Adult literacy classes are to be held on television from early next year, the Minister of State for Education and Science, Mr Willie O'Dea, has announced.
Speaking at the launch of Literacy through the Airwaves, a project evaluation report on adult literacy classes on radio, he said the Department had decided to commission a television series of literacy classes as a result of the success of those on radio. Referring to a 1997 OECD report on adult literacy in Ireland, Mr O'Dea said a quarter of the adult population had limited literacy skills; twice as many unemployed people had lower literacy levels than those in employment, and there was a strong association between low literacy skills and low income.
The Government was "committed to breaking the link between low literacy skills and unemployment", he said. His department's adult literacy budget would increase from £5.6 million this year to £7.8 million next year, he added.
The Literacy Through The Airwaves radio project took place between March and June this year. Incorporating radio programmes and print materials, the lessons were aired on Tipp FM in Co Tipperary. Community Radio Castlebar in Co Mayo ran a separate but parallel project.
Some 145 people registered to participate in Clonmel, Nenagh and Castlebar.
"The pilot phase of Literacy Through the Airwaves has demonstrated that radio is a potentially powerful resource, both in assisting literacy learners to access help and improve their skills and in providing a learning resource for learners, tutors and literacy schemes," Mr O'Dea said. Building on this success, a pilot series of 12 half-hour programmes for television will present literacy tuition for "specific groups of people", he continued.
"The objective of the TV approach is to seek to engage a mass audience, to promote an awareness that help is available, that the problem is not unique and can be tackled."
Stressing that the series was not intended to replace literacy classes in adult education centres, Mr O'Dea described it "as a supplement instead". The series will initially comprise 12 30-minute programmes, which would be evaluated. He hoped the series would then be "mainstreamed" as a permanent fixture on television schedules.
The series will be produced by the AV Edge production company, and its editorial team will represent members of the National Adult Literacy Agency, the Department of Education and Science, RTE and AV Edge.
