacy Agency is an independent membership organisation, concerned with developing policy, advocacy, research and offering advisory services in adult literacy work in Ireland. NALA was established in 1980 and has campaigned since then for the recognition of, and response to, the adult literacy issue in Ireland.
‘Men and Literacy: A Study of Attitude and Experiences of Learning’. NALA © 2009.
The majority of men participating in the survey were aged between 40 and 59 years old. All of the men surveyed had been enrolled in primary school as a child but 15.4% of them left primary school before completing their education. Almost 70% of these men went on to enrol in secondary school but only 7.7% completed their second level education. More than half of the men surveyed were unemployed (57.7%), while 42.3% were in paid employment on either a full or a part-time basis.
