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s. Not all of the 7 million adults will have the same learning needs. The Basic Skills Agency has identified four groups.
 The largest group of just over 4 million adults needs a modest amount of help to brush up their skills to the required level.
 The middle group of just fewer than 1.5 million adults need more specific in-depth help.
 The lower level group of just fewer than 1.5 million adults required intensive training by specialist teachers.
 The last group consisted of an estimated 500,000 adults for whom English is not their first language. A separate but related curriculum has been developed for this group of learners, known as ESOL (English for Speakers of Other Languages).
 
The above findings indicated that England alone had a greater proportion of functionally illiterate adults than any western country apart from Poland and Ireland. In order for the UK plc., economy to succeed in a very competitive world, this problem had to be addressed by the government of the day and quickly.
 
The recommendations of the report brought about the ‘Adult Basic Skills strategy Unit’ now known as Skills for Life, this being the title of the strategy for improving adults literacy and numeracy levels, which was launched in 2001. What is needed is the teaching of key (common core) skills, which are transferable to most subject disciplines.
 
Reece & Walker’s definition of Key Skills is: “The possession and development of sufficient knowledge, appropriate attitudes and experience for successful performance in life role. This includes employment and other forms of work; it implies maturity and responsibility in a variety of roles; and it includes experience as an essential element of competence”. (2003 p219)
 
Whilst recognising the problems of having 17.8 million Adults below Level 2 in Literacy and 23.8 million Adults below Level 2 in Numeracy may cause the economy of UK plc. to be uncompetitive; it is important to remember when considering what corrective measures are needed, that apart from the 500,000 adults for whom English is not their first language the majority have had at least eleven years of education in a system that has failed them.
 
According to the Department for Education and Skills in their executive summary on 14-19 education and skills, Primary Schools standards are at their highest ever level and in international comparisons match the best anywhere. Secondary schools 2004 results are at their best with over 53% of young people passing 5 or more A*- C grade GCSE’s, an 8% improvement on 1997 figures.(2005 p1) Historically there has always been a poor level of participation in post 16 education.
 
For this reason the government introduced the Education Maintenance Allowances to provide an incentive for 16-19 year olds to stay in education. Numbers staying on have increased but UK plc. remains low in the international comparison tables, hence the need for the Tomlinson Report on 14-19 Education and Skills.
 
Peter Tymms and Christine Merrell authors of the Cambridge – based Primary Review (an independent inquiry) have stated that “Five hundred million pounds was spent on the National Literacy Strategy with almost no impact on reading levels.” “Standards of reading have remained more or less the same over a very long time - since the 1950’s”. BBC New本论文由英语论文网提供整理，提供论文代写，英语论文代写，代写论文，代写英语论文，代写留学生论文，代写英文论文，留学生论文代写相关核心关键词搜索。