This chapter provides an overview of the Irish adult literacy system, tracing the history of adult literacy in Ireland, including its more recent development as a government priority in response to Ireland's poor results in the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) of 1995. Since this date, many policy initiatives and government funding have enabled the adult literacy service to expand and improve through three components: a national policy on adult education, 'Learning for life'; the first national strategy on adult literacy; and the inclusion of an adult literacy target in the national
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This chapter provides an overview of the Irish adult literacy system, tracing the history of adult literacy in Ireland, including its more recent development as a government priority in response to Ireland's poor results in the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) of 1995. Since this date, many policy initiatives and government funding have enabled the adult literacy service to expand and improve through three components: a national policy on adult education, 'Learning for life'; the first national strategy on adult literacy; and the inclusion of an adult literacy target in the national anti-poverty strategy. The author describes these components, the learner population, the teaching workforce, and related organisations. Current issues include the challenge of maintaining learner-centredness as the size of the population served expands rapidly, the need for coordination among literacy services, the preparation and retention of teachers, accountability and funding.
The volume from which this chapter is taken is indexed at TD/TNC 85.473. Selected chapters are indexed from TD/TNC 85.474 to TD/TNC 85.477.
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