Funding of €430,000 Announced for Two New Innovative Family Literacy Initiatives on International Literacy Day

• €300,000 for Media Literacy, which is very important to help people understand and think critically about the information they see in the news, ads and social media, and for spotting sources that can be trusted, recognise biases and guard against fake news
• €130,000 for Family Literacy, which is central to breaking intergenerational literacy issues in families and encouraging parents to support their children’s learning. It helps everyone in the family become better at understanding and using information

“One of my key goals in this department is to help everyone, no matter their background, to reach their full potential.

“And while in many respects Ireland is a highly educated, modern and dynamic country, as a society we must acknowledge that there are people who have missed out and been left behind.

“There is no excuse for this, and it is something we are working very hard to address.

“Some of these people may struggle to read and understand everyday information and some have difficulty working with numbers, while even more are simply terrified of using the internet and other technology.

“Being able to critically engage with media content and to recognise and identify the massive amount of misinformation that floods our timelines on our phones and our computers is imperative.

“The Adult Literacy for Life Strategy is focused on improving lives by offering people free and local courses where they can improve their literacy skills and, most importantly, give them the confidence to fully participate in society and become the best informed they can be.”

• increasing media literacy through the development of eLearning programmes and media literacy hubs in local libraries, and
• the appointment of a dedicated family literacy lead in the Adult Literacy for Life programme office, to drive work and progress in this key area

“Adult Literacy for Life aims to do two things.

“Firstly, it aims to make sure that anyone with an unmet literacy need is able to access the supports they need.

“Secondly, Adult Literacy for Life aims to make Irish society more accessible to people with an unmet literacy, numeracy or digital literacy need. It is really important that organisations – public, private and community and voluntary – deliver services in a literacy friendly and literacy aware way.

“We are also really delighted to be launching an online literacy awareness training course which will help all of us who have direct contact with the public in our work or volunteering, to respond better to unmet literacy needs.

“I want to particularly thank the participants in the course – Catherine, Maurice, Sarah, Denis and Matt – for sharing their life and work experiences, from which we can all learn.”

“While we continue to offer learners opportunities to address their unmet literacy needs, it is also vital that the community around them becomes more aware and sensitive to the challenges these learners are facing.

“I want to thank everyone who has worked so hard to make these online learning courses a reality, and I am certain they will go a long way towards tackling the unwarranted stigma attached to this issue.”