The state of functional literacy in Australia is shocking. We are a wealthy nation, a healthy nation, arguably a wise nation—but we apparently are not a literate nation. New research has shown that half of Tasmanian adults cannot read in a way that serves them well in ordinary life. The rest of the country is not that much better off (1).

To be functionally illiterate means that you cannot read a letter sent to you by a doctor about your illness. It means you don’t understand the voting information you were given at the recent federal election. And it means that you can’t sign a bank loan with any certainty about what you are getting into (Okay, that might be most of us). You certainly won’t be enjoying Eternity.

This research runs counter to the argument that, like other developed countries, Australia has solved the problem of literacy with a comprehensive education system that begins in early childhood. If the statistics are correct, something is going wrong.

Indigenous literacy is far worse. Campaigns such as the Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation’s ‘Wall of Hands’ have brought to the public’s attention the enormous needs of remote indigenous communities. According to the Wall of Hands website, only around 20 per cent of indigenous kids can attain the minimum NAPLAN standard. Indigenous adults are no doubt worse off. This is a crisis in central Australia, but the crisis seems to be much more widely spread and not limited to remote locations. Many children in remote locations can’t access regular schooling. But many who can still aren’t becoming functionally literate adults.

What is the problem? I have three potential answers. First, it is a class problem. It is the so-called ‘lower’ classes who struggle with literacy. We are still wrestling to get beyond this basic social division. As the ultimate boundary-crossers (“all things to all men”), Christians need to do better here.

Second, it is an incentive problem. We value and reward the success of high-performing kids more than lower-performing kids. We celebrate peaks rather than progress. That’s a classical, rather than Christian, approach to life.

And third, with the decline of Christian belief and influence, we have seen a corresponding decline in literacy. This third claim needs more support than a newspaper column can offer, but let me make a start. There is a strong historical link between the spread of Christianity around the globe via the missionary movements and the growth of education (especially for women and the variously disadvantaged). In Australia, the ‘reading culture’ of the Anglican Church was highly significant in the shaping of the school system. Learning to read with the assistance of the Bible was commonplace. With declining church attendance, less people would read from at least one book (the Bible) each week. One of the original impulses behind Australian literacy was the desire to give people access to the word of God.

There will be plenty of other explanations for our low functional literacy rates, but the diminishing influence of the Book is certainly one of them.

Australia’s literacy problems have huge implications for Christian ministries, especially to the ‘lower classes’. There’s no point starting a Bible reading group if the group members can’t read. We have to take these functional illiteracy statistics seriously. Fortunately, Christians have always risen to challenges such as this with creativity, energy and compassion. Our Book tells us to do so.

Footnote:
(1) You can find out more at the Australian Bureau of Statistics by searching for ‘literacy’. After all, 2013 happens to be the International Year of Statistics (74 per cent of Eternity readers think I’m joking, but I’m not).

Image: David Morris.