Sue McClure gives an overview of the work of the National Institute of Adult Continuing Education
The National Institute of Adult Continuing Education (NIACE) is the organisation responsible for advocacy on behalf of adult learners throughout England and Wales. With that responsibility come opportunities for offering learning to adults, whatever their circumstances.
A Government survey last year found that 5 million people struggle with some literacy tasks, and three times as many with numeracy; and since 1999 some 2 million people have been involved in improving these skills. There is evidence that learners who may not be attracted by specialist literacy and numeracy classes can succeed where the literacy and numeracy is built into learning which interests and involves them. The arts create valuable opportunities for this.
There is substantial evidence of successfully integrating literacy and numeracy learning into participation in the arts. NIACE has supported several performance projects in settings including young people from black and minority groups, older people and people in hospices.
Developing a performance as an artist involves considerable negotiation and discussion. Social skills and literacy, language and numeracy, especially speaking and listening, grow from the creation of a performance, and tutors and project organisers can nurture and recognise these skills as they are demonstrated. A typical example of a NIACE Adult and Community Learning Fund project is the Second Wave Youth Arts initiative in Deptford, South-East London, where young people age 14?24, the majority disengaged from mainstream educational provision, develop skills in specialised arts as well as broader skills in team work, communication, expression, peer support and development of their own performance.
The visual arts also offer numerous opportunities for developing basic skills. The Two Saints Day Centre, supporting homeless people in Southampton, organised visits to galleries and museums. Learners were encouraged to paint, draw, and take photographs of the experience, leading to the staging of exhibitions and the founding of a creative writing magazine. In the process the learners developed communication skills in discussing evaluating and reacting to visual arts of their own and others. They developed literacy skills in researching art styles, reading descriptions and reviews, and in story-boarding and illustrating, and numeracy skills including space and shape through developing spatial awareness, buying equipment and selling their work. A similar project saw Big Issue vendors using photography to develop their literacy and numeracy skills. Costings, fractions, decimals and time, along with speaking and listening, writing narratives, planning, drafting and editing photographic reviews, were among the key skills which the programme developed.
A final example of the potential for integrating basic skills delivery with the arts emerges from the Prison Service target of ?reducing the proportion of prisoners discharged from their sentence who are at level 1 or below for literacy and numeracy skills?. The work of the Unit for the Arts and Offenders has demonstrated the value of performance/drama settings for addressing the difficulties of offenders of all ages, particularly in encouraging participation in constructive community activities, dealing with offending and antisocial behaviour, addressing issues like drug and alcohol misuse and health, and developing social and personal skills. Bearing in mind the estimate that ex-offenders are ineligible for 96 out of every 100 jobs because of poor literacy and numeracy skills, the growing commitment to using the arts to deliver these basic skills can only be a positive development.
Sue McClure is Development Officer for Literacy, Numeracy and ESOL, NIACE
e: sue.mcclure@niace.org.uk