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According to the International Adult Literacy & Skills Survey (IALSS), 42% of Canadian adults have literacy skills that are less than adequate for work and life in an information-based society. To illustrate what these values can mean, a person with a score at level 1 might be unable to determine the correct amount of medicine to give a child from the information printed on the directions and while an individual at level 2 may have developed ways to handle everyday literacy tasks, their skills still pose a barrier when they are faced with novel tasks. For more than 20 years, the Literacy Access Network (LAN) has been working to improve the lives of individuals facing literacy difficulties in Toronto and York Region by helping them get to literacy and academic upgrading programs in their area.
As part of their 1986 Plan for Adult Basic Literacy, the Ontario Government held that it was integral to “provide information to the public, including a literacy hotline service.” To fill this need for Toronto and surrounding areas, a committee of the Metro Toronto Movement for Literacy (MTML) was brought together and by 1989 LAN was up and running on funding from the provincial government.
At the Literacy Access Network, we often get calls from people who are calling for or about someone who they believe has a literacy problem. Often, we ask why do you think this person has a literacy problem? And why has it become important now to do something about it?
A lot of the folklore around literacy reinforces the idea that people who have reading problems are ashamed, and go to great lengths to hide their “illiteracy”. This may be true in some cases, although people more often try to hide reading problems for much more practical reasons than shame. They may be afraid of losing something important — a job, a chance at retraining, or access to services.
Canada’s 2006 Census found that 18% of Ontario’s Population had no secondary or post-secondary certification. That is nearly 1 in 5 people in Ontario with less than a formal high school education. For some, personal, family or financial circumstances may have stood as barriers to graduating from high school during adolescence; for others the traditional high school format may not have been in line with how they are most successful. Either way, it is never too late to earn a high school diploma or equivalency. While many of these people may have accumulated life experiences and knowledge that extends far beyond what is taught in a high school, there are very practical reasons for getting back into learning—including, but certainly not limited to, their job prospects.
An adult looking to continue working towards their high school diploma or high school equivalency may still need to put food on the table, still need to work fulltime and still need to be available to their other commitments. A fulltime program running 10 months a year over four years, like traditional high schools, is often not a good match for someone with these concerns. That is why there are a few different paths available to adult learners.