Adolescent Literacy in Europe — An Urgent Call for Action

Abstract

This article focuses on the literacy of the adolescents who, in most European countries, are about to leave or have recently left basic education with the assumption that they have the command of functional literacy as required in and for further studies, citizenship, work life and a fulfilling life as individuals. First, the overall performance level in the EU member countries with a special focus on poor literacy is examined. Also, the most persistent inequities in adolescent literacy are reviewed, including the gender gap, the socio‐economic gap, the migrant gap and the digital gap. Secondly, the focus turns to developing adolescent literacy and reading education in Europe in a constantly changing global context with increasing literacy demands calling for a lifelong and a life‐wide development of literacy. The article outlines elements of effective literacy education for adolescents in Europe.

Northern Lights on TIMSS and PIRLS 2011

“…Since students start their educational path at different points, individualised pedagogical solutions are also needed. Their own language and literacy resources should be used as entry points to the literacies required and appreciated at school and in the society, but the objectives of instruction should be equally ambitious for all students (Sulkunen 2013).…”

“…Both ends of the student distribution have an important impact on the average performance as well. Several countries that have succeeded in improving their average performance, such as in the PISA reading assessment, have decreased the percentage of low performers (OECD 2010c;Sulkunen 2013).…”

When Investment in Basic Skills Gives Negative Returns

“…Analysis of the PISA results shows that, at the age of 15 years many young people have problems with basic reading skills. This applies to Norway and to most other countries participating in the PISA survey (Rasmussen, 2003; Sulkunen, 2013). In reviewing the PISA results, Sulkunen (2013), pointing to lower standards in many countries and persistent inequities, claims that adolescent literacy requires urgent attention.…”

Dilemmas of central governance and distributed autonomy in education

“…Even though they remain limited to measuring mathematical, scientific and language skills, these are often used as an indicator for the performance and quality of education systems as a whole, because these skills are considered some of the most crucial for students to obtain in order to function properly on the labor market and during the course of their lives, worldwide (cf. Sulkunen, 2013).…”