New Light on Adult Literacy and Numeracy in Scotland: Evidence from the 2004 survey of the 1970 British Cohort Study (BCS70)

Executive Summary

This report gives the results of a separate analysis for Scotland of literacy and numeracy data collected in the 1970 British Cohort Study at age 34. It relates performance in these skills to a wide range of other features of Scottish cohort members' lives.

Chapter 2 Self-reported difficulties

The results point to a continuing low self-awareness of literacy and numeracy difficulties which is not surprising among adults. The very low number of adults who report difficulties with reading, writing or numbers and have attended provision to help improve their skills - just 3% to improve reading or writing and no-one to improve numberwork - needs to be set against the significant proportion of those acknowledging a problem who say that they want to improve their skills (29% reading or writing, 38% numberwork). This first points to challenges and opportunities that the Adult Literacy and Numeracy Strategy in Scotland needs to address. The Big Plus campaign obviously stimulated awareness of problems in some people, but the unmet need to improve skills - particularly number skills - suggests that further campaigns and learning opportunities are required that match the specific needs identified by potential learners.

Chapter 3 Assessed literacy and numeracy levels

Performance in the literacy and numeracy assessments was more weakly related for men and women in Scotland compared with BCS70 overall. Within Scotland men had stronger numeracy skills than women, and slightly more men and women living within the Central Belt area performed at the higher end of the distribution for both literacy and numeracy. However, men who had moved away from Scotland had the strongest skills of all, with more than 8 in 10 having SCQF Level 5 or higher literacy or numeracy skills. Comparable levels for all other men were 6 in 10 for literacy, and 1 in 3 for numeracy.

Chapter 4 Family background and family support factors

Cohort members with the poorest grasp of literacy and numeracy, particularly literacy, had a relatively disadvantaged home life in childhood, both economically and in terms of education levels and educational support offered by parents. Although more families in Scotland had grown up in rented overcrowded accommodation compared to those across Great Britain as a whole, those with the poorest grasp of literacy in Scotland were the most likely of all to live in such accommodation. Far fewer parents of cohort members with the poorest skills had enjoyed any extended education or gained any qualifications (87% of mothers of those with SCQF Access Level literacy had no qualifications, compared with 43% of mothers of cohort members with SCQF Level 5 or higher literacy). Fewer such parents had read to their children when they were young (40% of those with SCQF Access Level literacy had never been read to, compared with 19% SCQF Level 5 or higher literacy), or had been viewed by teachers as interested in their children's education towards the end of primary school. Reflecting their own poor educational experiences, far fewer parents of those with SCQF Access Level literacy held aspirations for them to continue in education after age 16.

Chapter 5 Early education performance and school environment

Cohort members with the poorest grasp of literacy or numeracy were less likely to have had formal pre-school experiences (47% of cohort members with SCQF Access Level literacy, compared with 81% of cohort members with SCQF Level 5 or higher literacy), and as early as age 5 they had performed less well in cognitive assessments, falling further behind by age 10, as revealed by scores in the reading and maths assessments. Although half of cohort members with poor skills had been identified as such by their parents, and identified themselves as having had poor skills in childhood (a far cry from the small percentages in adulthood), it still meant that the needs of half of them remained invisible. Teachers were even less likely to recognise these difficulties, with relatively few cohort members having received help with reading or understanding of numbers when at school (highest at just 28% for those with SCQF Access Level literacy). School intake reflected the poorer socio-economic background and local area of cohort members with the poorest grasp of skills in adulthood. But other characteristics of the school, including its teaching characteristics did not differ across adult skills groups. What seems to be critical is what the child brings with them into the classroom acquired from their family background.

Chapter 6 Post-16 education and learning experiences

Just as we found for all cohort members, men and women in Scotland with the poorest grasp of literacy or numeracy were by far the most likely to have left full time education at the earliest opportunity with no qualifications. This combined educational disadvantage was most apparent among the poorly skilled living within the Central Belt region (1 in 2 with SCQF Access Level literacy had no qualifications, compared with around 1 in 3 living elsewhere in Scotland). On the other hand, those living outside the Central Belt were more likely to be aware of their limited grasp of literacy (21% compared with 12% in the Central Belt) or numeracy (49% compared with 27% in the Central Belt), though the motivation to improve poor skills in Scotland was far lower than we found for Great Britain as a whole.

A potential added disadvantage was that as many as 1 in 4 men, and 1 in 5 women, with the poorest literacy were also assessed with a very high risk of being dyslexic, which has obvious implications for the progress of adults attending literacy and numeracy provision. The exclusion of adults with the poorest skills, particularly literacy, from the digital revolution that has taken place over the last decade is clear to see, with far more being without a computer (44% compared with 17% SCQF Level 5 or higher skills) or access to the internet at home (64% compared with 18% SCQF Level 5 or higher skills). Inclusion of a digital element within literacy and numeracy learning may be another way to attract adults to provision.

Chapter 7 Employment and economic disadvantage

Large numbers of men and women with the poorest skills first entered the workforce at 16, but they had spent the least amount of time in full-time or part-time employment over the following eighteen years. Men with SCQF Access Level skills spent more time unemployed or sick, and women in a full-time home-care role. At age 34, men and women in work had very different occupational profiles than men and women with a better grasp of literacy and numeracy, being far more likely to be in labour intensive low skilled jobs, often in the less secure unregulated parts of the labour market (19% men and 17% women with SCQF Access Level literacy, compared with just 5% men and 4% women with SCQF Level 5 literacy). Lower levels of training (19% men and 20% women with SCQF Access Level 2 numeracy, compared with 42% of men and 36% women with SCQF Level 5 numeracy) and promotion (25% men with SCQF Access Level literacy, compared with 55% of men with SCQF Level 5 literacy) show that their disadvantage had been made worse by employers being less likely to have invested in these men and women.

Questions about finances revealed the continuation of the (relative) economic disadvantage, or poverty, which has surrounded men and women with SCQF Access Level skills over their lives. Fewer of them reported being able to make regular savings or to have investments (13% SCQF Access Level 2 to 46% SCQF Level 5 numeracy), but more were in receipt of state benefits and part of a non-working household - particularly women with SCQF Access Level literacy (24% compared with 4% SCQF Level 5 literacy).

Chapter 8 Home, local environment and community participation

Men and women with the poorest literacy and numeracy, again particularly literacy, were less likely to have taken advantage of the recently thriving housing market. As in their childhood, they were most likely to be living in rented, overcrowded housing (62% women with SCQF Access Level literacy, compared with 17% SCQF Level 5 literacy, lived in rented housing; 32% with SCQF Access Level literacy to 7% with SCQF Level 5 literacy lived in an overcrowded home). Women with poor skills, and those living within the Central Belt, were more likely to have experienced a spell of homelessness (10% with SCQF Access Level literacy, 3% with SCQF Level 5 literacy in the Central Belt). Questions on local environment revealed that men and women with SCQF Access Level skills were more likely to feel dissatisfied with their local environment or to not trust others living around them. They were generally less engaged with their community, being less involved in clubs, groups or activities or to hold any political interest. Once again, men and women in the Central Belt region appeared the most excluded.

Chapter 9 Family life and well-being

Men with SCQF Access Level literacy or SCQF Access Level 2 numeracy were the most likely to be living with one or other of their parents at age 34. More of the men and women with SCQF Access Level literacy had never lived with a partner by age 34 but, on the other hand, women with poor literacy skills were also the most likely to have first moved in with a partner when still a teenager and to have become a teenage mother (24% to 5% with SCQF Level 5 or higher literacy). They went on to have more children, with three or four children not being uncommon by age 34 (29% to 8% with SCQF Level 5 or higher literacy). It seems that although as many as 1 in 5 women with SCQF Access Level literacy did not form (live-in) partnerships by age 34, the majority began the transition to partnership forming and family life earlier than women with a better grasp of literacy.

Poor physical and mental well-being, together with poor health related practices, were also associated with men and women with the poorest grasp of literacy or numeracy. More of these men and women had symptoms associated with depression (28% men and 29% women with SCQF Access Level literacy, compared with 13% men and 16% women with SCQF Level 5 of higher literacy). They were also more likely to report to never get what they want out of life (42% men and 29% women with SCQF Access Level literacy, compared with 17% men and 16% women with SCQF Level 5 of higher literacy), and that their health limited their daily activities in some way. They were more likely to smoke cigarettes every day, and men who drank alcohol were also more likely to consume a higher number of units than men with good literacy and numeracy skills.