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There is a progressing and troubling decline in literacy and numeracy in Trinidad and Tobago and the Adult Literacy Tutors Association (ALTA) is seeking to be the solution.
Recently, the CEO of the Employers’ Consultative Association (ECA), Ronald Ramlogan, expressed concerns about a deficit in numeracy and literacy skills, while MP for St Augustine, Khadijah Ameen, said the Education Ministry has been omitting “troubling trends” in the Secondary Entrance Assessment (SEA) results.
Ameen believes there has been a continuous decline in performance at the SEA level, stating that only 57.9 per cent of students scored 50 per cent or more in 2024.
In 2023, she said the figures showed 58.06 per cent scoring 50 per cent or more and 2.11 per cent achieving 90 per cent or higher.
The worst decline was reportedly seen in 2022, when a mere 37.07 per cent of students scored 50 per cent or higher and less than 0.5 per cent achieved 90 per cent or more.
Ramlogan, meanwhile, said allocating resources to education is always wise and the ECA can certainly applaud the recent fiscal measures that were investing in youth and adult education, while also promoting digital inclusion.
However, he said the ECA cannot help but express concern that these fiscal measures, though commendable, seem to highlight another troubling issue and that is a persistent or growing deficit in numeracy and literacy skills within our youth and adult population.
He said the Finance Minister did indicate in his Budget preamble that there remains a critical need to extend support to numeracy skills acquisition. “As far as I am aware, the last National Literacy Survey was conducted in 1994, which found at that time, that 25 per cent of our citizens were unable to cope with everyday reading and writing.”
“We also cannot overlook the fact that we do have a fairly large informal economy, and low education or literacy levels are one of those push factors that force individuals into informal jobs, where income, employment and safety protections are just limited. So, there must be an increase in data collection and transparency.”
Ramlogan believes the digital thrust is very important, particularly in the world now with an increasing reliance on technology.
He thinks the signals they are now seeing in terms of literacy and numeracy should not be underestimated and the ECA certainly hopes that there are some positive outcomes in terms of the recent interventions announced in the budget.
Founder and CEO of ALTA, Dr Paula Lucie Smith, believes ALTA may be the answer, as they cater to teaching literacy to adults, and most recently, to pre-teens and teens.
ALTA was formed in 1992 to improve adult literacy and since then, they have held classes all around the country. Up until Covid, they ran community-based classes using volunteer tutors and developed their own programme to teach people ages 16 and over.
During Covid, they began to offer classes via Zoom, where adults can get the usual two-hour ALTA class, adapted to the screen delivery format.
“While ALTA Online is not free, as our other classes are, it is offered through sponsors at ICT centres throughout the country and through some other avenues.
Dr Lucie-Smith said, “For instance, we did get some sponsorship last year through the 2023 budget, to fund an ALTA Online programme for Community-based Environmental Protection and Enhancement Programme, Unemployment Relief Programm workers and others and this is now extended to the prison populations and persons via the Ministry of Youth, Development and National Service.”
ALTA conducted the first National Literacy Survey in 1992, followed soon after by the UWI National Adult Literacy Survey in 1993. This looked at persons ages 15 and over at their literacy and it found that one in four adults had serious literacy challenges, in that they would not be able to fill out a form beyond writing their name and perhaps their address.
“And if you looked at a higher level, The UWI survey went on to determine that less than half of the population—one in two persons, could only read and understand a short newspaper article—almost a paragraph.”
However, she said, it is clearly stated by the recent poor performance at both the Secondary Entrance Assessment and CXC/CSEC/CAPE levels.
According to Dr Lucie-Smith, a literacy survey is the only real way that “we can get valid data on literacy” and the only ones that have been done were in the early 1990s by ALTA and UWI. There are two factors for the low levels, she said.
“One, our school system continues to be dominated by the SEA, which drives the curriculum very quickly through the learning stages in primary school. So many children who do not come from a background that is literate or who have some issue, whether it is dyslexia, or some sort of home issue—trauma due to something that has happened in the home, or they can’t attend regularly due to sickness or financial concern—…will simply move through the primary curriculum and move on.”
“The second big factor is that this would mean we would not have improved our literacy. Not improving in the near future is also the impact of the school closure for two years during Covid and that means that students continue to leave the school system having been impacted by those two years of closure….”
She said with the ECA raising this issue, she hopes it draws the attention of the government.
So, what can we do so that our employees are able to cope with the workplace of the 20th century where we are? One solution, she said, is ALTA Online.
“This offers literacy instruction, anywhere, anytime, so an employer, once they can provide an employee with a device—a personal computer, tablet or even a smartphone, and access to the internet, a person can start where they are. There’s an assessment book, which will place the individual in their starting literacy level for ALTA and they will progress at their own pace, in their own time towards literacy attainment which is certified.”
