There has, inevitably, been a swift response to Professor Anna Vignoles’ speech yesterday in which she dismissed adult basic skills courses.
The response has come (of course) from NIACE – the National Institute for Adult Continuing Education.
Carol Taylor, Director of Operations, said: “We cannot be prepared to simply write off all those adults who have poorer literacy and numeracy skills. Of course we would like all children to leave school with excellent literacy and numeracy skills – but this has never been the case.
“The overhaul of the primary and secondary curriculum since 1997 has gone a long way towards changing this. Schools are improving but this situation will take generations to change.”
In her speech Prof Vignoles pointed out that official figures show that £995 million was spent just on the Skills for Life programme in 2006–07 alone.
Would that money have been better spend on improving the teaching of children so that we climb out of the hole we are in? After all, we continue to languish in the bottom half of the official international basic skills league tables!
www.niace.org.uk
Visit the Fuse Learning website: www.fuselearning.co.uk
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