HC Deb 21 May 1974 vol 874 cc199-201

4.8 p.m.

Mr Christopher Price (Lewisham, West)

I beg to move, That leave be given to bring in a Bill to establish a National Resource Council for Literacy to direct and co-ordinate action research into the extent and causes of illiteracy among adults; to develop and co-ordinate literacy teaching techniques and to make other provision to combat functional illiteracy among adults; to provide for a supplementary system of adult literacy teaching grants for local education authorities and to establish a Literacy Fund from which such grants may be made; and for related purposes. I am gratified to see the Under-Secretary of State for Education and Science, the Secretary of State for Scotland and his Under-Secretary present, because I believe that this Bill foreshadows an important shift in educational resources that will have to be made within Britain over the next few years. It has only recently come to our notice that there are 2 million adult illiterates in Britain. That is an underestimate rather than an overestimate. Further, it is an estimate made on the old basis of the National Foundation for Educational Research which was concerned with the reading ability of a nine-year old, whereas the new standard that UNESCO wishes all countries to adopt is based on the reading ability of a 13-year old. If the new basis were taken into consideration, the number of illiterates would be very much higher.

The purpose of this Bill is to provide money so that local education authorities throughout Britain can take this task over from the voluntary agencies that have undertaken it hitherto. This is in no way to detract from the work of the voluntary agencies. They have filled a gap which the State has quite disgracefully been unwilling to fill for many years. The best-known voluntary agency is Cambridge House in South London which has 500 tutors operating on a one-to-one basis to help adult illiterates. But it is estimated that the present system of very few local authorities and many voluntary agencies looks after only about \ per cent, of adult illiterates who need aid.

This Bill coincides with a campaign being launched by the British Association of Settlements. Many people will have heard some of the touching stories about the difficulties of attacking this problem simply because people are ashamed about coming forward and admitting to illiteracy. It is difficult to contact people. People cannot be contacted through the newspapers because they cannot read. I heard this morning about one local education authority operating a course for adult illiterates. The first thing that was done at that course was to give the pupils a form to fill in. We have to get away from that kind of thing.

That is why we need a completely new approach—and that approach can be set in motion only by a national council, which we have called a National Resource Council for Literacy, which can take control of the whole operation and make sure that the right teaching techniques and right methods are used, with tutors to try to discover the facts and the scope of the situation. It could institute further research so that we do not have to hear again an answer such as that which the Minister gave to a Question by my hon. Friend the Member for Bedwellty (Mr. Kinnock) the other day, when he said that he welcomed the amount of work being done but did not know how much was being done. That was one of the most unsatisfactory ways of putting it that I can imagine.

We see many reasons for this Bill. One of the most crucial has arisen as a result of the DC 10 crash in March outside Paris. The inquiry into that has not yet taken place but it has been fairly well established that that crash occurred because a man who loaded the aircraft could not read the instructions on how to shut the hatch. That tragedy highlights the need for this Bill, but I do not rely entirely on that kind of tragedy.

If we are to break this cycle of deprivation between school, home and work it is no good acting only on the school in terms of literacy. We have to provide a service for adults, too. We also have a responsibility to those of our citizens who, usually through no fault of their own, find themselves in this position, to relieve them, for sheer humanitarian motives, from the appalling situation in which they find themselves. Adult illiterates now walking about London are in exactly the same position as hon. Members would be when walking about Peking or Moscow unable to read Chinese or Russian. These illiterates walk about in a strange graphic world, completely unable to live a normal life of the kind which most ordinary citizens take for granted.

In view of the length of time for which this Session may run, I am not totally hopeful that this Bill will go through all its stages in both Houses and finally be put into law this time. But ideas have to be launched in this way. The Department of Education—I am glad to see the Under-Secretary here—will very shortly have to make a statement about the Russell Report on adult education. I greatly hope that this Bill will encourage the Under-Secretary to make sure that in that statement on the report, adult illiteracy is made an absolute priority over other issues of adult education.

I very much hope that the introduction of this Bill will herald a time when we stop feeling that the education of children at school will solve all our educational and literacy problems, and when we look far more to what the French call education permanente, which has been translated into English in many forms—and that which I like best is "lifelong education". I hope that we can look forward to education being not just a short stint in childhood but a lifelong task. There are deprived adults who desperately need a chance to lead a full life. I hope that the next time the Under-Secretary makes a statement he will take these words into consideration, and that when this Bill is called for Second Reading he will smile upon it and tell the Whips to keep quiet and not shout "Objection".

Question put and agreed to.

Bill ordered to be brought in by Mr. Bryan Davies, Mr. Stan Thome, Mr. Geoffrey Pattie, Mr. Clement Freud, Mr. George Rodgers, Mr. Anthony Steen, Mr. Eddie Loyden, Mr. Neil Kinnock and Mr. Christopher Price.