A blog by Aoife Crawford
Research and Policy Officer. National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA), Ireland. 
acrawford@nala.ie

The National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA) is a registered charity and membership-based organisation based in Ireland. See www.nala.ie

Our mission is to

• Campaign for literacy as a human right
• Be leaders and champion best literacy practice
• Support organisations in their efforts to be literacy friendly

In Ireland, one in five adults have literacy needs. What does this mean?

If we want to be specific about it, this means that one in five adults score at or below Level 1 – out of five levels – in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s (OECD’s) Survey of Adult Skills (OECD 2024). This survey is run by the Programme for International Assessment of Adult Competencies (PIAAC).
A bit of a mouthful! And not very meaningful to most people.

The OECD helpfully provide descriptions of what each level indicates. Here are a couple of summary quotes from their Insights and Interpretations Report (Schleicher and Scarpetta 2024, p2):

• “In literacy, adults at Level 1 can understand short texts and organised lists when information is clearly indicated, find specific information and identify relevant links.”
• “Those below Level 1 can, at best, only understand short, simple sentences.”

This is better. We are starting to get a sense of what these adults typically can and can’t do.

But what does this really mean for their lives?

At the National Adult Literacy Agency (NALA), we work with and for adults with literacy needs. We know that literacy develops throughout your life. It is not just a skill that you learn once in school. Literacy affects all aspects of everyday adult life, such as healthcare, banking, and family life. It can have a serious impact on self-confidence and wellbeing.

The research evidence backs this up. The OECD Survey of Adult Skills 2023 has shown that people with literacy needs are more likely to

• have poor health
• have low income
• be unemployed.

And they are less likely to

• be highly satisfied with their life
• trust others
• believe they have a say in government.

They are also less likely to take part in adult learning. This means that the literacy needs of many adults continue to be unmet.

At NALA, we talk about “unmet literacy needs” to emphasise that an individual’s low level of literacy skill is not their fault. As Ireland’s national Adult Literacy for Life strategy (Government of Ireland 2021, p4) says,

“We have to challenge the misconception that an inability to read, write or digitally communicate is a failure of the person. It is a failure of society and the State.”

The majority of adults with literacy needs in Ireland are not taking part in literacy learning right now. They are possibly getting by with clever strategies, or they may be struggling. As an adult literacy organisation, we want to know who these people are, so that we can support them and advocate on their behalf.

The OECD Survey of Adult Skills 2023 gives us this opportunity. We can now focus on adults who are not in education and who also have literacy needs. We can also see what these people are like.

It is evident that adults with unmet literacy needs are a diverse, intersectional group, and literacy needs can affect anyone. For example, one in ten adults with a third level qualification in Ireland has literacy needs.

However, some generalisation is helpful for understanding the community we serve. Our exploration of the results of the OECD Survey of Adult Skills 2023 has shown that the “average” person with unmet literacy needs in Ireland is

• older
• male
• employed
• not highly educated
• born in Ireland.

He has children, and his parents don’t have upper secondary education.

We have also found that some things make a person both more likely to have literacy needs and less likely to be in adult education. For example, if your parents have low educational attainment. Adult literacy needs are linked with wider inequalities in our society, and these can pass from generation to generation.

Of course, there is no such thing as the “average” person with unmet literacy needs. This is simply a statistical exercise, which can help policymakers and practitioners to target limited resources, provide relevant supports to learners, or design outreach campaigns.

Why not look up the OECD Survey of Adult Skills 2023 today to find out whose literacy needs are not being met in your country?

References

Government of Ireland (2021). Adult Literacy for Life: a 10-Year Adult Literacy, Numeracy and Digital Literacy Strategy.

Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) (2024). Do Adults Have the Skills They Need to Thrive in a Changing World? Survey of Adult Skills 2023.

Schleicher, A. and Scarpetta, S. (2024). Survey of Adult Skills 2023: Insights and Interpretations.