Literacy in PEI
Literacy Facts
 the reading skills of 30% of PEI adults are so limited
that they can’t deal with most printed material- an additional
35% of PEI adults need materials written clearly in plain language
- reading skills of seasonal workers are lower than year-round
workers
- fewer than half the workers in farming, manufacturing
and other primary industries have reading skills that allow
them to meet
most everyday reading demands
- 80% of Canadian seniors cannot
read well enough to deal with everyday literacy tasks
- literacy
levels get lower from west to east across Canada
from the International Adult Literacy Survey (IALS), 1996
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Literacy Skill Levels
Level 1 people
- have great difficulty reading and usually know they
have a problem
Level 2 people
- can read, but not well
- can deal with material that is simple
and clearly laid out
- often do not recognize their limitation
Level 3 people
- can read well, but have some problems with more complex
tasks, however, many jobs require a higher skill level
Level 4/5 people
- have a high level of literacy and can meet most reading
demands
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Kinds of Literacy Prose - knowledge and skills needed to understand and use information
from texts, such as news stories, magazines and novels
Document - knowledge and skills needed to find and use information
from documents, such as job applications, maps and tables
Quantitative - knowledge and skills needed to apply arithmetic
operations, such as balancing a chequebook or figuring out a tip
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Literacy Skills of Islanders
Percentage of people at each literacy skill level by PEI federal
riding:
| Cardigan |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4/5 |
| Prose |
30% |
35% |
29% |
6% |
| Document |
34% |
32% |
25% |
8% |
| Quantitative |
27% |
36% |
30% |
7% |
| |
|
|
|
|
| Egmont |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4/5 |
| Prose |
32% |
35% |
27% |
6% |
| Document |
36% |
32% |
24% |
8% |
| Quantitative |
30% |
35% |
29% |
6% |
| |
|
|
|
|
| Hillsborough |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4/5 |
| Prose |
25% |
34% |
33% |
8% |
| Document |
26% |
33% |
30% |
11% |
| Quantitative |
30% |
35% |
35% |
9% |
| |
|
|
|
|
| Malpeque |
1 |
2 |
3 |
4/5 |
| Prose |
28% |
35% |
30% |
7% |
| Document |
31% |
32% |
27% |
10% |
| Quantitative |
24% |
36% |
32% |
8% |
Projections based on International Adult Literacy
Survey data, 1997 *
About 30% of PEI adults have very low literacy skills. This is
higher than the national average of 25%. In some areas of PEI,
the percentage is as high as 33%. top
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