Low literacy is a serious problem in all European countries. Between 20-25% of the European population is functionally illiterate. In other words: at least one citizen in five does not have the reading and writing skills they need for functioning in society, with all its consequences for education, employment, health care, welfare, social integration and political participation. ‘More than 73 million adults in the EU…  do not have sufficient literacy levels to cope with the daily requirements of personal, social, and economic life’, according to European Commissioner Androulla Vassiliou in 2012. She launched a European campaign aimed at improving the general literacy rate: ‘Investing in literacy is investing in Europe’s human capital. Such investments only have winners: citizens of all ages, businesses and governments and, ultimately, Europe’s wellbeing and competitive position in the world.’

PIAAC 2013, Low literacy in Europe. (unfortunately, there is no PIAAC map available including South-Eastern Europe, with more recent information)

Long term effects of low literacy

Ten years later, however, there is hardly reason for optimism. It turns out to be difficult to change the negative trend. Many of the policies and campaigns aiming at improving literacy have only limited success. At this moment, still one in five of the 15-year-olds in the EU has insufficient reading skills. Many young people are thus seriously limited in their personal development and European society as a whole faces long-term challenges related to its wide-spread low literacy rate. ‘Illiteracy is a life sentence’, is a sad and well-known expression indicating the consequences for the individual. But it may even be worse: low literacy risks to become a life sentence for more generations and for larger groups of the European population.

Illustrations: Stichting Lezen en Schrijven

Why these blogs?

These blogs are written by students of the course Discussing Contemporary Challenges (Maastricht University, European Studies, year 2, 2021-2022). Students are in particular invited to address the urgency of low literacy in the European context, to reflect on the background and consequences of low literacy and describe possible policies and ‘best practices’ in the field. We started our course with an exploration of the situation in different European countries, addressing the following themes:

  • Historical developments in different European countries
  • Different approaches and policies in different countries
  • Costs & Consequences for Economy, Health & Welfare
  • Impact on political participation and social integration
  • Low literacy & poverty
  • Low literacy & migration
  • Low literacy & gender
  • Low literacy & minority languages
  • Best practices and successful campaigns
  • Health Literacy
  • Digital literacy

Our sources

We used – among other sources – reports and studies delivered by the EU High Level Group of Experts on Literacy, the European Association for the Education of Adults (EAEA), the European Literacy Policy Network (ELINET) and documents by UNESCO, OECD, PIAAC and specific national agencies. The aims of the blogs is not to provide new research, but to present and interpret existing data in a meaningful context. It is fair to indicate that the blogs are created in the framework of two skills courses, the first one aiming at writing a literature review and the other course focusing on the development of blogging and discussion skills. The discussion of low literacy policies and research went together with the development of academic skills.

Recent research reports by EAEA, Elinet and Lezen & Schrijven

Awareness raising campaigns

The blogs illustrate to which extent literacy is a problem affecting all European countries. This makes a European exploration as presented in these blogs particularly meaningful. Reading through the blogs, the reader will become aware of the urgency and complexity of policies in this domain. There are neither easy approaches nor short term solutions. Low literacy turns out to be a complicating factor also for addressing other big societal challenges: urgent policies in the domain of public health, economic sustainability, climate change and social emancipation will have to address the low literacy factor as well.

Another impression is that literacy problems are still largely underestimated. It is of the utmost importance to develop successful awareness-raising campaigns for low literacy in Europe. We hope that the student investments during this Academic Workshop 2021 will contribute to a further awareness raising and deeper understanding of the problems in this domain and the need of broad, well-balanced policies.

Charles van Leeuwen

Grateful acknowledgements to all members of our Workshop for their contributions!