In the article below, CCA's CEO, Dr Don Perlgut, outlines a proposal for ABC TV to recommence broadcasts of the adult literacy TV series The Reading Writing Roadshow and the English language teaching series, English - have a go. These broadcasts will assist Australia's estimated 4 million adults who have literacy difficulties, as many of them have limited or no internet access, thereby locking them out of the online world that Australian learners are now relying on during the Coronavirus emergency.
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It’s time for Australia to return to broadcasting adult and community education television, especially adult literacy and English language.
ABC TV recommences free-to-air educational broadcasting
Last week brought the welcome news that ABC TV will recommence broadcasting educational television for both primary and secondary students through its children’s channel. The ABC has already provided free online access to thousands of curriculum-linked resources.
During the Coronavirus emergency and the shuttering of doors of schools, TAFEs, universities and colleges around the nation, these open broadcasts and online activities provide an educational lifeline, especially to those students and schools – many of them public – without easy access to sophisticated online learning platforms, or the staff with capabilities to manage e-learning.
It’s a great start. And important, because this emergency and Australia’s social distancing measures are not going away any time soon. The next step is for the ABC and the Commonwealth Government to turn its attention to the needs of adult and post-secondary learners, especially those with difficulty in literacy, numeracy and digital skills. These adult Australians will also benefit from broadcast educational television resources.
Many Australians still lack internet access
The assumption – often made by highly educated professionals who live in Australia’s capital cities – that all Australians can go online to access the education they need, is simply not correct. According to the Australian digital inclusion index:
“For the more than 2.5 million Australians who are still not online, the education, health, social and financial benefits of being connected remain out of reach. And we know that digital disadvantage coincides with other forms of social and economic disadvantage, so those that can potentially benefit most from being connected are at greater risk of being left behind.” (Read their latest report, August 2018.)
Who are these 2.5 million Australians? They are disproportionately Indigenous, older, poorer, rural and less well-educated:
- almost 25% of Indigenous households lack internet access, compared to 15% of the general population;
- only 55% of people aged 65 or more use the internet, compared to the 86.5% national average; and
- regional and rural household access consistently lags 10% behind metropolitan areas;
- while 95% of top “quintile” – the one-fifth of most economically advantaged households – have internet access, only 69% of bottom quintile, the most disadvantaged households, do;
- people with disabilities often lack confidence and knowledge to access the internet;
- for people from non-English speaking backgrounds, 14% lack access, compared to a 13.5% national average; and
- for people with lower formal education (year 12 or below), only 79% access the internet, compared with 97% of people with a tertiary qualification.
These groups, not coincidentally, are also those best served by Australia’s not-for-profit adult and community education (ACE) providers.
Meeting the needs of Australians with low literacy through TV broadcasts
What about those 20% of Australian adults with low literacy, numeracy and digital problem-solving skills? They are often the least likely to reskill and upskill for a changing workforce; only Australia’s ACE sector conducts outreach and fully caters for their needs.
So much of Australian adult literacy and numeracy instruction takes place face-to-face, simply because low literacy inevitably coincides with poverty, reduced digital access and other challenges. These Australians are particularly disadvantaged during a Coronavirus social distancing regime, and must not be forgotten.
The Australian Bureau of Statistics estimates our population at 25.6 million people. Since 80% of them are adults (roughly age 15+), this means that more than 4 million adult Australians face literacy challenges (20% of 80% of 25.6 million).
This is where the ABC comes in. During the 1990s, the ABC invested – with the Commonwealth Government support – millions of dollars in adult literacy television and radio programming, starting with International Literacy Year in 1990. The ABC right now has two adult basic education instructional television series which it can commence broadcasting immediately to meet the needs of low literacy and English language adults:
- Reading Writing Roadshow, a 20 x half-hour series with drama, comedy and documentary elements for literacy instruction; and
- English – have a go, 26 x half-hour series for people with English as a second language.
Australia’s Reading Writing Hotline – a national, Commonwealth-funded free telephone support service – is perfectly positioned to support the ABC TV broadcasts.
Making these two series freely accessible through free-to-air ABC TV broadcasts will provide many of the most disadvantaged adult Australians with educational resources they can use at a time when so many other forms of education are closed off to them.
Dr Don Perlgut, CEO, Community Colleges Australia, 5 April 2020
CCA, in association with Reading Writing Hotline, Australian Council for Adult Literacy and Adult Learning Australia, has made a direct request to the ABC to rebroadcast these two series: read the formal request here.
