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Three-point plan to wipe out illiteracy
Some pupils struggle with literacy through their school careers |
Illiteracy in the UK could be wiped out with a three-point education programme for children, according to an educational psychologist.
Tommy MacKay says that most of the 100,000 children who leave school each year without functional literacy skills come from poor backgrounds.
He says that on the basis of his research, carried out in Scotland, the link between poverty and reading failure could be broken, and the UK could achieve a millennium without illiteracy.
Mr MacKay, speaking at the British Psychological Society's Scottish and Northern Ireland branches' annual conference, said: "I have collected evidence dating back to 1918 which shows the widescale failure of children from disadvantaged backgrounds - yet this has never been effectively tackled.
Mr MacKay says many children need daily individual attention |
The three steps to eradicating illiteracy in children are, according to Mr MacKay, early intervention, special help for those who continue to fail, and a strategy to change the attitudes and values of children who are failing.
The first involves specific work on literacy among four to seven-year-olds.
Mr MacKay said both the Department for Education and Employment and the Scottish Executive Education Department had already put money into schemes to raise literacy standards among children of this age group.
Help for children who continue to fail would involve 20 minutes of individual instruction in literacy a day.
His research showed that in a few months, children receiving this instruction made gains in their reading ages of up to three years.
Work to change the attitudes of failing pupils, so instead of rejecting books, they thought it was "cool" to read, also showed significant results.
Mr MacKay said: "If this approach is adopted, reading failure among children in the UK could become a thing of the past."
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British Psychological Society |
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National Literacy Trust: literacy organisations links |
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