Literacy Aotearoa Tumuaki, Bronwyn Yates believes the government's two new strategies to improve literacy and numeracy among rangatahi will have an impact on future generations but is worried about the rates among adults today.
She told Te Ao Tapatahi there are 1.25 million people in Aotearoa who have numeracy and literacy problems.
“While it’s great to have the strategies that we’re looking at for rangatahi and also for our tamariki, it’s imperative that we have something for our parents and our adults who are experiencing these difficulties now.”
She says many of today's adults have come through an education system that hasn’t been completely accessible to them, and despite having left school, still hold the right to access education, and believes literacy and numeracy education needs to be provided at no cost to those who need it.
“It actually enhances people's opportunities. Both in terms of educational opportunities but also employment issues.”
Literacy and numeracy, Yates says, are fundamental to day to day living, from achieving a driver's license, reading and understanding road signs, to filling in documents or forms either at work or at home.
Māori literacy lag
Yates says Māori and Pasifika literacy rates lag behind Pākehā, which is a change from previous generations. She says Māori had higher numeracy and literacy rates than anyone else before the Native Schools Act was passed.
“We were highly fluent but we were fluent in our reo, and we were literate in our reo. So the situation has changed considerably.”
Despite that, Yates says rates for numeracy and literacy are exceptionally high for students in Kura Kaupapa and Wharekura, but programmes need to be contextualised for learners.
“At Literacy Aotearoa, we have a range of those. We have them but we can contextualise them to the individual learners.
She say sthose who do come forward for assistance in lifting their numeracy or literacy skills do so for many reasons including work or supporting their children, but admits those generally aren’t part of the 1.25m people that need help.
Yates praises those with numeracy and literacy difficulties who she says show resilience and incredible resourcefulness to cope in a world that is print dominated.
“But the lost potential they have to experience, the frustration that they have through that is unacceptable.
“And they deserve the right to have a much wider range of programmes and access.”