Recommendation on the Literacy Plan 2012-2016 (06/28/2012)

This recommendation has been prepared by a working group of the General Council of the Vlor.

The new literacy plan 2012-2016 builds further on the results of the first literacy plan. The council welcomes the fact that the literacy theme has been put high on the agenda of several policy domains. However, the Vlor thinks that a number of actions in the plan are not concrete enough; in order to implement the plan successfully, a real engagement of all policy domains and a strong coordination will be required.

The concept of literacy has to be operationalized at the level of the different policy domains and actions. Within the policy domain of education, literacy has to be sustainable: acquiring the functional skills and attitudes that allow people to be the motor of their further development.

Compulsory education, as a whole, has to be at the centre of any literacy policy. Therefore, the added value of isolated measures related to compulsory education, next to the predominant focus on adults, is not clear. Actions should not be limited neither to those who have had education in Dutch.

The Vlor questions the feasibility of literacy training in secondary adult education: the attention to literacy training is legitimate, but expectations towards centres for adult education are increasing, and supplementary funding is not foreseen.