One in five 15-year-olds in Europe have reading and writing difficulties and lack basic skills, difficulties which are then dragged on by adults and in many cases make it harder for them to find a job and put them at risk of social exclusion. In order to tackle this problem, the European Commission has set up a Group of Experts in Literacy who will work to identify ways of raising literacy levels.

The EU High Level Group on Literacy, which met for the first time in Brussels on 1 February, is chaired by Princess Laurentien of the Netherlands, who is a Special Envoy on Literacy for Development for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO). The objective of the High-Level Group on Literacy is to give visibility and political importance to the issue of raising literacy levels in Europe, by analysing scientific evidence and evaluating what policies work best. The 11 members of the group are experts on literacy from academia, politics and business.

Literacy as a challenge for growth

The results of the Programme for International Student Assessment (PISA) for 2009, showed that around 20% of European 15-year-olds had some difficulties ans presented low reading skills. The data gathered by the OECD in this survey which analyses students skills in reading, maths and science, show that although results have slightly improved since 2000, it is still necessary to make efforts to achieve EU target of fewer than 15% of low performers in reading, maths and science by 2020.

This objective as well as the activity of the High Level Group and the objective to raise literacy level are strongly linked to the the Europe 2020 flagship initiatives "Youth on the Move" and "Agenda for New Skills and Jobs", which both aim to improve skills levels in Europe through better quality of education and training. They are also in close relation to the specific target set by the Commission to reduce early school leaving rates to less that 10% by the end of this decade and the Strategy put forward by the Commission to tackle early school leaving, which is in many cases linked to low literacy skills.

In relation to literacy skills in adults the need for action is just as urgent, as almost 80 million adults in Europe, who represent a third of the workforce, have only low or basic skills, while estimates show that share of jobs requiring high qualifications will increase to 35% by the end of the decade, compared to 29% now. Reading and writing are essential skills, not least as they are the key to further learning but because they allow to communicate and access essential information for personal and professional purposes. As highlighted by Group Chair Princess Lauretien in its first meeting, illiteracy stands in the way of economic growth and inclusiveness, and therefore by tackling illiteracy, it is also likely to contribute to solutions in a range of other areas, such as poverty, employability and healthy living.