Twenty-six million people of working age have levels of literacy and numeracy below those expected of school leavers. People with the lowest levels of skills – those expected of a 9 to 11 year old or below – can experience practical difficulties in their every day lives.
This is the main conclusion of a report released on 15 December by the UK's National Audit Office. Another conclusion:
More providers need to engage in creative development of flexible learning that people want because it meets both their practical requirements and personal needs.
My take: would-be providers must have incentives to be creative. The UK Government is right to have identified 100 per cent basic literacy and numeracy as a valid social goal, and to devote funds to its achievement. The Government has set the goal, and is prepared to finance its achievement. Democratic governments are good at articulating their society's needs and raising the necessary funds. But they are terrible at actually achieving social goals. The UK Government should bypass the entrenched lobbies of the educational establishment and reward people for achieving its literacy goal however they do so.
The private sector can play a role too, and its intervention is perhaps more urgently needed in the developing countries. If you are interested in issuing your own bonds, click to see how Female Literacy Bonds could work for improving the literacy of girls and women in Pakistan. (This is a 250kB pdf file.)
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