In the Guardian, Randeep Ramesh reports on a recent OECD ranking of literacy and numeracy which shows England in a poor light:
England is the only country in the developed world where the generation approaching retirement is more literate and numerate than the youngest adults, according to the first skills survey by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
In a stark assessment of the success and failure of the 720-million-strong adult workforce across the wealthier economies, the economic thinktank warns that in England, adults aged 55 to 65 perform better than 16- to 24-year-olds at foundation levels of literacy and numeracy. The survey did not include people from Scotland or Wales.
The OECD study also finds that a quarter of adults in England have the maths skills of a 10-year-old. About 8.5 million adults, 24.1% of the population, have such basic levels of numeracy that they can manage only one-step tasks in arithmetic, sorting numbers or reading graphs. This is worse than the average in the developed world, where an average of 19% of people were found to have a similarly poor skill base.
When the results within age groups are compared across participating countries, older adults in England score higher in literacy and numeracy than the average among their peers, while younger adults show some of the lowest scores for their age group.
As with any sort of survey of this kind, it helps to know how they went about assessing skills in various countries and how similar countries rank:
Literacy for people aged 16-24
6 Australia
15 Canada
17 Ireland
19 England/N Ireland
20 United States
Literacy for all adults
5 Australia
10 Canada
14 England/N Ireland
16 United States
19 Ireland
Numeracy for people aged 16-24
14 Australia
16 Canada
18 Northern Ireland
20 Ireland
24 United States
Numeracy for all adults
13 Australia
14 Canada
16 England/N Ireland
19 Ireland
20 United States
If there’s reason for English authorities to be concerned with their middle-of-the-Anglosphere ranking, there’s even more reason for American educators to take note.
H/T to Tyler Cowen for the link.
