Literacy in New Brunswick

During the International Year of Literacy in 1990, New Brunswick Premier Frank McKenna, appointed Canada's first Minister of State for Literacy and established an Advisory Council on Literacy. Members of the Council designed a Framework for Action to outline new roles for the government, community and private sector for the delivery of innovative literacy programs (Ministry of State for Literacy, 1994). Despite this increased emphasis placed on literacy, results on the 1994 International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS) were disturbing for New Brunswick. This test determines how well adults use printed information to function in society and identifies factors that influence literacy proficiency.

Findings on the IALS, a comparative study of literacy in 22 countries, revealed that up to 60 percent of adults residing in New Brunswick were rated in the bottom two of five literacy levels (Statistics Canada, 1998). Placement at these levels means that the participant either could not read at all or could read, but not well. That is, they were only able to use literacy for basic tasks like finding words in text. In a functional sense, someone rated at Level 1, the lowest level, might have problems understanding the information on a medication label to administer it appropriately. While those at Level 2, the next level, might adapt to functioning in their daily lives, they would struggle to learn new job skills. Level 3 is considered the basic literacy level. Some occupations call for integration of several sources of information or solving more complex problems which would require a Level 4 or Level 5 rating.