More than 1 in 3 Australian adults are functionally illiterate. How can we fix this?

Australians spend more money per capita on education than most comparable nations. We should have high levels of literacy – but we don’t.

NAPLAN results indicate one in three primary and secondary students do not meet basic national standards in reading and writing. The picture is likely worse for adults.

The most recent data we have is the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development’s 2013 survey assessing adult competencies. It found 44% of Australian adults have literacy skills below the “necessary proficiency level for navigating modern work and life”. In other words, they were functionally illiterate.

If we assume 44% Australians adults are still functionally illiterate, this means around 9.4 million people lack the skills needed to meet “the demands of everyday life and work in a complex, advanced society”. This is a national disgrace for such a wealthy country.

Functional literacy is now widely recognised as a human right. When we think of human rights, we typically think of physical needs such as safe food, water, shelter and medicine. But meeting these needs is increasingly dependent on the ability to read and write, for instance through using text-based apps to manage our personal finances, social lives and learning.

Millions of Australians, both children and adults, struggle with literacy. In this series, we explore the challenges of reading in an age of smartphones and social media – and ask experts how we can become better readers. Improving functional literacy in adults may be Australia’s biggest literacy challenge. In 2021, there was a government inquiry into adult literacy. Responding to the inquiry’s list of recommendations, the government outlined a list of initiatives that either already existed or it planned to put in place. How well are these initiatives doing? It is hard to know. The Australian government temporarily withdrew from the OECD’s most recent literacy study for data security reasons, instead opting to conduct its own “Survey of Adult Skills in Australia”. However, that survey has since been outsourced to a commercial polling company, Roy Morgan. The results are due in late 2026. Until then, we lack up-to-date estimates of adult functional literacy levels in Australia and the ability to objectively assess if current policies and programs are proving effective. Such a big problem needs a highly effective solution. In principle, this solution is straightforward: we need to accelerate the delivery of evidence-informed literacy assessment, explicit instruction and targeted intervention for children, teens and adults across Australia. In practice, this solution is far more complex. Let’s start with children. Ideally, every primary school in Australia would build a multi-tiered system of support for literacy. This will ensure all children receive evidence-informed, explicit instruction in foundational literacy skills, such as phonics, the ability to translate letters into sounds to decode written words, and morphology, the ability to use the smallest units of meaning within words to read words. If a child fails to respond to this instruction, they should receive additional help, in a small group or individually. It is very heartening to see numerous primary schools across Australia starting to build this kind of system to support literacy, but they are still in the minority This same approach should be used by secondary schools to support teens who struggle with functional literacy. However, it is more difficult to build a multi-tiered system for literacy in secondary schools, which lack the time, expertise and resources to support the large number of incoming students who need this help. Secondary schools have traditionally been designed to teach subjects such as English or English literature on the assumption students who arrive will already be literate. Thankfully, some secondary schools are breaking through these barriers to establish a support system for literacy, but it is extremely hard work. They need more support.

When it comes to adult literacy, no single system in Australia supports adult learning.

Gaps in support for adult literacy are mainly supported by not-for-profit independent organisations offering tutoring, programs, resources, referrals, professional learning and advocacy. They include the Australian Council for Adult Literacy, Adult Learning Australia, Australian Literacy and Numeracy Foundation, Literacy for Life Foundation and Read Write Now.

While these organisations undoubtedly do a wonderful job, it is unlikely they can accommodate the needs of the many millions of adults who are functionally illiterate. The federal government has now committed to rejoining the OECD international literacy survey, held every ten years. The last one was held in 2023.

In contrast to Australia, Finland has a national literacy strategy to become the most “multiliterate country in the world in 2030”, recognising that a “literary way of life is the basis for equality, education and wellbeing”.

Finland embraces two educational paths for literacy: state-funded vocational schools and higher-education institutions, and a non-formal path of state-funded associations, foundations and community groups who design courses based on local needs, including basic literacy skills for immigrants.

Australia, meanwhile, awaits the results of the Roy Morgan survey on the state of adult literacy.