Future Tassie survey: Call to aim high in literacy goals

More than 90 per cent of Tasmanians believe an ambitious literacy goal is an important target for the state

Estelle Parkinson, 5, Meg Free, educator, Millicent Wedd, 5, and Tom Ribbon, 4, at Lady Gowrie Tasmania Integrated Centre for Children and Families at South Hobart. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

MORE than 90 per cent of Tasmanians believe an ambitious literacy goal is an important target for the state.

A survey of more than 1300 people, conducted exclusively for the Sunday Tasmanian, has revealed that literacy is the state’s biggest concern.

One of the state’s strongest advocates for literacy, former Tasmanian of the Year Rosalie Martin, said the overwhelming response gave strength to a new push for Tasmania to adopt a bold 100 per cent literacy target.

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“This puts solid ground under our #100PercentLiteracy campaign,” Ms Martin said.

The vision for the state to raise its functional literacy rate was identified by delegates at a literacy symposium at Government House in November.

At present, Tasmania’s rate of functional illiteracy is 48 per cent. A person with functional illiteracy may be able to read and write, but not have the skills needed to get by in the modern world — such as reading medical instructions or filling out bank forms.

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“The Tasmanian population is to be commended and applauded for saying they don’t think this is good enough,” said Ms Martin, a speech pathologist who has transformed the lives of prisoners through her programs aimed at improving their literacy.

Some 44 per cent of people in the Future Tassie Survey ranked “adopting and funding an ambitious literacy goal for the state” as “very important”, which was the highest. A further 24 per cent ranked it “fairly important” and 23 per cent as “important”.

One of the state’s strongest advocates for literacy, Rosalie Martin, said the overwhelming response gave strength to a new push for Tasmania to adopt a bold 100 per cent literacy target. Picture: FIONA HARDING

The survey also revealed the second most important concern as “providing more teaching support staff in primary classrooms”, which was ranked as “very important” by 40.5 per cent of people.

Other highlights were: continuing the rollout of Year 12 at high schools (39 per cent ranked “very important”) and offering greater regional access to University of Tasmania courses (38 per cent).

Education researcher and ambassador Dr Michael Rowen said the survey results showed Tasmanians cared about equal access to education.

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“The respondents see the importance of education as a way to create a more equal society, and that is exciting,” Dr Rowen said.

He said the state’s unequal outcome from schooling needed to be fixed.

Dr Rowen backed calls for the state to adopt a 100 per cent literacy target.

Early learning expert Ros Cornish said the focus on literacy needed to start at birth.

The chief executive of Lady Gowrie Tasmania said a rich language environment was an essential ingredient during the preschool years.

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“It doesn’t begin at school, the critical stage for development is the years prior to school,” she said.

“Families are a child’s first teacher, and it starts at birth.

“Literacy is an important part of our curriculum, even for our infants.”

The Future Tassie survey also showed that more than 90 per cent of Tasmanians regard investment in preschool services as important, with 21.4 per cent rating it the highest “very important”.

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