Boost family learning to close skills gap

 National Literacy Trust – Literacy news‎, 18 Oct 2013

 

Millions of children in England and Wales are held back by their parents’ poor basic skills, suggests a report.

Involving the whole family in learning can boost educational attainment across generations and should be integral to schools says the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE).

NIACE have today launched a high-level Inquiry, which among other recommendations – urges the government to invest in family learning which will help to cut the costs of spending on vulnerable families.

The NIACE team also looked at research from national and local government, Ofsted and from educational, family and children’s charities.

They found “particularly compelling evidence that family language and maths programmes benefit children’s skills as well as those of their parents and carers”.

They also found evidence of wider benefits from improving adults’ confidence and self-esteem to reducing ill health, unemployment and re-offending.

“Adults whose parents have low levels of education are eight times more likely to have poor proficiency in literacy than adults whose parents had higher levels of education,” writes Valerie Howarth in her foreword.