TORONTO, ON — An Ipsos-Reid survey, released today, indicates that many Canadians identify low adult literacy as “very important” and “a major problem” in this country. “With many Canadians recognizing low literacy as a national problem, this is an issue to be placed on the political agenda as we head toward the federal election,” says Christine Featherstone, President and CEO of ABC CANADA Literacy Foundation.

The ABC CANADA Adult Literacy Awareness Survey, a national survey of 1,000 Canadians over the age of 18, was conducted by Ipsos-Reid Public Affairs between May 5 and 9, 2005. Respondents were interviewed on the phone for about 10 minutes on their awareness and perceptions regarding the problem of low adult literacy. The results are accurate to within +/- 3.1 per cent, 19 times out of 20. Some smaller sub-segments of the population have a larger margin of error.

87 per cent call low literacy “an important issue”

Findings from the Adult Literacy Awareness Survey indicate that a significant 87 per cent of Canadian adults say adult low literacy is “an important issue,” and close to half (46 per cent) say it is “very important.”

Also, almost one in four Canadian adults (24 per cent) rank low adult literacy as a “major problem” in this country.

When respondents were told that 22 per cent of adult Canadians have serious problems dealing with any printed material (figure based on an earlier 1994 survey), the majority (58 per cent of respondents) said this knowledge would “more likely” make them feel that low literacy is “a major problem in Canada that needs to be addressed.”

New literacy statistics were released in May but just after the Adult Literacy Awareness Survey was conducted. “If Canadians were this aware of low adult literacy before those statistics were released, they would likely be even more aware now,” adds Featherstone.

Canadians cite personal achievement and productivity as key factors

Those saying low adult literacy is a major problem cited personal achievement and productivity at the workplace as reasons for that assessment. The top reason given (20 per cent of mentions) concerned “important for work, for people to get jobs and find better jobs.” Fourteen per cent of mentions related to “important for everyday life, to function.”

Canadians are recognizing that increasing literacy skills helps individuals at work and at home and that very connection is underscored in the International Adult Literacy and Skills Survey (IALSS) released in November by Statistics Canada, Human Resources and Skills Development Canada, the US National Center for Education Statistics, and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

IALSS findings reveal a working-age (16 to 65) Canadian population lacking in the literacy skills needed to cope with the everyday demands of life and work — a social and economic challenge that will become even more acute with on-the-job literacy demands increasing and the makeup of Canada’s workforce changing.

Young adults and immigrants ill-prepared for workforce

IALSS indicates that many young adults, age 16 to 25, have not achieved the minimum literacy skills required for coping well with the complex tasks demanded in today’s workplace. Province to province, the percentage of young adults who do not achieve those required literacy skills range from 18 to 38 per cent.

Also, a significantly higher proportion of working-age immigrants, relative to Canadian-born adults, have low literacy in Canada’s official languages: 60 per cent have low literacy compared with 37 per cent of Canadian-born adults.

As workplace demands increase through the adoption of information and communications technologies (ICTs) and as the demographics of the workforce reflect greater proportions of immigrant workers in our major urban centres, Canadian adults will be less and less equipped to realize their potential and contribute fully to Canada’s economy and competitive position.

“With 42 per cent of adult Canadians struggling with reading and writing, the social and economic ramifications to Canada are too serious to ignore,” says Featherstone. “We call upon the federal parties to provide leadership on this issue. Clearly, there are many Canadian voters who recognize that something must be done.”

To view the details of the ABC CANADA Adult Literacy Awareness Survey, please click here (PDF file, 401KB).

For a Summary Report of IALSS, please go to: www.abc-canada.org.

A printed copy of the Summary Report can also be requested: Contact info@abc-canada.org.