www.literacy.kent.edu
This Ohio-based site states that about 44 million people in the US cannot read well enough to fill out an application form, read a food label or read a simple story to a child. Literacy problems are estimated to cost US businesses about $225 billion a year in lost productivity. This site contains a section, the AGORA (Assemblage of Great Online Resources for Adults), which includes useful resources for literacy teachers.
Www.nald.ca
"It is inconceivable that poverty eradication can make much headway in the absence of major advances in literacy." This message from the UNESCO director-general Ko∩chiro Matsuura, is contained on the website of the National Adult Literacy Database. This Canadian website includes a resource catalogue with abstracts from educational resources that can be purchased.
www.literacytrust.org.uk
Information on the situation in Northern Ireland, where last year the Department of Education allocated some £3.3 million sterling to the Education Boards to implement literacy strategy. The site quotes the North's Education Minister, Martin McGuinness: "Literacy is the key which opens up the rest of the school curriculum and indeed is the key to further education and training," he says.
www.ireland.com
Lots of archive material with literacy statistics, news and views. Check the archive for a report on June 15th, 2000, when the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development published a seminal report stating that some 25 per cent of Irish adults are functionally illiterate. Another 20 per cent can perform only simple reading and writing tasks. Ireland was ranked 14th out of 22 states.
www.oecdobserver.org
The International Adult Literacy Survey defined literacy as the "ability to understand and employ printed information in daily activities, at home, at work and in the community". Literacy includes coping with maps, schedules, charts and graphs as well as text, according to "Literacy in a thousand words". For more thought-provoking articles, read the OECD Observer online.
