Large metropolitan municipalities such as Metro Toronto tend to support adult basic education services through funding special projects implemented by boards of education, the Department of Social Services, local ethnic organizations, community colleges (funded through Manpower), and library boards. All these programs operate independently of each other and with minimal contact. Small urban areas such as Kingston, Ontario have had some success in developing co-operative programs in which all these agencies contribute in kind to the main program which supports both paid staff and volunteer tutors. Rural areas tend to receive adult basic education services through a strong community or continuing education division of a local educational institution. Examples of this can be found in the volunteer literacy tutoring program at Parkland Community College.

A final note on the subject comes from an article on illiteracy in Canada written by Dr. J. C. Cairns of the University of Guelph: (1)

The most extraordinary aspect of the Canadian illiteracy situation is not that it exists, since somewhat similar situations are found in most advanced industrialized societies, but that so little is being done about it ...

Most other literacy programs in Canada are provided by voluntary organizations such as Frontier College; by private agencies such as the Craig Reading Clinic (Orillia, Ontario) or through programs which are funded jointly by all three levels of government and by private donations such as the Focus on Change program of the Metro Toronto YWCA.

Basic problems

1.

Most governmental bodies and elected representatives appear to be unaware of the extent

of the need for adult basic education services; of the difficulties created by the lack of fundamental skills which are presumed to have been acquired during elementary school education; and of how these difficulties are reflected in the need to provide a wide range of compensatory governmental services.

(1). J. C. Cairns, "Adult functional illiteracy in Canada", Convergence, X:1, January 1977, pp. 43 - 51.


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