RESOLUTION A3-0400/92

Resolution on the eradication of illiteracy in the Member States of the European Community

The European Parliament,

-having regard to its resolution of 13 May 1982 on measures to combat illiteracy,

-having regard to its resolution of 16 March 1984 on education for children whose parents have no fixed abode,

-having regard to its resolution of 16 April 1985 on the education of migrant workers' children,

-having regard to its resolution of 17 March 1989 on illiteracy and education for children whose parents have no fixed abode,

-having regard to the motions for resolutions by:

(a)Mr Vandemeulebroucke on the eradication of illiteracy in the Member States of the European Community (B3-0628/90),

(b)Mrs Banotti on the establishment of a pilot programme for remedial education (B3-0868/90),

(c)Mr Kostopoulos on combating the scourge of illiteracy (B3-1522/91),

-having regard to the Treaty on European Union, adopted on 9, 10 and 11 December 1991 and signed on 7 February 1992 in Maastricht, in particular Articles 123, 126 and 127 thereof,

-having regard to the report of the Committee on Culture, Youth, Education and the Media (A3-0400/92),

A.whereas illiteracy still persists in the Member States of the Community,

B.whereas the response of the European institutions and the Member States to illiteracy, and the corresponding political, economic and social problems, has been both belated and inadequate,

C.whereas, while fully respecting the responsibility of the Member States for the content of teaching and the organization of education systems, the Treaty on European Union stipulates that the Community shall contribute to the development of quality education,

D.whereas there is no generally accepted definition of illiteracy in Europe, and whereas this lack of coherence calls into question the accuracy and relevance of the studies carried out,

E.whereas the new communication media, the vast array of information codes, and the complex nature of new organizational practices are creating fresh types of illiteracy, in particular partial illiteracy to which no one is sure of being totally immune, and fresh causes of marginalization and/or dependence,

F.whereas adults may also suffer from functional illiteracy which, in many cases, they themselves do not recognize, making it very difficult to diagnose and hence to combat,

G.whereas the spectacular change in the labour market over the last 20 years means that an increasingly highly skilled labour force is needed,

H.whereas illiteracy develops primarily among the urban poor, in backward rural areas, and among immigrants and their descendants, creating new forms of social inadequacy,

I.whereas military service provides an opportunity to monitor the level of literacy of recruits,

J.whereas the problem of adult illiteracy is still much more serious in the case of women, who have been integrated into the labour market more recently and, in many cases, remain at home without the necessary incentives or specific assistance,

K.whereas illiteracy is always linked to academic failure, a lack or the inadequacy of education - at present itself the result of severe poverty - despite the rules governing compulsory schooling,

L.whereas school-leaving criteria are almost solely based on age, and in no case on a minimum level of knowledge acquired,

M.whereas the authorities have a responsibility in organizing the education system to anticipate the needs of specific groups which are at a disadvantage in terms of development and education and, if necessary, introduce and finance special forms of education in addition to the standard ones,

N.whereas policies to combat illiteracy are in no way systematic, being based primarily on the laudable work of voluntary associations,

O.whereas success at school is an important factor in preventing illiteracy and such success among children triggers off a positive chain reaction enabling adults to overcome illiteracy,

P.recognizing the vital contribution which television and audiovisual presentation can make to the accessibility and the success of adult literacy programmes,

1.Calls on European, national, regional and local institutions to marshal their human and financial resources in order to enable the population of the European Community to exercise one of its fundamental rights: the right to education and to a minimum of knowledge;

Literacy programmes for young people

2.Calls on the Commission to carry out or (or commission) a comparative study on the nature and extent of illiteracy, possible influencing factors and policies followed in Member States to prevent and overcome illiteracy among the population;

3.Calls on the Commission to stress that illiteracy should be more effectively prevented by means of high quality education for everyone from pre-school age onwards particularly by ensuring that education is easily accessible, for example in isolated rural areas, in order to reduce the distances pupils must travel to school thereby making education systems more integrated;

4.Calls on the Commission to examine the situation of illiteracy in the less-favoured regions in the context of strengthening social cohesion among the Member States, and to make recommendations with a view to eradicating illiteracy among the population of these regions;

5.Calls on the Commission to examine how, with that aim in view, its directorates-general, in particular DG V, DG XII and DG XVI, could work together even more closely, taking the STRIDE and TELEMATIQUE programmes as a model, together with the Human Resources - Education Training and Youth Task Force, so that, by means of educating and training, less-favoured regions can also be given an opportunity to develop autonomously;

6.Calls on the Commission to submit to the Council a structured global programme of data exchanges within the EURYDICE network designed to create greater synergy between the Member States and the Community and to open up the network to a broader cross-section of people, stressing that this network is an ideal information, promotion and assessment tool for measures which combine research and practical action in the sphere of illiteracy;

7.Calls on the Council and the Member States to define more clearly, in each Member State, the division of responsibilities in this sphere among the relevant ministries (Social Affairs, Education, Training, etc.) and to take more effective measures to ensure cooperation between them;

8.Calls on the Council and the Member States to develop and implement measures to encourage reading to avoid illiteracy among those who, having learnt to read, have lost the habit and then the ability;

9.Calls on the Council and the Member States to take account of all aspects of illiteracy covering not only the written language but also command of the spoken language, audiovisual material, narrative technique and the visual media in general, which constitute the dominant means of communication within our societies;

10.Calls on the Council and the Member States to consider the advisability of incorporating into their respective rules governing school-leaving requirements a concept of a minimum level of knowledge and to coordinate their efforts to enable everyone to achieve this minimum level, which should cover: a command of spoken language, reading and comprehension of signs and images, writing, basic arithmetic, and the simple notions of budgeting vital to a healthy, balanced life;

11.Calls on the Council and the Member States to make greater use of teachers, specialist educators, educational psychologists, social workers and advisers on budgeting and specialist associations and to ensure that they are given proper credit for the roles they perform, which are vital in dealing with society's current and future problems and which enhance the effectiveness of literacy programmes by exerting an influence on individuals and their environment (family, housing, social conditions, etc.);

12.Calls on the Council and the Member States to encourage the use of television for remedial programmes (for children and adults), the promotion of reading and comprehension of texts, pictures, spoken language and audiovisual material; to encourage also the use in schools of television and video recordings for the study of audiovisual material, pictures and sound, and to seek the cooperation of the printed and especially the audiovisual media in the development and implementation of adult literacy programmes;

13.Calls on the Council and the Member States to devote particular attention to functional illiteracy among adults and endeavour to remedy this by means of special education programmes and information campaigns designed to facilitate access thereto;

14.Calls on the Council and the Member States to develop literacy programmes during military service for all recruits identified as suffering from total or partial illiteracy;

15.Calls on the Council and the Member States to introduce mechanisms specifically designed to detect, alleviate and remedy the special and particularly difficult problems facing illiterate or functionally illiterate women;

16.Calls on the Council and the Member States to improve or make compulsory preventive medicine in schools in order to detect at the earliest possible stage physiological problems affecting sight, hearing, etc., which might lead to absenteeism or exacerbate a pupil's learning difficulties;

Literacy programmes for adults

17.Calls on the Commission to propose to the Council the measures needed to enable each individual to learn or re-learn to read, write and perform simple sums, i.e. acquire the basic life skills demanded by modern society;

18.Calls on the Commission to propose to the Council a programme of measures to encourage, support and develop literacy teaching experiments carried out in deprived urban areas and underdeveloped rural areas and specific measures to assist women, travellers and the descendants of immigrants, such programmes to include the development of books and other teaching aids specially prepared to meet the needs of adults who are completely or largely illiterate and the funding of their translation into other Community languages where necessary;

19.Calls on the Commission to keep up its efforts to make these experiments eligible for funding under Objectives 3 and 4 of the European Social Fund (ESF) and to submit to the European Parliament each year a detailed report on the ESF appropriations allocated to this type of measure;

20.Calls on the Commission to consider setting up a European network, along the lines of IRIS, to foster and coordinate pilot adult literacy programmes and encourage ongoing training in particular in new forms of communication and command of new technologies;

21.Calls on the Commission to carry out a study of the economic and social cost of illiteracy in the Community;

22.Calls on the Commission to submit to Parliament an annual report on the findings of that study;

23.Calls on the Commission to launch a campaign to raise public awareness of the problem of illiteracy in all its forms and, at the same time, encourage illiterate adults to take part in literacy courses;

24.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the governments and parliaments of the Member States and the regional parliaments in the Member States insofar as their remit extends to education.