Ms Inez Bailey:

NALA is grateful to the special committee for the invitation to present on adult literacy, its impact on the Traveller community and recommendations for change.

NALA is a charity that advocates for improving adult literacy, numeracy and digital skills supports. Part of our work is raising awareness of literacy and an example of this is captured in a video, the link to which was provided to members. It features Margaret Donovan from Ennis who is a member of the Traveller community and talks about her experience of returning to learning. NALA’s goal is to ensure that all Travellers who want to improve their literacy, numeracy and digital skills can do so.

In Ireland, 520,000 adults, one in six or 18% of the population, find reading and understanding everyday texts difficult. This means more than 500,000 adults have difficulty reading and understanding a leaflet, bus timetable or medicine instructions. Similarly, one in four scored at the lowest level of numeracy. This equates to more than 750,000 adults not being able to do basic calculations such as dividing up a bill. For the Traveller community the literacy issue is even starker with an estimated half of Travellers having poor functional literacy.

Unmet adult literacy and numeracy needs have devastating consequences for individuals, communities and the economy. They are a factor in social exclusion and inequality. The World Literacy Foundation states that the people who live with literacy needs "are faced with the prospect of poor health outcomes, welfare dependency, a lack of social cohesion, a higher level of crime and lack of self worth. Poor literacy also limits a person's ability to engage in activities that require either critical thinking or a solid base of literacy and numeracy skills."

Low literacy is costing our society and economy in terms of poorer health, productivity, weak employment and earning potential, welfare dependency, less involvement in society as well as intergenerational disadvantage for children and families. It is time to invest in people who have not benefited from our education system during the bust or boom. It is time to prioritise the furthest behind first.

UNICEF states that Travellers are still falling between the cracks, with the vast majority of Travellers ceasing education before junior certificate level. Pavee Point's submission to this committee highlights the grave educational disadvantages experienced by the Traveller community including the following: Only 13% of Travellers complete secondary education in comparison to 92% of the general population; 28% of Travellers leave school before the age of 13 compared to 1% of general population; the majority of Traveller children live in families where the mother has either no formal education or primary education only; and half of Travellers have poor functional literacy.

Since the economic crash in 2008, specific supports for Traveller education have been withdrawn and the focus was to mainstream Travellers into the education system. In 2016, the European Commission assessment of Ireland stated:

A mainstreamed approach is only sufficient when outcomes are identical for all components of the target groups; when evidence shows a clear gap between the situation of Roma and Travellers versus the rest of society policies should be adjusted and specific measures should also be developed.

A 2017 ESRI report entitled, A Social Portrait of Irish Travellers, noted that "the depth of educational disadvantage experienced by Travellers means that specific, targeted additional supports will be requiredin order for them to participate in mainstream education on equal terms". Last Tuesday, the Minister of State at the Department of Education and Skills, who has responsibility for higher education, Deputy Mary Mitchell O'Connor, launched the Action Plan to Promote Traveller Participation in Higher Education. While welcome, we also need a broader action plan for Traveller education in further education and training.

The adult skills survey is entitled the programme for the international assessment of adult competencies, PIAAC, which provides the most up-to-date statistics on the adult literacy and numeracy skills levels of those of working age since the most recent survey in 1997. Back then, the poor results for Ireland propelled significant action that saw annual increases in participation and resources for the next decade. However, since 2009, and despite the very disappointing results of PIAAC in 2013, investment and participation rates have stagnated.

Ireland's first national skills strategy set the target to reduce the numbers of adults with less than upper secondary education to 7% by 2020. While its school and higher education performance targets were reached or surpassed, we failed to reach the low skills target. The same target was rolled over into the current national skills strategy to be achieved by 2020 along with the same approach. With 12.4% of persons aged between 15 and 64 in employment having less than upper secondary education, this target will not be reached again. This fact alone illustrates the inadequacy of the approach and resources to tackle the scale of the adult literacy and numeracy issue in Ireland. There remains an outdated view that this challenge will fade with time based on school attendance. In reality, there is a crisis in the learning outcomes for many in society, in particular in the Traveller community. We acknowledge the contribution of the Department of Education and Skills and the Educational and Training Boards Ireland that cater for more than 60,000 participants in adult literacy services, costing less than €600 per person but it is clear that we need a better resourced and co-ordinated effort by Government.

Currently, NALA is working bilaterally with nine Departments and their agencies on policies aimed at building literacy and numeracy competence across a number of areas, including health and finance.

This experience, along with similar recent developments to address the literacy issue in The Netherlands, Portugal, Finland and Belgium, has guided NALA to call for a whole-of-Government approachthat would bring a co-ordinated national effort to radically reducing the numbers of people with literacy and numeracy needs. This should include an action plan for Traveller education in further education and training, in partnership with national Traveller organisations.

Literacy is a barometer of equality and changes lives. Ireland can do better to give everyone a fair chance to thrive in their literacy development. This requires investing in people who have not benefited from our education system to date. That requires greater prioritisation within the Department of Education and Skills of adult literacy and better alignment of policies and strategies across different Departments.

I thank the members for listening. Our written submission has more detail on our vision for literacy.